Interpersonal Communication- A Mindful Approach to Relationships, 2020a

physical symptoms. It is vital for people to share what they feel, because if they keep it bottled up, then
they are more likely to suffer emotionally, mentally, and physically.
Communication is not only essential for us to thrive and live. It is also important to discover who we
are. From a very young age, you were probably told a variety of characteristics about your physical
appearance and your personality. You might have been told that you are funny, smart, pretty, friendly,
talented, or insightful. All of these comments probably came from someone else. For instance, Sally
went to a store without any makeup and saw one of her close friends. Sally’s friend to her that she looked
horrible without any makeup. So, from that day forward, she never walked out of the house without her
cosmetics. You can see that this one comment affected Sally’s behavior but also her perceptions about
herself. Just one comment can influence how you think, act, and feel. Think about all the comments that
you have been told in your life. Were they hurtful comments or helpful comments? Did they make you
stronger or weaker? You are who you are based on what others have told you about yourself and how
you responded to these comments. In another opposite example, Mark’s parents told him that he wasn’t
very smart and that he would probably amount to nothing. Mark used these comments to make himself
better. He studied harder and worked harder because he believed that he was more than his parents’
comments. In this situation, you can see that the comments helped shaped his identity differently in a
positive manner.
Other than using words to identify who we are, we use communication to establish relationships.
Relationships exist because of communication. Each time we talk to others, we are sharing a part of
ourselves with others. We know people have strong relationships with others due to the conversations
that they have with others. Think about all the relationships that you are involved with and how
communication differs in those relationships. If you stopped talking to the people you care about, your
relationships might suffer. The only way relationships can grow is when communication occurs between
individuals. Joy Koesten analyzed family communication patterns and communication competence. She
found that people who grew up in more conversation oriented families were also more likely to have
better relationships than people who grew up in lower conversation-oriented families. 7
Communication is a key ingredient in our life. We need it to operate and do our daily tasks.
Communication is the means to tell the barista what coffee you prefer, inform your physician about what
hurts, and advise others that you might need help.
We know that communication helps in the business setting. Katherine Kinnick and Sabrena Parton
maintained that communication is important in workplace settings. They found that the ability to
persuade effectively was very important. Moreover, females are evaluated more on their interpersonal
skills than males, and males were evaluated more on their leadership skills than interpersonal skills. 8
Overall, we know that to do well in the business setting, one must learn to be a competent communicator.
Moreover, we know that communication is not only crucial in professional settings but in personal
settings. Daniel Canary, Laura Stafford, and Beth Semic found that communication behaviors are
essential in marriages because communication is essential for marriage longevity and success. 9 In
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Interpersonal Communication