#192 EVERYTHING In Life Gets Easier & Smoother When You Can COMMUNICATE Better. Here's How to Do It

Can we start with a ‘slap’ in the face? In all sincerity, most of us suck at communicating with other people, especially in our family relationships.Plus, ‘communication’ seems like such a vague or broad topic. What exactly does it mean? And how do we improve it?We’re not the experts. And we still struggle communicating in some relationships or situations. We came to our marriage with giant deficits in ‘communication skills’. We both suffered with shyness and were terrified to even talk to people. And when we tried it was superficial or strained.When we got married we struggled sharing our feelings or discussing sensitive or ‘touchy’ subjects.But through specific practices — such as growing in awareness, or developing the ability to articulate through writing — we’ve been able to drastically improve our communication skills — ESPECIALLY in the relationships that matter most.That doesn’t mean they’re perfect. But they are much, much better than they would be otherwise.In this episode we discuss specific techniques for developing communication skills for important relationships such as marriage and parenting.We’ll explain how simple processes like writing can help you learn to think which can help you better speak to those you love.We’ll also discuss why the freedom to ‘be offensive’ and imperfect in your speech can help you discover the truth of what’s happening in your relationships. That’s how the thinking process works.We need to have grace for one another in order to ‘think out loud’ in our communication with each other.And we’ll also cover how sharing the same ‘vocabulary’ can drastically increase your ability to connect and how your ability to communicate (or lack thereof) ties into your personal levels of growth and maturity.Everything in life is so much easier, better, and flows smoother when you can effectively communicate with those closest to you — especially your spouse. So it’s worth every effort to improve your ability to communicate.Listen to this very useful episode for strategies to radically increasing familial closeness through effective communication.