Your new beginning needs a communication cleanse

Your new beginning needs a communication cleanse

The conversation continues on having a refresh and reset, a renewal, on creating a new beginning, and on getting traction on our relationship and life transformation… Are you ready for newness? Let’s do it! To get traction with the new, we have to get rid of the old… Your new beginning needs a communication cleanse to set the right tone for the awesomeness that’s to come.

Today we’ll focus on how to clean up how you communicate in your relationship. I recently wrote about Communication Roadblocks that get in the way of your Radiant and Successful Relationship.

Let’s make it our business to remove these from our interactions. Let’s do a communication cleanse. But let’s make sure this is not just a quick cleanse but a new way of showing up to our relationship and interactions with our partner (and other loves ones!) going forward.

Here is the list of The Dirty Dozen of Communication. These are roadblocks to communication, to getting on the same page and aligning in your relationship.

  • Addressing needs or concerns when triggered
  • Using electronic devices as modes of communication
  • Addressing issues on the fly
  • Starting conversations when not in a good state
  • Disregarding good communication skills and tools
  • Forcing conversations
  • Not really listening, paying attention or taking in the other
  • Not having personal accountability and ownership
  • Track-jumping and messy content
  • Making a federal case
  • Being aggressive in speech, attitude or behavior
  • Patronizing in some form…

When we are not mindful and intentional of how we show up and how we interact with our partner, and others, we are bound to be messy in that exchange. We might be going about our business and just being ourselves, when we realize that an exchange is not going well. That we are showing up with The Dirty Dozen of Communication.

At that point the damage has been done and now the rest of the exchange needs to tend to it. What happens a lot of times is that partners are not even aware that the exchange is starting to go south, and they keep on going. They end up doing more damage.

Or they are stubborn. They realize the exchange is not going well, and they try to regroup without changing their approach! In this case they also end up doing more damage.

This observation doesn’t mean that we can’t let our hair down, be spontaneous or be ourselves… In the contrary, this observation points out that we are showing up with our messy, unintentional, defense ridden, not conscious self… We are showing up with our Small Self…

Instead, when we connect first with our Big Self, our Authentic Self, our Higher Self, we then automatically go into an interaction with more grace, mindfulness, intentionality, respect, acceptance, understanding, and other good stuff.

Communicating well doesn’t have to be that challenging:

  1. The first order of business is to connect and align with ourselves first… From here the rest is much easier…
  2. The next order of business is to avoid doing The Dirty Dozen of Communication.
  3. Then you get to use great communication skills and tools.

This 3-Step Approach to Great Communication is the key for preventing fights, easily getting on the same page and for aligning with each other.

To honor our current refresh, reset and renew theme let’s target Step 2 and be super proactive about removing Communication Roadblocks still present in our interactions.

Your new beginning needs a communication cleanse to set the right tone for the awesomeness that’s to come. Cleanse your communication of the pesky behaviors that undermine your relationship.

ASSIGNMENT: Let’s make a dent in cleansing your communication style!

  • Select 5 Communication Roadblocks from The Dirty Dozen of Communication list to target and purge from your interactions.
  • Set a weekly reminder on your phone to check yourself on these so they don’t make their way back…
  • Keep targeting the other Dirty Dozen until they are all gone…
  • Stay intentional about not allowing them back!

As with anything, when you bring consciousness, focus and attention to something, Awesomeness happens. I wish this for you in your life and your relationship.

Wishing you much joy, connection and love today and always…

With Much Love & Light!

 

PS – Related Posts:
Is your partner always late?
Are you controlling?
When your partner baits you
When do you get on your partner’s nerves?
How much do you get your partner?
Can you change your partner?
Can’t get your partner to do what you want?
How do you show your commitment?
What about compassion?
Are you tapping into your partnership synergy?
The 5 Elements of the Successful Couple Strategy™
Embrace a life-changing mindset
Enhance your life with better boundaries!
Step up your communication skills!
Change your repeating patterns and stuckness!
Are you mastering how to connect?
Create your strongest partnership possible

 

Copyright (c) 2021 Emma K. Viglucci. All rights reserved.

 

Want to Use this Article in Your Own Website or Publication?

Be our guest! Here is how, you MUST include:
Emma K. Viglucci, LMFT is the Founder and Director of Metropolitan Marriage & Family Therapy, PLLC, a private practice that specializes in working with couples, she is the creator of the MetroRelationship™ philosophy and the Successful Couple Strategy™ that assist couples succeed at their relationship and their life. Stay Connected™ with Emma and receive weekly connection notes in your inbox with Personal Development and Relationship Enrichment insights and strategies, visit: www.metrorelationship.com

Relationship refresh and reset (Video)

Relationship refresh and reset (Video)

New beginnings are super exciting, and this new season promises nothing less. Not only is it a new season, but it is also Springtime when things come alive. And, this Spring is meaningful as it marks a one-year anniversary of the still ongoing global pandemic but with it hope as the vaccine is being distributed. Newness is in the air. This is the perfect time for a relationship refresh and reset.

What is a relationship refresh and reset? A relationship refresh and reset is a time for renewal. It’s a time for starting again with a shift from:

  • looking at your partner and relationship in the same old that is keeping things blah to seeing the possibilities…
  • feeling stuck, stagnant and bored to feeling excited and in love again…
  • neglecting or taking the relationship and partner for granted to moving them to the top of your priority list…

It’s a time for embracing newness by showering your partner with positive energy and approaching your relationship from a different angle…

The past of couple articles covered detoxing and spring cleaning to clear the way for new beginnings. And, envisioning your upleveled relationship and life to guide the way. Now we’ll cover how to create the newness…

We’ll cover how to shift your thoughts, your feelings and your behaviors.

Are you ready to refresh and reset your relationship? Are you ready to embrace and create newness? Are you ready for your new beginning?

Watch the Video to learn how and complete the Assignment below!

ASSIGNMENT:  Select the area that needs the most attention you want to focus on transforming:

    • Thoughts – Embracing a Relationship Enrichment (you are allies on a joint journey) mindset
    • Feelings – Embracing a gratitude, generous and compassionate heartset
    • Behaviors – Embracing a nurturing, attentive, and engaging actionset

Create 3 daily habits around your chosen area to get serious traction towards transforming your relationship.

As with anything, when you bring consciousness, focus and attention to something, Awesomeness happens. I wish this for you in your life and your relationship.

Wishing you much joy, connection and love today and always…

With Much Love & Light!

 

PS – Related Posts:
Is your partner always late?
Are you controlling?
When your partner baits you
When do you get on your partner’s nerves?
How much do you get your partner?
Can you change your partner?
Can’t get your partner to do what you want?
How do you show your commitment?
What about compassion?
Are you tapping into your partnership synergy?
The 5 Elements of the Successful Couple Strategy™
Embrace a life-changing mindset
Enhance your life with better boundaries!
Step up your communication skills!
Change your repeating patterns and stuckness!
Are you mastering how to connect?
Create your strongest partnership possible

 

Copyright (c) 2021 Emma K. Viglucci. All rights reserved.

 

Want to Use this Article in Your Own Website or Publication?

Be our guest! Here is how, you MUST include:
Emma K. Viglucci, LMFT is the Founder and Director of Metropolitan Marriage & Family Therapy, PLLC, a private practice that specializes in working with couples, she is the creator of the MetroRelationship™ philosophy and the Successful Couple Strategy™ that assist couples succeed at their relationship and their life. Stay Connected™ with Emma and receive weekly connection notes in your inbox with Personal Development and Relationship Enrichment insights and strategies, visit: www.metrorelationship.com

Spring to a new level in your relationship and life

Spring to a new level in your relationship and life

Springtime is a time for renewal and New Beginnings… It is an opportunity to start fresh again. It is a time to refresh, course correct and reset. All changes in season and any new start, provide the opportunity for New Beginnings… Spring is special in this endeavor as the newness is so obvious with nature springing back to life… There is momentum in this… This is your chance to spring to a new level in your relationship and life…

Does that sound scary, or empowering and motivating to you? Taking full ownership and being fully accountable for what we create in our life can be scary. It might seem easier to stick our head in the sand, to blame others or circumstances, and to settle than to play full out.

The truth is that when we live our life with lack of full ownership, our life is actually more challenging and more painful…

It is not easy to:

  • Constantly be blown with the wind and with the whim of others
  • Let others dictate our fate and live an unfulfilled life
  • Live inauthentically for fear of judgement, criticism and rejection
  • Commit, show up and engage only 99%,  allowing for waffling
  • Own our voice, our truth, our desires and our potential
  • Express all of ourselves
  • Shine our Radiance

I invite you to play full out! But to do that you need to know yourself, own yourself and apply yourself. Are you ready for that?

You might even be scared to say Yes… If this is you, no worries we are here to support you. We’ll go nice and easy, yet powerfully, so you can stick with us and honor your Journey…

The first thing to do is to start getting in touch with what you want your life to be like, truly… No hedging, no lip service, no settling, no excuses. If nothing mattered but to create the life you desired, what would it look like?

What would your life look like, if your life depended on it…?

This means really exploring your desires for the whole of your life… This means being curious, thinking deeply, visualizing and meditating on what is really in your heart and soul…

Make some time to be with yourself and to really play, explore and dream about these. We are taking this concept beyond identifying your Ideal Day and accumulating Ideal Days to create your Best Life. That is a hack to get you going and to get you on your right path…

Now, we are going for creating our Best Life 2.0!

 

The 8 Robust Life Areas™

Break down your life into specific Life Areas and flesh out what you desire in each.

  1. Spiritual – Spirituality/religion, mindfulness, Purpose, creativity
  2. Physical – Health including brain health, vitality, fitness
  3. Emotional – Resilience, self/co-regulation, managing states of being
  4. Mental – Mental health, mindset, intellect, character/virtues
  5. Relational – Love and romantic relationship, parenting, family
  6. Social – Friendships, community and networks
  7. Financial – Wealth, profession, business, contribution/legacy
  8. LifeStyle – Environments, routines, life engagement

 

The 3 Life Areas Hack™

I usually address the above in a condensed 3 Life Areas format with an overarching Self-care and Relationship Enrichment Lifestyle theme…

  1. Wellness – Spiritual, Physical, Emotional, Mental
  2. Connection – Relational, Social
  3. Success – Financial, Lifestyle

Regardless of where you are in your Journey, the approach you choose to play with, and your relationship status, it behooves us to prioritize our relationship/s as this is indicated for our Best Life

If we are not ok as a couple, everything in our life suffers… If we create a radiant and successful relationship then everything else in our life is easier… Everything in our life depends on it…

 

Visioning Your Best Relationship…

The relationship with our partner is one of the most important relationships in our life. Unfortunately, we usually don’t view it and treat it as such.

Our partner is our Life Partner… They are a Gift to our Journey…

Together we are better than alone. Together we are better than one. Together we create something bigger than ourselves and can make a larger Impact… There is Synergy in our togetherness and what a waste not to tap into it…

To create your Best Relationship, you first have to know what your Best Relationship would look like… Then you can go about creating it.

Below is a guide for things to consider when envisioning and designing your Best Relationship. They are of course presented as the 5 Elements of the Successful Couple Strategy™ developed to assist couples create the relationship they desire…

Element1 – Context & Mindset

Here is where you explore what you believe about attracting your mate, being in a romantic relationship, the purpose of the relationship, commitment, trust, devotion and loyalty, priorities, partnership, expectations, interdependence, synergy, contribution, impact and anything else important to you.

What would a Relationship Enrichment Lifestyle look like for you? What would prioritizing your partner look like for you? What would being all in look like for you…?

Element2 – Communication & Alignment

Here is where you explore what being on the same page with your partner would look and feel like. You’d explore beliefs and preferences about communication and being aligned. And, on what topics you would want to get on the same page.

How would communication take place? How would you safeguard your bond and eliminate communication roadblocks? What communication skills and tools would you acquire?

Element3 – Clarity & Dynamics

Here is where you explore what you believe and understand about relationship dynamics, repeating patterns, and getting stuck. And what kind of relationship dynamics you’d prefer. You’d also explore your beliefs about feelings, emotions, and needs. Including thoughts about worthiness and self-esteem, vulnerability and shame, sympathy and compassion.

How would you build resilience and increase self-esteem? How would you increase your EQ? How would you meet your own and each other’s needs?

Element4 – Connection & Intimacy

Here is where you explore what you believe about and your preferences for togetherness vs separateness, connection, love, bond, masculinity and femininity, romance, sensuality, attraction, desire, passion, intimacy, sexuality, stimulation, play, fun, adventure, and friendship.

How would you increase your connection, intimacy and fun? How would you need to Be to experience a deep, synergistic long-lasting love? How do you need to stretch to allow the love you want?

Element5 – Collaboration & Partnership

Here is where you explore what Life Partnership, creating a Strong Partnership, and collaborating mean to you. You’ll explore what kind of family and life you want to create. How you’d want to be a strong partnership. How you want to design and approach creating the life you desire.

How do you want to run your business of life? What kind of parents do you want to be? How do you want to live your life? What kind of lifestyle do you want to have? What kind of legacy you want to leave?

By reading the above, you are already ahead of the game… You can’t unread it and unearth the seeds planted… Your brain already has the instructions to take stock of your life, and your relationship; and, to strive for more…

You’ll start picking up momentum and getting massive traction in your transformation by:

  • Exploring what’s informing your current experience in your relationship
  • Exploring what kind of relationship you desire
  • Consciously and intentionally choosing how to create your Best Relationship  

It all starts with a Vision. That’s what you are doing today. You are fleshing out and owning how you truly want your relationship to be. This is the first step in making it happen…

 

ASSIGNMENT:  Choose the approach that best resonates for you at this time, playing with:

  • The 8 Robust Life Areas™
  • The 3 Life Areas Hack™
  • Visioning Your Best Relationship™ using the 5 Elements of the Successful Couple Strategy™

The mere exercise of bringing light to these will start you on your transformation…

 

As with anything, when you bring consciousness, focus and attention to something, Awesomeness happens. I wish this for you in your life and your relationship.

Wishing you much joy, connection and love today and always…

With Much Love & Light!

 

PS – Related Posts: 
Is your partner always late? 
Are you controlling? 
When your partner baits you 
When do you get on your partner’s nerves? 
How much do you get your partner?  
Can you change your partner? 
Can’t get your partner to do what you want? 
How do you show your commitment?   
What about compassion?  
Are you tapping into your partnership synergy? 
The 5 Elements of the Successful Couple Strategy™  
Embrace a life-changing mindset  
Enhance your life with better boundaries!  
Step up your communication skills!   
Change your repeating patterns and stuckness!  
Are you mastering how to connect?   
Create your strongest partnership possible

 

   Copyright (c) 2021 Emma K. Viglucci. All rights reserved.

 

Want to Use this Article in Your Own Website or Publication? 

Be our guest! Here is how, you MUST include: 
Emma K. Viglucci, LMFT is the Founder and Director of Metropolitan Marriage & Family Therapy, PLLC, a private practice that specializes in working with couples, she is the creator of the MetroRelationship™ philosophy and the Successful Couple Strategy™ that assist couples succeed at their relationship and their life. Stay Connected™ with Emma and receive weekly connection notes in your inbox with Personal Development and Relationship Enrichment insights and strategies, visit: www.metrorelationship.com

Start anew with a good detox and spring clean!

Start anew with a good detox and spring clean!

Spring is almost here. Yay! Do you know what that means? It means it’s time to get ready for New Beginnings… As everything in nature will slowly be coming back to life and starting anew, so can we. We can take this opportunity to come Alive, to engage more with our life, to create new beginnings, to reset, to recharge… We can start anew in any area of our life we choose. The best way to start anew is with a good detox and spring clean!

We can’t build on rubble. We have to clear the site first, then we need to establish a strong foundation, then we build the structure, and then we fill in the details and finally we make it pretty. We have to do the same thing in our life. This is how we keep upleveling our life, and creating our Best Life…

A good detox and spring clean help us to get rid of any rubble, clutter, toxicity, excess and no longer desired elements we accumulated since our last reset. This allows us to start fresh so we can update or create a new vision to serve as our guiding star as we go about creating the life we desire. This includes our relationship of course…

Clearing the way creates space for the new. This concept is applicable to all areas of life… This is what allows us to have a New Beginning… It’s a best practice to do this every so often to keep our life fresh and always evolving…

So, today’s focus is to do a super good job at really clearing the no longer needed or desired… This is where you get to put on your big person’s pants and roll up your sleeves. The work you put in now will determine what you are able to design and create afterwards…

This is a great exercise to do amidst/post the deconstructing we’ve been doing in our current Pandemic laden world…

Here is to a good cleaning, with ease and compassion…

A Deep Scrub is in Order

Oh boy, I love me a good scrub! LOL Hey, I have written a few posts directly related to this topic already. Check some of them below for additional inspiration, guidance and assignments to help you along. And I’m ongoingly encouraging to keep things simple, to clear the decks and to streamline…

Detoxifying for Relationship Success
Start a new relationship, with your partner   
Resource yourself, uplevel your marriage    
Reenergize your Life   
Spring clean your soul  
What do you need to declutter?  
Detox your life and your relationship  
Spring clean your relationship  
How do you renew yourself?

But, today has the focus of clearing as part of deconstructing and continuing to create our New World, including our New Marriage/Relationship… Buckle your seatbelt!

1- Rubble

I’m sure you’ve experienced some kind of a pivot, regrouping or upside-down-life as a result of the ongoing Global Pandemic we are living through. There have been many challenges associated with it, but also tremendous opportunity to course correct and Align with the life we are meant to live…

What rubble has the pivoting, regrouping and being upside-down created in your life? There might be very practical and material items, or more ideological and esoteric items. Like having moved, let go of office space or closed down businesses, and like time splitting between homes, home schooling, and online educating are children.

What stuff have your changes and impact created that might still be sitting there and needs to be cleaned out to free up energy, space and time…?

2- Clutter

As we continue to exist in this semi lockdown world and are still spending a lot of time at home in close quarters with our loved ones. Including doing a lot more of our life from home – kids and other activities, receiving services, etc.

Therefore, we are bound to have more chores and maintenance to do to keep up with our living environment. It is super easy to have stuff around us pile up if we are not intentional about our routines and keeping things tidy and streamlined.

The transition times we used to have to shift focus and help us manage and create our lives are a lot blurrier – days run into evenings, and weekdays run into weekends, and seasons run into the upcoming seasons.

Without these delineations we are bound to get sloppy and not mind routines and their related upkeep as much, creating a build-up of stuff that impinge on our wellbeing… What part of your routine or lifestyle needs more delineation and what build up do you have to clear out?

3- Toxicity

Here is a doozy. Unless you’ve taking up a focus on Personal Development as part of your strategy for Deconstruction-Reconstructing and Thriving as a result of this Pandemic Experience, most likely you’ve indulged during this time…

This means that you might be watching more TV, spending more time on social media, eating more take out, doing more snacking, drinking more, and so on…

Take stock of how you’ve been managing your life and where you have let yourself go that is creating a toxic build up… What is off about your wellbeing, your relationship/s and your life that can benefit from a detox?

Are you gaining weight? Are your hormones off? Are you experiencing other health issues? Is your sleep compromised? Are your mood and mental health at risk? Are you at odds with your loved ones and other people in your life?

4- Excess

This can go both ways… This can go towards over spending, indulging, doing and functioning, and towards taking unnecessary risks, to being frugal, depriving, bumming around, and being super cautious… Either extreme doesn’t serve us.

In either case we are having a reaction and overdoing the side we chose. We might have aspects of both sides, but they are still extreme in nature and therefore create an imbalance…

Take a look at how your approach is impacting your life and your wellbeing… What are you doing to extreme that is creating frustration and pain in your life?

5- Undesirables

I’m fascinated by the impact our current global situation is having on so many institutions and the world structure at large. I realize some are more aware of it than others, and that people have different value systems around everything that is happening.

Regardless of where you stand, take a step back and look at the big picture and its impact on your life philosophy… Take a look at how you view the institutions in your life, how you promote them and the impact they have in your life, and the world at large…

What lens, believes, scripts, approach, and habits have become outdated in your life that are now holding you back from living your Best Life?

Giving these 5 categories a serious review for any clearing and detoxing needed is incredibly powerful. Shedding light on anything we do unconsciously, out of habit, in reaction to and such is a massive exercise in personal ownership and self-empowerment.

Once you get the lay of your land, the next step is to do the clearing and detoxing… As you tackle this, watch the surge in energy, opportunities and lightness return to your life… This is good stuff, don’t cheat yourself of this Gift by taking the lazy way out…

ASSIGNMENT:  Select the category that is the messiest and tackle it with gusto. Determine what is needed to free you up to uplevel yourself, your relationship and your life… What is sucking up your energy that could otherwise be better invested in your life and relationship/s?

    • Do you need to set time to tackle the remnants of a pivot?
    • Do you need to take a weekend to clean your house from top to bottom?
    • Do you need to upgrade your routines and habits?
    • Do you need to have a food or substance, screen-time, social media, technology, or other detox?
    • Do you need to clean up your mindset about your coping and life approach?

As with anything where we focus our attention energy goes, let’s focus positively and have our energy flow. Let’s remove roadblocks and energy sucks so that we can better invest them in creating our Best Self, Best Relationship and Best Life… We’ll be tackling these in the coming weeks to embrace New Beginnings. So get ready!

Wishing you much joy, connection and love today and always…

With Much Love & Light!

 

PS – Related Posts: 
Is your partner always late? 
Are you controlling? 
When your partner baits you 
When do you get on your partner’s nerves? 
How much do you get your partner?  
Can you change your partner? 
Can’t get your partner to do what you want? 
How do you show your commitment?   
What about compassion?  
Are you tapping into your partnership synergy? 
The 5 Elements of the Successful Couple Strategy™  
Embrace a life-changing mindset  
Enhance your life with better boundaries!  
Step up your communication skills!   
Change your repeating patterns and stuckness!  
Are you mastering how to connect?   
Create your strongest partnership possible

 

   Copyright (c) 2021 Emma K. Viglucci. All rights reserved.

 

Want to Use this Article in Your Own Website or Publication? 

Be our guest! Here is how, you MUST include: 
Emma K. Viglucci, LMFT is the Founder and Director of Metropolitan Marriage & Family Therapy, PLLC, a private practice that specializes in working with couples, she is the creator of the MetroRelationship™ philosophy and the Successful Couple Strategy™ that assist couples succeed at their relationship and their life. Stay Connected™ with Emma and receive weekly connection notes in your inbox with Personal Development and Relationship Enrichment insights and strategies, visit: www.metrorelationship.com

Remove roadblocks to great communication

Remove roadblocks to great communication

Great communication has to do with smoothing things out and feeling Aligned. It has to do with getting on the same page, feeling understood and accepted, and getting traction towards a vision in common. Unfortunately, partners get in their own way when interacting with each other which prevents the flow of joy, harmony and love that is possible when doing this well. Let’s remove the roadblocks to great communication. Shall we?

First off, be extremely careful not to employ what John Gottman calls the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse in your communication and approach to your partner: Criticism, Defensiveness, Stonewalling and Contempt.

Gottman is a researcher who has a research-based approach to relationships. If you are struggling in your relationship, you might be already acquainted with the 4 Horseman… Once Contempt shows up, the relationship is in trouble. This creates painful and damaging exchanges. Contempt is a strong predictor of divorce!

The easiest way to avoid these is to be preventative in your communication approach to begin with. If you employ great communication skills and tools, you won’t be finding the 4 Housemen at your doorsteps.

And hey, I’m not one to give up or let others give up easily… So even if these are currently present in your relationship, I encourage you to work your side to stop doing these and to invite something else from your partner…

Here is where Relationship Mindset, personal ownership and effective boundaries come in very handy. These are important for you to change how you choose to look at and experience your partner and your relationship… For once you do so, you can show up differently and invite something different from your partner…

In any case, aside from keeping the 4 Horseman away, you also need to avoid the Dirty Dozen of Communication in your interactions.

The Dirty Dozen of Communication

1 – Addressing needs or concerns when triggered

When we are in a triggered state, our brain is marinating in emotional juices that prevent us from fully accessing the executive, logical and problem-solving part of our brain. This means that no matter how hard you try to get on the same page it’s virtually impossible to stay sensible and productive.

This is not a judgment against feelings. Feelings have their place, but when rampant and heightened they don’t support productive communication.

2 – Using electronic devices as modes of communication

It is so interesting that partners choose to address concerns on social media and other platforms, via email, and specially via text. I realize that we live in an age of electronic communication, but so much gets lost via this medium…

A communication approach needs to include visual, audio and physical presence so you can feel the energy better and include touch as you see fit. This ensures you are able to pick up all the nuances of the communication and align with more than just words. And so that the words are not taken out of context or misinterpreted.

3 – Addressing issues on the fly

It is unproductive to throw issues out into the air and expect our partner to catch them and play nice with them. It’s unfair to expect them to catch them at all, and then to be ready on a whim to give the topic the proper attention it needs.

Nothing serious should be tackled this way as the context might not be conducive for a deep and productive conversation, and our partner might not be receptive for whatever reason. A productive conversation happens when the partners are ready to have a productive conversation. Setting up time and the proper context goes a huge way.

4 – Starting conversations when not in a good state

If you or your partner is not in a good state, it doesn’t make sense to have the conversation. This is true even if the conversation was set up properly ahead of time. If either of you is hungry, tired, still triggered, and such, you are not resourced enough and won’t have what it takes to do the conversation justice.

In this case it is best to reschedule or postpone the conversation and address other needs first.

5 – Disregarding good communication skills and tools

You might start a conversation with the best of intentions but as soon as things get a little hot, all the skills and tools go out the window. This is why it’s very important to be resourced, so a little heat doesn’t throw you off.

Also, setting up the conversation properly ensures you bring your skills and tools with you. A less intentional approach might miss this important detail…

Using your skills and tools is a decision. Make it wisely and honor it. Don’t get lazy. If you find that you feel like disregarding the skills and tools or that you can’t access them, then it’s not a good time to have a meaningful conversation…

6 – Forcing conversations

Remember you both have to be in the right place, and stay in the right place, for a meaningful conversation to take place and continue. If this is not true for either of you, or if things change as the conversation is underway, then it’s time to call it. Either postpone the conversation or pause it…

Do set up another time to pick up where you left off and make sure you do so. This sets up a precedent to be able to not push to have conversations that are not likely to go well in the moment… It creates trust allowing for a necessary cooling off or resetting period.

7 – Not really listening, paying attention or taking in the other

What’s the point of having a conversation if you are not listening, paying attention or taking in your partner? The point of having a conversation is to understand and get each other. To get on the same page. To resolve concerns. To collaborate. To dream. To share love.

If you are not present, if you are listening to combat what you are hearing, if you just want to talk about your side, you are missing the point of having the conversation… In this instance, you might as well forego the talk as you are actually creating more damage by not mindfully showing up…

8 – Not having personal accountability and ownership

You’ll find it insightful and eye-opening to revisit in your mind’s eye a past interaction with your partner that didn’t go well.

When you revisit, make believe you are an invisible stranger observing the exchange. This stranger is a relationship expert and has successful relationship tactics know-how…

See how the stranger sees you and how you are interacting… Does the stranger think you are being accountable for yourself, showing up with your best self, and fully owning yourself?

The stranger is not there to observe your partner, they are only able to see you… What do they see? Do they think you are doing the best job you can? What might they offer you as feedback?

Take this feedback to heart and make the necessary changes going forward…

9 – Track-jumping and messy content

Decide before hand what the topic of discussion is and the intention for the conversation. The quickest way to lose each other, trigger each other, and to shift from the possibility of a great conversation to one that crashes is to be messy in what you bring up…

Avoid jumping from topic to topic or example to example, going off on lengthy tangents, not fully finishing your thought or sentences before changing to something else, and such…

And avoid using sensitive information or already addressed and resolved issues to make your points! There is nothing more hurtful than to use your partner’s sensitivities, especially things shared in confidence or during vulnerable moments.

Take the time to organize your thoughts, your message, your point and stick with it as you go. Stay mindful of not hurting your partner unnecessarily, and especially not intentionally.

10 – Making a federal case

The point of a conversation with your partner is not to win. That’s right, there is no winning in a relationship… If you “win” that means your partner “loses”, right? And, if that’s the case, did you actually “win”?

When you go about a conversation as if you are trying a federal case, everybody loses. There is no logic or empirical data that’s relevant to getting on the same page… Everything about a relationship is subjective, emotional and personal…

Therefore, stop with trying to prove how things really happened, and who is right and who is wrong, and keeping a scorecard!

Tactics like analyzing, interpreting, diagnosing, questioning, probing, and arguing have no place in a conversation where you are holding space for your partner to show up and for you to really get them…

Conversations are not about me vs you. Conversations are about me getting you…

11 – Being aggressive in speech, attitude or behavior

The simplest way to create friction, misalignment, and invite poor reactions from our partner is to show up protecting ourselves, trying to win or one-up our partner. When we try to force our way in some way, it is destructive.

This can take a lot of different forms, but the not-so-obvious ones include: Ordering, directing, commanding, warning, threatening, admonishing, and the like…

12 – Patronizing in some form…

Believe it or not, some things that we might consider positive in interactions are actually not great forms of communication… These include things like: Praising, agreeing, supporting, reassuring, sympathizing, consoling, advising, giving solutions, suggesting and such. The reason for this is that we are infusing ourselves in the interaction with these tactics…

A conversation has two parts, being there for our partner and our partner being there for us. Being there for our partner means absolutely and fully getting their side without infusing anything from ours into it… It means not corrupting their experience with ours…

This is a huge concept, as most of us use the above to be supportive, understanding and such not realizing that we actually undermine, minimize and dismiss the other’s experience when we interject ourselves into it… Just hold space for your partner’s experience and their truth…

Let’s say that you don’t have great communication skills and tools yet. Being mindful of avoiding the above will take you a long way as you expand your great communication skills and tools repertoire.

The key is to bring as much mindfulness and positive intentions to your interactions as possible.

ASSIGNMENT:  Make a list of all the poor communication habits and undermining tactics you tend to employ in your communication and interactions with your partner, and others for that matter! Select the two that are the most pervasive, and commit to eradicating them from approach.

Being an intentional and mindful communicator is a gift to your partner and your relationship. And, to you, as upgrading how you communicate will definitely bring your relationship to the next level. You CAN create the relationship you desire…

Wishing you much joy, connection and love today and always…

With Love & Light!

 

PS – Related Posts: 
Is your partner always late? 
Are you controlling? 
When your partner baits you 
When do you get on your partner’s nerves? 
How much do you get your partner?  
Can you change your partner? 
Can’t get your partner to do what you want? 
How do you show your commitment?   
What about compassion?  
Are you tapping into your partnership synergy? 
The 5 Elements of the Successful Couple Strategy™  
Embrace a life-changing mindset  
Enhance your life with better boundaries!  
Step up your communication skills!   
Change your repeating patterns and stuckness!  
Are you mastering how to connect?   
Create your strongest partnership possible

 

   Copyright (c) 2021 Emma K. Viglucci. All rights reserved.

 

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Emma K. Viglucci, LMFT is the Founder and Director of Metropolitan Marriage & Family Therapy, PLLC, a private practice that specializes in working with couples, she is the creator of the MetroRelationship™ philosophy and the Successful Couple Strategy™ that assist couples succeed at their relationship and their life. Stay Connected™ with Emma and receive weekly connection notes in your inbox with Personal Development and Relationship Enrichment insights and strategies, visit: www.metrorelationship.com

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