Courtesy of Pixabay
Giraffe or Jackal? Life has a way of throwing us curveballs and we can find ourselves needing to confront or speak up in a situation. Out of the blue life gets scrambled a bit: a favorite chair gets tossed by mistake (don't ask for those details!), the refrigerator dies, the furnace humidifier needs to be replaced, the wrong ice maker part comes meaning the wait will be longer... and just a few other things that make life interesting occur.
How does a person react to these without making a mountain out of a molehill or minimizing things that really should get a reaction? It's hard some days. I don't know about you but I'm learning.
There are ways to communicate without resorting to either extreme. I think of a giraffe and how gentle these animals are, however, they let the zoo keeper know his wishes in easy to understand terms. I have watched this reality on animal shows.
Growing up some of us have learned to yell, talk over, interrupt and get aggressive in order to be "heard" but in reality a calm, quiet, yet assertive stance gets further. It's something we can all learn, no matter the past.
Non-violent communication by Rosenberg is a communication style that has impressed me. Sometimes the giraffe and Jackal are used as representatives of how we communicate and Rosenberg explains this "giraffe" language so well; consider looking it up further.
In today's environment, wouldn't it be a wonderful consideration to turn down the temperature in our language, just a bit! The giraffe is a great example!Courtesy of Pixabay
