Listen, Communicate, Repeat

Community building has a lot to do with being in harmony with the people in your environment and using that energy productively to make improvements to the overall lifestyle of everyone involved. Anyone can be an integral part of a community building project so long as they are in harmony with themselves and open to self-improvement through the dynamics of their relationships. This goes for all relationships... marital, family, community, etc. You can either negatively drain or harmonize the energy of your relationships depending on how you're communicating. To find out how you're doing, ask yourself how you're...

• Listening: Are you tuning in or tuning out other people's objectives that don't immediately resonate with you?
• Communicating: Are you expressing your objections in a constructive or destructive way?

If you are truly tuning in (listening), you're quietly taking in the message(s) and seeing how it fits into the overall picture. If you're tuning out and thinking instead about your response while others are talking, you are hearing, but you're not listening. The act of expressing your self constructively (communicating), is more than just talk. Your body's energy is projected with your words to show your attitude, and that can actually make or break the effectiveness of your message. Your body language, force of speech, and tone of voice is all part of communication. No one is "listening" to your message if there's a bad attitude behind it and filtered through emotional impulses. Learning how to listen to your self (breath, actions, intentions) is the first step to effectively communicating to others. Your own practice will improve the way other people receive you and your message(s), lessening overall stress, anxiety and frustration. Bottom line... if you want to be heard, you have got to listen. ~Liz Make Desirable Connections