Communication...it is the root of many misunderstandings and conflicts that we experience in our relationships, whether it is with our partner, our parents, our kids, friends, siblings, bosses or anyone!

Sometimes we may keep silent because we don’t know how to say what we want to say and other times we might be afraid to speak up because we don’t want to hurt someone else’s feelings or we’re nervous of their reaction.

It takes practice to learn how to communicate from our hearts and share how we are feeling without making the person we are talking to wrong or responsible.

Communication is key in every single one of our relationships, however, by the time we muster up the courage to address our concerns, the original issue has usually become so huge that our communication is laced with a lot of blame and negativity…and many times to the point where the relationship itself is in peril.

Looking at your garden you will notice that throughout the season weeds pop up, sometimes even overnight! Keeping on top of the weeding helps to promote the growth of your beautiful flowers, however if we let things slide, get too busy with other things, before we know it the weeds start to take over and can choke the life out of what was once a beautiful garden.

So what have we let build up? What haven’t we said that we wanted to or on the flipside, communicated in a way that we wish we could take back but we can’t?

Not everyone may agree, but if we shifted how we look at all of our relationships as being 50/50, and we started taking 100% responsibility for our 50%, including how we communicate, we can have a totally different kind of relationship with everyone in our life…especially with our families .

With Father’s Day coming up this month we will most likely be spending more time with our families which offers a great opportunity to practice communicating from our hearts and notice how our relationships shift as a result.

Happy Father’s Day to all!

Author's Bio: 

As an author, speaker and family communication specialist, Jo-Anne Cutler has become a passionate voice for children by building the awareness of what we are teaching them by our example and following her vision to inspire and empower others to be the consciously connected parents, teachers and role models our children need them to be. She has created an audio program called Breaking the Cycle, is in the process of writing her own book and a certified coach using The Inner Workout™ program. Jo-Anne is also the author of several published articles, co-author of 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Vol. 2. and 101 Top Child Development and Parenting Articles. She offers private/virtual/phone coaching and consultations as well as a free monthly e-newsletter and blog. For more information please visit www.jcconnections.ca www.betherole-model.blogspot.com www.twitter.com/awarenconnected/