How to Have More Empathic & Compassionate Conversations (1)

The practice of mindful communication entails incorporating mindfulness’ tenets into our interpersonal interactions. It is possible to develop our empathy, compassion, and honesty by being aware of how we communicate with people. We may also learn to recognize and control our own negative or hostile behaviors to those around us.

Similar to the majority of mindfulness-based activities, mindful communication encourages us to give words to our thoughts, feelings, and emotions in order to increase our awareness and use it to inform our actions and develop our emotional intelligence.

The principles of mindful communication will be covered in this article, along with how an active practice of aware speaking and listening. In addition to various practices and approaches that help improve your interpersonal communication style, we’ll go through the benefits of incorporating this sort of contemplative practice into your regular interactions and talks with other people.

Indications that your communication is not mindful

The Universe of Your Own

It is commonly acknowledged that one of the most crucial components of mindful communication is paying attention. This fundamental idea can seem self-evident; after all, paying attention is a given in any conversation. Yet if you think back on the last discussion you had, you could realize that you weren’t as attentive as you believed.

Have you ever considered your personal issues when your buddy was telling you about their difficult day at work? When you have talks with people, do you listen intently and reply correctly, or do you just wait for them to finish so that you can make your point?

This happens to everyone occasionally; it doesn’t make you a horrible person. It does, however, emphasize the need to exercise caution while engaging with people.

Unfocused Talking

Being aware when you speak is just as crucial for effective communication as listening and paying attention to what the other person is saying. We frequently speak without thinking or just talk for the sake of talking when we are in unpleasant or difficult circumstances.

This type of thoughtless speech lowers the level of communication and removes the content from talks. Speaking with awareness is thinking on your feet and paying attention to what you are saying as you speak, not spending a long time thinking through each word before you say it. It’s crucial to have the flexibility to change the subject mid-conversation by observing the other person’s non-verbal signs and taking into account how they are responding to your remarks.

Looking Ahead

Predicting the speaker’s next words or planning ahead while they are still speaking is another common conversational faux pas. We frequently interrupt the other person’s speech before it has even finished. Even though you might not realize it at the moment, butting in or planning ahead are common examples of bad communication.

Looking ahead might make it difficult for people to express themselves clearly or allow talks to lose their pace. It may result in senseless communication where neither party learns anything new or understands anything from the other.

So how do we get beyond these challenges? Let’s examine some methods for enhancing your ability to communicate mindfully.

The Three Elements of Conscious Conversation

A straightforward method to reap the advantages of mindfulness meditation, which include improved tranquility, attention, and self-awareness, is to incorporate mindful communication practice into your daily life. So what does mindful communication include specifically? It may be divided, generally speaking, into three categories:

Observant Listening

Although it might be challenging to include aware and active listening into our everyday routines since it frequently goes against our instincts, listening is perhaps the most crucial aspect of mindful communication. Using mindfulness activities in your daily life is an excellent place to start.

• Remove Your Phone: During talks, pay close attention to the other person and avoid checking your phone. If you wish to enhance your communication style, following this guideline should be rather simple. It can be more challenging to stop thinking about everything else and concentrate only on the discussion you’re having, but we’ll get to that.
• Eye Contact: Become comfortable making eye contact with your discussion partner to increase conversation participation. This provides you a concrete area of attention that can help you maintain your attention and demonstrate to the other person that you are interested in what they have to say. Avoid being overly preoccupied with this point of attention, though, lest you miss what the speaker is saying. Before concentrating on the information they are conveying, use it as a starting point to stop the stream of ideas in your head.
• Let them Complete : While waiting until the other person has finished speaking before responding may seem simple, it might take some getting used to. As was previously said, many people have a tendency to butch in and leap ahead in talks. Allowing the speaker to finish will offer you the opportunity to absorb as much information as you can, enabling you to respond in a more educated and perceptive manner.
• Strive to be less reactive and make an attempt to consider other people’s perspectives by trying to “see things from their perspective.”: We frequently respond too quickly to what the other person says. Although it’s normal to focus on specific words or phrases that capture our attention, doing so might cause some signals to get buried. Spend a few seconds thinking about what the speaker has said while attempting to comprehend their viewpoint and experiences. You’ll be able to communicate empathically, non-violently, and without reaction.

By incorporating these simple strategies into your daily life, you may greatly enhance your capacity for mindful listening. Your capacity to be present in all aspects of life will improve if you combine these conversational strategies with other mindfulness practices. This will make the switch from thoughtless to attentive listening much simpler.

Being a great listener is only one aspect of mindful communication; you must also be a thoughtful speaker. In the next article, we will go through the tips that help you become a mindful speaker.