Who are you?  Do you have any idea “who” you really are?  Are you a caring, loving, person?  Do you have compassion for yourself and for others?  Are you smart, happy, and full of joy?  Are you the opposite of those things?  Does anyone ever really know who they are?

Do you sometimes think you are one person, such as happy, joyful, and fun to be around, and then you see the “evidence” and you begin to wonder if you are not that person at all?  Does the “world” perceive you the same way that “you” perceive you?  Does it matter what the “world” thinks about you?  Does the “world” actually “get” you?

Living as non-physical beings inside of a physical body poses some limitations on your “self.”  Those limitations are easier for others to overcome than for some people.  Understanding the limitations of communication and perception may help those who may be having somewhat of a difficult time.

You must know that the communication mechanism of the physical world is much more “challenging” than the non-physical world.  It is very similar to the game of telephone where one person whispers into someone’s ear, who turns and repeats the message to another person, and so on.  By the time the message gets back to the originator, it is generally nothing close to the original message.

In the physical world, you are constantly “delivering messages” to others, but those messages are getting skewed by body language, beliefs, memories, and the thought that the listener “knows” what it is you are trying to tell them.  The reality is that the delivery of messages becomes extremely difficult.  Unlike the “telephone game” you may not receive the message back to see if it was “heard” correctly.

However, even when you do receive the message back from the listener, you still have no way of knowing if it was interpreted how you intended.  After hearing all of the challenges of communicating with one another, one might ask how in the world do we manage at all?

One of the keys to being an effective communicator is to get rid of the notion that you “fully” understand the intent of a message.  Be okay with only understanding what you think is the full message, but most likely is not.  As the “messenger” you must also be okay with the realization that no one fully understands you, either.  That’s okay, because with time, more and more of what you say may get interpreted to your liking.

However, much like a painting can be interpreted differently by each viewer of the work, your conversations will never be interpreted the same by any two people.  It’s virtually impossible for you to pluck a message from your mind and place it perfectly into the mind of someone else.  That being said, give up on that notion of full comprehension, and be satisfied if some of your message gets interpreted how you intended.

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Life in a physical body has its challenges, but one of the greatest challenges is communication with others.  If everyone agrees that they will never fully know and understand each other, we will all live in better harmony.

Written Wed Mar 19, 2014, 7:35 – 7:49 AM MT