It's Impossible to not Not Communicate

There are many times it's rather difficult to understand someone else point of view. Quite often enough, we don't realize not everyone thinks the same we do.

President Harold B. Lee states, "In marriage, we need to communicate not only so we are understood, but also so we are not misunderstood."

There are three media, or ways to communicate:

1. words
2. tone
3. non-verbal

Just exactly how much of these three ways in which we communicate is the most effective? We may think it's all in the words.

Example, if  you cooked dinner for your spouse and they said, "thank you" with a frown on their face, do you think you would believe that they're grateful in you making that meal for them? How about when they said thank you they had a smile on their face. You would most likely believe them that time.

Studies show, about 14% of communication is effective with words, 35% is effective in the tone of voice, and about 51% of the communication is shown as non-verbal. This means that the majority of our communication we don't even think about, yet it speaks to others so loudly.

Some of these non-verbal ways can be a hug, a genuine smile, your facial expression when you hear shocking news, or your reaction to something you didn't want to hear. Actions speak much louder than words; we can tell anyone anything we want. However they aren't going to believe us until we actually show them that we are serious. 

There's a cycle in communicating where first it starts out as a thought/feeling from the sender. That thought/feeling is encoded to a media (as one of the different ways to communicate) seen/heard by the receiver. The person receiving the message then has to decode that media, figuring out what it was the sender was trying to say. The receiver then has a thought/feeling based on what the sender said, which they encode to the sender as a media and the sender has to decode the receiver's thought/feeling.

Based on our own points of view and experiences in our lives, it can be hard getting our point across to a person receiving our message. We can't read each others minds which can be frustrating as well. However, as we are open to our feelings with each other, that can help take away a lot of confusion. As we speak to one another in much nicer tones, that can create a better bond and unity between us and those we are speaking to.

I know from my own personal experience, this is way easier said than done. But on the contrary, I have seen how speaking in nicer tones, really listening and trying to understand the other person can be so effective and both points can get across with no problem.

What do you think? Feel free to leave comments down below!