Powerful Communication with First, Your Body Dispositions

I heard something fabulous the other day on which I've been pondering where to pay attention to how our communication with each other may become more powerful.

Marty Raphael, one of my colleagues through Newfield Network, said the following in one of our shared ontological explorations:

"First, we have a body.

Then, we have emotions.

Finally, we have linguistics." 

Let's explore this as an inquiry and how it relates to communicating powerfully.

Sometimes we pay attention to what we say. More more accurately however, we pay attention to:

"self talk" or 

"the little voice in our head" or 

"I have to" or 

"I need to" or 

"I tried.." or 

"feelings" ...

... or just generally, how we "should on" ourselves via language.

In other words, we automatically fall into talking to ourselves or others from which we find... shall I say "collusion" ... to keep our automatic ways of speaking in place. But that is fodder for another conversation.  Let's get back to Marty sharing the obvious.

"First, we have a body.

Then, we have emotions. (I'll add "and moods")

Finally, we have linguistics."  (briefly defined as "what we say and what we listen")

Are you noticing that what you are saying resides inside of a mood or an emotion? In addition, have you noticed those two domains reside within how you are 'holding' your physical body? There is a congruence with these three domains that 'we' as human beings don't often put our attention on.

An obvious example of an automatic way of speaking that does not work for you is when you are "fighting" with someone.  

There are:

1. the spoken words that come out of your mouth <"you did this" and "you did that!">

2. from an emotion and I promise you, 

3. how you are holding your body

The congruence of these three domains lead to a lack of powerful communication in an automatic way-of-being called "how I fight with someone."  This way-of-being does nothing for you other than keep you "fighting."

You might ask, how do I "get out of" this dis-empowering way of communicating? 

Look at Marty's statement... 

"First we have a body."  

We learned FIRST how to communicate via our bodies. How might you shift the conversation or the mood or the emotion from 'anger' or 'frustration' to 'acceptance' or 'compassion' or 'humility'?

If you think of how you hold your body in 'anger' or 'frustration' you will begin to see a pattern. That body disposition is where you automatically reside whenever you are in anger or frustration. 

Now to first, go with the body, shift it. Consciously move it to another body disposition, someplace that is unfamiliar to you when you are in anger.  Notice what happens. Notice how the mood or the language is altered. Notice now you have the ability to "step out" of the anger or frustration and "observe" from another view. One from which you are now able to communicate powerfully.

Exercise:  when you recognize that the Way-of-Being that you are in is not working and you "want out of it," stop yourself and notice how you are holding your body.  Then shift it.. if your shoulders are forward, move them back. If your legs are crossed, open them up. If your eyes are squinting, open them wide. If your sitting, stand up.  Then notice what happens.  What new emotion shows up? What new words of possibility show up? How does your communication shift?  As with any new practice this takes practice, practice, practice and guess what? More practice. 

Let me know how it goes.

Happy Spring!

Patricia



Patricia Hirsch
ICF Master Certified Coach
Communication Expert
Design Your Life Coaching
www.designyourlifecoaching.com