Take a minute to think about how you connect and interact with people when you feel tired. What do your conversations look like? How do you treat your co-workers, family, friends when you feel like you’re running on fumes?
I’d go so far to say that most of us even treat inanimate objects pretty poorly when we’re rundown.
Now think about your interactions when you’re rested? Maybe everything seems more calm and peaceful, kind and helpful. There’s less reactivity and more listening and compassion.
It’s true that when we’re tired stress creeps in easily, which can make us impatient, short, unfriendly, and snippy with others. Studies show that the top three things we can do to reduce stress are 1) Sleep 2) Exercise 3) Meditate.
I want to touch on number one listed above.
If we want to communicate in a way that others can hear and we respect then we need to be paying attention to how we rest and if we rest enough.
Each person requires a different amount of sleep to feel well rested; however, signs you aren’t meeting your needs will show themselves in your interactions with others. If you’re quick to react, easily frustrated, unable to let others express themselves – you may want to check in to see if you’re getting enough shut eye.
I’m bringing this up because I’m going to be taking about a month off from posting new content, because rest is required. I’m about to have a baby and this time before he arrives plus the six weeks after are crucial for me if I want to continue to have kind, honest, and helpful interactions with those around me and also with this new little one set to arrive. Without giving myself the proper amount of downtime I know that my communication with others will suffer and in turn so will I.
With that, I hope that you all take a look to see if maybe a bit more rest is required for you to have the types of interactions you desire over the next month as well.
I’ll be back in September and gearing up to take the next group through the Intentional Communication Certification Program to begin in October 2017!
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