How observation play a major role in communication

When we think of communication, we often think about having good listening skills and effective speech. We’re talking about saying the right words that matches our thoughts, being direct, being honest, and exchanging ideas through words. There is another part to communication that we often fail to put into practice. I’m talking about observation. Our body is both a transmitter and a receiver of data, information, and even matter. We absorb them through various parts of body and send them back through other passages. We take in air through our nose and sometimes release breath through that same passage or our mouth. We take in food through our mouth and release waste when it’s time to go. We take in information in the form of sound through our ears and process it in our brain to understand what we are being told. However, we also take in information through our eyes by the means of observation, and as much as we may think we are making good usage of our eyesight, the process of observation sometimes isn’t practiced at its optimum.

As it is said a picture is worth a thousand words, therefore, our eyes are able to pick up so much data throughout the day, however, we may only choose to focus on the information that most interest us. Sometimes we missed information hidden in plain sight. What I’ve come to realize over the years is that the more we observe the more we tend to understand our environment. Sometimes our eyes tell us more about people, places, and things that anything we may hear about them. Not to say we should ignore the information that is being told to us, but we do need to be more observant. As someone who speak very little, I tend to spend more time watching and dissecting my surroundings than talking about them. The only downside to this in my opinion is it can leads to overthinking as we might see something for more than what it truly is.

Observation is very important when it comes to communication. Someone might be giving us information through words, however their body language and eye movement might be telling us a different story. It’s funny how we can pick up fear, sadness, and anxiety just by the looks of the eyes. The key to becoming more observant is to pay attention to details. Most of the time, we just hear what someone has to say and ignore the visuals that are right in front of us. Now I’m not saying we need to train ourselves to become detectives although some of us are natural detectives to begin with, I’m just saying match what you see with what you hear and see if they align with one another.

In relationships, observation can not only help you avoid being hurt by an obvious activity from your partner, it can also help reduce the number of times you find yourself in arguments with your significant other. Even when it comes to living together under the same roof, when we observe our environment, we tend to pick up a lot more information than what someone has to tell us. Sometimes we find ourselves arguing with one another only because we fail to pay attention to our environment. This may happen because we’re too lazy to pay attention, too distracted, or just having our minds in dreamland, and thus we missed what’s happening in our current reality. If we spend a little more time observing the people and things in our lives, we then have to means to spot a problem and resolve it before it does any damage to us and those around us. Also we can learn so much more about our partner by observing their actions. Say for instance, your partner comes home after a 12 hour work shift, if you observe their body language, you may notice that they may be a bit fatigue and in need of rest. By noticing that, it would be inconsiderate of you to ask them to go back out to grab something for the house or to complete a chore that needs to be done. In fact, by knowing that your partner is out at work and is spending that much time outside, it would be a better idea to ask them to pick up the item on their way home or perhaps have it delivered to you saving him or her time and energy. As far as chores go, schedule it for another day. It’s not worth it when someone has to do anything when they are restless and low on energy. This opens the door for mistakes to occur which can cost you more on the long run. Observation leads to pro-activity. When we found ourselves being more reactive than being proactive, is usually a result of us not being observant to our environment.

Balance is the key to bring happiness in our lives. We may have 5 earthly senses, however the question is are we using them all equally in the right way? Even those individuals who are blind and cannot use their eyesight, tend to create balance in taking in information by increasing the sensitivity of their other senses. They may be great listeners with a heightened sense of hearing and have a strong sense of smell, touch and taste. The body will make up for what it’s missing in order to maintain balance.

During this time period in 2020, we are more distracted than ever. From the madness of the media and the hardships of our daily lives, we are being bombarded with information left and right causing us to fall out of balance. As a result of this we tend to go into a state of escapism through entertainment, drugs, and alcohol. We have to keep in mind that we can best solve the problems in our lives through observation. From observation we can gain an understanding on how something is affecting us, thus we will be able to take the necessary type of actions to resolve it. We have ears to hear, nose to breathe, mouth to eat and speak, hands to touch and feel, and eyes to see. However there are more than one functions to our senses. You have the mundane functions that are being used on a day to day basis that we do not pay attention to, and then there are deeper functions that allows us to better connect and understand each other on a deeper level beyond the physical state. Just as hearing isn’t the same as listening, seeing isn’t the same as observing. To enhance our communication skills, we not only have to become better listeners and speakers, but also better observers.