Non-Verbal Communication and roles in Interpersonal Relationships

Hi everyone, hope you guys are coping with your studies. It was never an easy journey but if you keep your mind at it and try your best I am sure you will be able to make it. Today I am reflecting on the topic on Non-verbal communication and roles it plays in Interpersonal Relationships.

What is Non-verbal Communication? 

Non-verbal Communication is a form of communication asides from words. Examples of Non-Verbal Communications are  such as body language, facial expression,  posture, gestures and eye contact. All these play a part in how people will perceive you when you are communicating with them or when you are in a group and the others watch your every move and action. You will not have to even speak a word for them to judge you.

What is listening?

Let me ask you a question. Do you think you are a good listener? There are many ways you can be a listener and it depends on your personality type or the situation you are in. Active listening is part and parcel of building interpersonal communications. Being able to identify your preferred style of listening will help point out potential barriers as everyone has a different style of listening.

Types of Listening

People orientated Listening

People who love to interact with others and lend a listening ear are what you would call a People Orientated person. When they speak to you they focus their attention on other's feelings and show an interest in whatever they are saying. They will be more emotionally involved with others and will show forms of acknowledgement when listening with a nod of their head or keeping good eye contact with them. 

Action Orientated Listening

People who like to get down to business are usually action orientated listeners as they want to know what actions have taken place, who performed them and when they will happen. They tend to want things to be in order and when they find any inconsistencies with the information you are telling to them they will point it out to you. They do often jump the gun and finish other people's sentences and will get irritable when people beat around the bush and not get down to the main points.

Content Orientated Listening

People who like facts and evidence and challenging the speaker on their facts to determine the logic of the argument. They also tend to be more judgmental and like asking a lot of questions to get more facts out of them.

Time Orientated Listening

People who like to watch the time or expression their urgency to leave as they have other things to do and tell others that they are in a hurry tend to be focused solely on the time that they can spend listening to others.

From what I have understood and learnt from today's lesson on types of listening, I have come to the conclusion that I am mainly a people orientated listener as I do tend to sacrifice my time to listen to other people's problems and be a listening ear as well as not judge them for what they have to say as I will never understand or be in their situation as do I have situations or problems that people will not understand. I spend a lot of time with my mom and listen to her problems and how her days has gone as just the understanding that cherishing the moment and spending quality time with my family and mom gives me comfort and nothing last forever. We all do pass away at some point in our lives we will the ones we love so cherish your time now and spend more time with them as when your parents nag you all they are asking is for a little bit of your time as they have spent many years looking after you and what is that small amount of time spent compared with the time they have spent bringing you up and naturing you and giving you the best of what they can give you. Listening to somebody will make their day as who knows what has happened to them and it wont hurt to learn more about others and be glad you having done good from time to time as humans are social creatures and communicating with one another is a way to show an interest to learn. 

Thank you for taking your time to read this and I hope you have learnt and enjoy reading it as we all have a purpose in life and be happy with whoever you are and make the best of what life brings you!!

- Wee Zhen Yang