Communication
I recently watched a video during which a father was being directed by his children on how to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. He followed their instructions exactly....to their initial amusement and then to their frustration.
Communication is crucial to our every day living and yet something that each and every one of us takes for granted.
“The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” ~ George Bernard Shaw
The video shows us clearly, in a humorous manner, an example of what happens when communication isn’t clear and concise. How many times do we ask someone to do something and then we are disappointed in its outcome. How many times do we fail to communicate at all because we assume those around us already have the knowledge or know-how.
When participating in Yoga Teacher Training “cueing” is a topic to which many hours are devoted. Why? As an instructor we want to ensure that those in our class can follow through with the pose or the flow by words only. There were many fun (and yes, frustrating exercises) where our fellow YTT classmates would follow instructions exactly.
Does the example of making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and cueing yoga poses transfer to our day-to-day life? If, during our regular communication with others, we took an extra moment to choose our words carefully would everyone be happier in the results? What if we could find a way to communicate in a simple manner with as few words as possible in order to achieve the desired outcome.
Our words matter and results matter; let’s choose wisely.
Interested in how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?
Link to video below: