Moving Towards Conscious Communication - Self Audit 1

Let’s start with the words Conscious Communication to go deeper. The word conscious here refers to awareness. To be conscious of something means to be aware of that thing, to hold it in your purview. And the word communication very simply can be understood as a transference of energy. Since we are all transmitting as well as receiving energy at the same time, being a conscious communicator means taking responsibility for both acts. Let’s focus on the act of transmitting here.

An individual does not need to speak or really to even perform any major action to communicate. Communication happens simply by just being physically present. There are however different levels of subtlety. Sometimes we receive messages, or energy, just as a person enters the room and sometimes only when a very obvious physical act is committed.

Being unconscious of what we are communicating can result in having a particular intention but communicating the opposite. For example, we may want to communicate love but end up communicating control. One of the main reasons for this lack of alignment is our disconnection from our bodies, which are fundamentally responsible for this transference of energy. Hence conscious communication begins with awareness of our bodies and the exact nature of what it is we are communicating.

The first step in moving towards conscious communication is to develop an awareness of the energy our body is holding and radiating. We live our entire lives in our heads until obvious experiences of pleasure or pain force us to start becoming aware of our bodies. By moving our awareness downwards from our heads, we begin to understand ourselves better. Once we build awareness of what kind of energy we are holding and sending out, we can start to move towards better alignment of intention and communication. To begin your awareness journey, try this 5 point physical audit for yourself today.

?1.?????? Bring your awareness to the muscles around your eyes. This is the only part of your body where your brain is exposed. The eyes play a crucial role in interpreting the surroundings and seeking out data to send to the brain, data that can result in release of various mood determining chemicals. What do you sense there? Is there a constriction of muscles signifying anxiety? And what about your gaze? What energy do you sense there? Is there love and gentleness or do you feel doubt and fear?

2.?????? Bring your attention to your mouth and focus on the muscles around your mouth. Often bitterness, or feelings of embarrassment or anger can reside in these muscles. What do you notice? Remember these are the muscles that physically help you in bringing clarity into your speech. Notice how free those muscles are and whether you have any patterns of speaking such as with your mouth half closed. Now, focus on the sound and listen to it as it goes up and down. Feel it on the edges of its echoes. How does it feel? What do you observe? Pay attention here to the quality, the volume and also the frequency of utterances.

3.?????? Bring your attention to your throat and neck. This area of the body is where we hold the maximum tension of too many responsibilities or of over stretching ourselves. You can try looking at yourself in the mirror. Does any part here look too set or frozen? Are you always hunched over or is your chin at a 45% angle or jutting out? When your chin is jutting out you will notice that your throat is constricted and this impacts your voice. Move your chin back a little and notice how your voice changes.

4.?????? Bring your attention to your chest. The chest area supports the feeling and expression of love and generosity and plays a key role in how the rest of you feels. Breathe in and notice how far your breath goes in and how it fills your lungs up. Is there any constriction or are you able to breathe deeply?

5.?????? Now bring your attention to your stomach. This part of your body is key to feeling and expressing courage and confidence. Notice any sensation you may be feeling here. Is your stomach held too tight or is it relaxed and loose? Is it being pressed down or does it have space to hold deep breaths?

This is a simple exercise, in developing awareness. If you feel yourself falling into judgement, gently bring yourself back to unbiased awareness. Let the truth of an observation just float in your consciousness. Do not attempt to fix anything or add or remove. Try this awareness exercise twice a day and see what you learn about yourself and what you are communicating. This is not an exhaustive exercise and can be performed for other parts of your body too.

The deeper our awareness of ourselves the more refined our alignment between our intention and the act of communication. This state of deep awareness becomes crucial for leaders as they move forward into communicating courage, love, trust, confidence and abundance to create newer, better realities for themselves and others around them.