Amanda's Blog

When was the last time you expressed yourself during a conflict? How about censor yourself? I am a passive person. I hate conflict and I hate confrontation. Therefore most of the time I tend to avoid conflict if I can. Should I happen to be confronted, however, it usually ends in two ways. The first way it usually ends is myself being quite stressed out and quite unhappy, as I usually stay silent so the person on the other side of the conflict can go away, usually quite happy as they've won the argument. The second way a conflict usually ends is the same way; I am stressed and unhappy and the other person is stressed and unhappy, but they now know how I feel. An example of the last time I have expressed myself during a conflict would be the last argument I had with a former friend. She and I were quite opposites of each other, we knew each other for a while (met through a mutual friend) and had hit it off. After a while in the relationship she started to push me around a bit, t

This particular assignment we are discussing verbal and non verbal communication. We had to take a conversational skills rating scale and check the columns that describe verbal and non verbal communication.  Out of 25 communication behavior statements, I checked 15 as verbal and 12 as non-verbal, with 2 checked as both. What this tells me is that verbal communication is used most widely with non-verbal communication being just as important as verbal communication. When having a conversation, having eye contact, posture, use of gestures, facial expressiveness, and other forms of non-verbal communication tell us a lot about what people are saying, feeling, if they are lying, and so on. Speaking rate, fluency, volume, asking questions, and other forms of verbal communication convey more than just what the person is saying. It also conveys how the person is feeling, whether it be at the moment, about the topic, or even the person they are speaking with.  When having a conversation w

I recently watched a Ted Talks video, Five Ways to Listen Better with Julian Treasure . We, as a society, do not listen anymore. We have lost the art of listening. His talk was about bringing this concept of communication back into our conversations. We as a society have stopped listening. There is too much noise that we start to drown it all out. Texting has replaced a large portion of our conversation. Our children do not have conversations anymore, and when they do, it's all in text speak. One of the things Julian Treasure did in his speech was showcase five activities that we can all do to improve our listening skills. These activities are: Silence - sit in a silent room for 3 minutes and just listen to what you hear.  The mixer - sitting in a noisy room, identify the different channels you are hearing. Savoring - learn to enjoy the beauty in mundane sounds. Listening positions - moving your listening position to what you're listening to. RASA - Receive, Apprecia

Five Things I'm Most Proud of Myself 1. I'm still madly in love with my husband after 15 years. 2. Going back to school,getting good grades, and I'm almost done. 3. Raising three really great kids. 4. I'm kind and considerate to other people's feelings. 5. I can usually find the positive to any situation. I'm actually really proud of all these features, however, if I were to pick one, it would have to be going back to school. It's tough taking classes when you've been out of school for almost 20 years. It's also tough when you work a ton of hours and have younger children to raise. Also, I'm almost done. I am a person that starts something and never finishes, so to be this far along and can see the finish line, I'm super proud of that fact. Five Things I Believe In 1. Communication is very important in any relationship. 2. Treat others how you would want to be treated. 3. Spirituality 4. Forgiving and forgetting.

Slowly I am finding good information for my speech on Dwight D. Eisenhower. Since I am gathering the "bones" of the speech, I'm finding myself gathering a lot of factual data. So far I've found a few websites that will help put together the foundation of my speech. The first website I found is directly from the White House website. It is a short, basic biography describing a few of his major accomplishments before, during, and after his reign as the 34th President of the United States. This page can be found here . I feel the information is reputable and unbiased. I don't think the information is too old or too new, even though the page was copyrighted in 2006. Since it is mostly biographical information, and it matches up to other biographical information I have found on other sites, and the fact that he died in 1969, I think I can rely on the information provided. The other two websites I've found that I feel are reputable and unbiased are from t

I'm doing my speech on one of the greatest American leaders of the twentieth century, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Specific Purpose Statement: To inform my listeners of Eisenhower's efforts towards peace. Thesis Statement: Faced with some of the biggest atrocities of the twentieth century, Eisenhower always worked towards peace.