Stress and Effective Communication Strategies

Stress and Effective Communication

What if you couldn’t connect using your computer or your cell phone? How would that impact your stress and communication?

In fact, these are interesting questions and they were a bit of a reality check. A while ago, I found myself with no internet service. Along with being frustrated at the lack of customer service from my internet provider, I also felt very lost. In other words, I had to change the way I carried out my business, and the usual way I communicated with clients.

Problem solving this situation meant I had to reach out to a friend and ask for help. I required me to park in their business parking lot to get re-connected and it meant that I needed to be very focused in my communication. I had to know who I was going to respond to, what sites I was going to gather information from, and exactly how long I could be away from my official office desk.

So How Does This All Relate To Stress and Effective Communication?

We often take our technological ability to communicate with others quickly and effectively, for granted. As an example, recent research has shown us that we are often connected when we should be disconnected, which adds to our overall stress and social disconnectedness.

Ironically, being connected often means we are neglecting those around us and not effectively communicating. Beverly Beuermann-King Click to tweet

Stress and Effective Communication Stats:

Two studies were released within days of each other that I found interesting. One on the well-being of Canadians and the other on Vacation Deprivation. Their findings:

Canadians are working more non-standard hours (29%)
Canadians are time crunched (19.6%)
More Canadians are providing care to an elderly dependent (27.8%)
More Canadians are providing care to an elderly dependent and children (16.8%)
47% of Canadians described themselves as being vacation deprived
Employed Canadians aged 25-44 are the most likely to feel vacation deprived (55%)
24% of Canadians are not using up all of their allotted vacation time
30% of Canadians admit to checking work messages while on vacation
The proportion of adolescents who exceeded the maximum recommended 2 hours a day on TV and video games rose to 31.7%
On a typical day, the percentage of teenagers who had a family meal with their parents dropped to 34.8%

Beverly’s Hot Tips For Building Resiliency and Celebrating Effective Communication Month:

First, understand that working longer or atypical hours means that we need to be more deliberate in our communications and connections with others. Plan out how you are going to stay connected with family and friends.
Know that caregiving takes its toll on us and also we can get so caught up in caregiving that we forget about communicating and connecting to those we are caring for. Above all, take the time to slow down and talk to your children about their day. Let the elderly members of your family know that you care about them, and that you are not just caring for them.
For instance, your vacations are a great way to get reconnected, so take all that you are allotted. Turn off your smart phone and put away your devices. Take the time to find out what is important to the people around you. This can only be done by talking, listening and sharing.
Finally, make it a point to have dinner together more often. It is easy to let outside activities dictate your schedule and interfere with family time. If they do, it is critical to find other times to communicate and connect. As an example, driving to and from activities is a good time to do this. Turn off the distractions and focus on the connection.

If you have some strategies to share – comment on this posting!