I had counselling today and learned about levels of communication. Apparently, there are five levels of communication humans use to talk or not talk to each other.
Level One: Cliché Conversation. Phrases like “How are you?†There is no personal sharing.
Level Two: Reporting the Facts. We are content to tell others what someone else has said. We tell the facts as known by others. We do not commit ourselves as to how we feel about them.
Level Three: Ideas and Judgments. We are willing to risk telling some of our own ideas and opinions. If we sense that what we are saying is not being accepted, we retreat.
Level Four: Feelings and Emotions. We reveal how we feel about facts, ideas and judgments. We share the feelings underlying things said or events that occur. This is where we really share ourselves.
Level Five: Complete Emotional and Personal Communication. All deep relationships must be based on complete openness and honesty. It involves the risks of rejection. But it is vital if relationships are to grow. It also means taking the feelings of our spouse seriously.
I think I usually communicate on level 1 and 2 especially to strangers and people I don’t know very well. I realize I only have 2-3 people I can really communicate at up to Level 5 with. Oh how few eh. Maybe I communicate better with my fingers. But that’s not very good right. Someone told me today that blogging transparently sometimes get you misinterpreted, so face to face is better. Gee I never thought of that. I think I had been misinterpreted before recently, and some commenters wrote funny stuff. But oh well, I can’t stop blogging still.
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