If you’re having trouble communicating with your partner and family, then you’re not alone. Millions of people share your difficulties and that puts importance on finding ways how to be better at it.
So if you want to resolve your communication issues and prevent them from turning into a much bigger problem, here are the 6 tips that will help you do that. With all that said, let’s start.
Focus On Small Talk
Small talk can seriously improve your relationship with your partner and family members. Many consider the mundaneness of life to be excellent for this. You can practice small talk while watching television, eating dinner, or doing any other ordinary activity.
But how does small talk actually help solve communication issues with your partner and family members? To see exactly how we have to take a look at why we’re having communication issues. The biggest reason why couples have a hard time communicating is due to relationship problems, disagreements, and conflicts. While we won’t get into what causes these, it’s important to understand that resolving these issues will improve your relationship with your partner.
One way to avoid high-conflict communication is by doing small talk.
Forget the Past
While we’re on the subject of relationship problems, it’s safe to say that the past plays a huge role in why couples distance themselves from one another. But doing this can have a significant impact on your future. And the risks are much bigger if you have children.
If you’re having trouble communicating with your partner due to things in the past, one way to solve the problem is by forgetting the past. While no doubt this might be harder to do for some of you, it might be the only way to move forward if you cannot solve these issues.
Listen More
Maybe you’re having a hard time communicating with your family because you talk too much when you shouldn’t. This is probably more evident during heated discussions.
If your family is trying to express their thoughts and you’re constantly interrupting them, then you should try talking less and listening more. Give your lover the chance to explain their position and refrain yourself from cutting in the middle of it. If you listen more you’ll not only let your family or partner express themselves freely, but you might even learn more about the root cause of why you’re having communication issues.
Listening is a valuable tool that can build and improve relationships. And that’s exactly what you need to solve your communication issues with the people you love the most.
Talk Face to Face
Our smartphones help us communicate with anyone regardless of where they are. But the things we say over the phone sometimes get lost in translation. When this is the case, it’s better to simply talk face to face. Regardless of what sort of issues you might have with family members, always focus on talking things out while in the same room.
If they’re trying to communicate with you over the phone, then try to get them in the same room with you instead of talking over it. This doesn’t apply to long-distance relationships, but a video call is better than talking via SMS. Face-to-face communication in romantic relationships evokes emotional feelings that can quickly resolve the issue altogether.
Become a Master in Body Language
Couples oftentimes have difficulty translating each other’s body language. And our body language is oftentimes the key to understanding one another. But how does this affect our communication problems? To understand what our partner is trying to say to us, we have to understand their expression, gesture, and everything else related to body language.
During discussions, you must maintain eye contact and be as emotional as possible by using facial expressions. But not just that, you will need to also look at what your partner does. Becoming a master in body language will help you better understand what your partner and family are trying to say to you. But using body language in an arrogant, aggressive, and even defensive way will only cause more communication problems.
Learn How To Suppress Your Anger
And lastly, you will need to learn how to manage your anger. More so, you will need to learn how to suppress it and not use it during heated discussions with your partner.
In romantic relationships, anger can be the root cause of many problems. This is especially the case when trying to communicate. Anger can affect us in ways we never imagined could. Whenever we’re emotionally upset, it can turn us into emotionless rocks that reject everything our partners or family members try and say to us.
So instead of throwing a tantrum and reacting aggressively, you will need to learn how to manage and suppress your anger. This is oftentimes the only way to communicate better with your significant other.
Finishing Thoughts
Communication issues can break the relationships you have with the people around you. So overcoming them is key for progress. Although it does take time to learn how to communicate better with your partner or family, we hope that these 6 tips will help you do just that.