What is poor communication? And how poor communication impacts during stressful times? Both personal and professional lives source joy and stress relief. Sometimes the same family can even become a hazard to your life. Healthy relationships always spread positive vibes, boost confidence, and much more. However, sometimes relationships are not the same and can become more toxic. One factor that influences your relationship, either to become stressful or stress-relieving, is the type of communication you maintain within that particular association.
When you communicate with an open heart and mind, it becomes effortless for you to ward off little problems and move on with your life without any misunderstandings, but if the communication rests on unhealthy measures, the same little problems turn out to be your never-ending ones.
You might have heard how healthy communication helps ease your life but did you ever wonder how poor communication impacts during stressful times? Both scenarios should get equal importance to balance. As you go to an end, you will be able to understand how poor communication impacts stressful times.
1. What Are Healthy and Unhealthy Communications?
7.84 billion humans perform verbal tasks every day. And without voice, the world becomes a hodgepodge. While some relationships go uphill, others go downhill. What sets them apart? The communication they maintain. There are two main types of communication people strengthen.
1.1. Healthy Communication:
Healthy communication is when you put others’ words before yours’. In any relationship, it is not always about what you say but what others say. You must communicate effectively, be explicit in your communication, listen attentively to others, solve issues, and consider others’ opinions.
1.2. Unhealthy Communication:
Unhealthy communication is quite the opposite of healthy communication. Here, how you talk and behave varies. Aggressive and arrogant ways of speaking, gossiping, not caring about what others say, thinking that you know everything, and not being clear in what you say lead to an unhealthy way of conversing.
A proper communication system creates low-grade stress, while passive-aggressive communication practices only lead you to destruction. Different people have different communication styles, but in the end, they indicate the same thing, either healthy or unhealthy communication.
2. Factors Influencing Unhealthy Communication
While many actions and behaviours promote ineffective communication, a few things top the list.
2.1. Being a Poor Listener:
Not listening to what your partner or coworker says is the primary step in following aggressive communication tactics. People listen in three different ways. Primarily, some people hear but do not pay attention. They listen just because they have to listen, not because they want to listen and help out the person, and this kind of activity makes the other person feel unimportant, undervalued, and not taken seriously.
People who are a step away from refusing to listen are the secondary people. They listen without any interest but listen, thinking that he is the rarest of the kind who knows everything. They do not bother about others’ opinions and what they have to express. And the third-party people are talkative. They talk so much and occupy most of the time without letting the opposite person talk. So, all acts like these only allow the other person to feel humiliated and taken for fun.
Before indulging in such activities, question yourself, “How would you feel if someone treated you the same way?” listen to others if you want them to listen to you.
2.2. Passive Aggression:
Passive aggression is a communication most people use for fun with family and friends. Practising overtly hostile communication, like giving sarcastic responses, can be entertaining, but not in every situation. Sarcasm and passive-aggressive communication lead to many misunderstandings in a relationship. Although passive aggression is the art of connecting with people skillfully, it can also break the bond you have made because sarcasm at significant times indicates that you are trying to avoid clear and direct communication.
According to a study, people exhibit passive aggression during substantial times due to the fear of competition, deflecting censure, passing misleading commendations, or hiding contempt for others. Overall, passive-aggressive behaviour feels like a personal attack and raises the tense conditions. So, understanding the situation you are encountering and consequently communicating is advisable.
2.3. Being an Introvert:
Although introverting does not affect your relationships directly, it still plays a role in an unsatisfying affinity. Introverts do not mingle with people and therefore do not understand how to deal with causes that have turned the relationship stressful. They might be exemplary at active listening, but good communication methods are beyond listening because after analyzing the data, you need an effective communication process to help others understand you. Talking to family members is highly advisable to leave the fear of others.
3. How Does Poor Communication Impact Stressful Times?
As the most thoughtful living animals, communication enables us to do many things – share information, opinions, and almost every task you perform require you to talk. Primarily you must know an effective way to communicate to sustain a group of people. Once you master the art of communication, you can be anywhere and save yourself from all the hazards you encounter.
However, inadequate communication practices like poor listening, passive aggressiveness, and others create stress, affect mental health, and even break your relationships with people because unhealthy patterns lead to constant disagreement, which makes mutual understanding elusive.
When your communication is not the way it is supposed to be, you fail to maintain successful personal and professional life because, at stressful times, you have to listen to what others say, analyze their point of view, validate feelings, think what you want to say, and speak out slowly, clearly, and at a peaceful pace.
4. How to Communicate Better?
Communication is not a constant process. Different people follow different styles to express their thoughts. Before changing the way you talk, you must change your mindset, and only then can you become a nostalgic communicator. To adopt a healthy communication system, you can try talking to a small group of people, and once you feel like you have managed it, move to the bigger team. The bigger group you move to, the more you must get adapted to best practices like listening and speaking according to the situation. Also, you can follow other online existing communication tools and communication channels to sharpen your words.
Final Words:
Communication is the key to mastering all types of things in your life. If you are not particular about it, it will lead you nowhere. And it can take you to great heights if the same thing gets your unusual interest and care. While good communication lifts you, poor communication drops you. Hence, you must try to overcome poor communication practices.
Last Updated on by Sathi