What I have learned in communications the past 6 weeks.

In the past 6 weeks I have learned alot about communication. I learned that you have to have active listening to understand what the hell is going on in the class. Yes I wasn't the greatest at Active listening. I also learned about interviewing. How to be prepared for the interview and go into it with a positive attitude and hope for a positive outcome. Also know your stuff, do your homework. That is key when going into an interview so when you get asked questions about the company you can actually answer them. Have really good eye contact and ask questions. That is another key to an interview. My teacher scared the living shit out of me. I seriously could not do the whole eye contact thing with him and that is one of the things I had to work on my self in this class. He was preparing us for the real world since everything involves verbal and non verbal communication. One thing about Jonathan is he was a pretty cool teacher and worked with me on my public speaking skills. He gave me tips and things that I need to change or work on. The last two week of class I went through a rough time and we learn about aggressive, passive, and assertive behavior, which I did take an encounter to because all the issues I tried to solve the other person was aggressive. The whole assertive thing kinda helped out in my situation. Over all this was a great call and I learned about many things on how to communicate and what the whole social mirror and Saphir-Whorf Hypothesis and the list can go on. But I am sick and this is my last blog for my communications class. It was great and I had a blast when I actually showed up to school.

Communication Presentation

WOW!!! That is all I can say. Today in class we had to do a 20 minute presentation and I chose to do it on Boxers. Not the boxers you wear but the breed of Boxers. We had over a week to get prepared for it, the teacher gave us time in class to get prepared and he even gave us tips on how to present it. Well of course I was not prepared at all. I had a horrible week that kept me from going to work and I couldn't even show up to school. That's how bad the situation was. Today I woke up and freaked out. Made it to work on time but sat there and couldn't figure out how the hell I was suppose to get prepared for this presentation. I didn't have anything ready like how the boxer originated from, how they got the name or anything. I just had my personal experience being an owner of many boxers. After work I called my mom to have her print of some information and went and picked it up. When I got home I got my prop ready... BOO the boxer puppy and of course I forgot my boxer book. When I arrived at school I got about 10 minutes to prepare. Wasn't enough. The dog was a distraction, I was nervous, couldn't focus and I almost blew the presentation. Then my teacher asked what my conclusion was and how I got involved into the boxer. That's when I started to loosen up and became more comfortable. I had good eye contact, posture, and I spoke clearly and at a good pace. After all of the presentations my teacher gave us constructive criticism on our presentations and he said that once I started to talk about my personal experience owning over 12 boxers (8 being puppies) he said that's when he noticed that I don't do well when I am trying to present from a script. I do a better job at telling stories and the information that I already know. The point is.. be prepared when it comes to do things like this. The audience will be more interested and things will flow smoothly. No matter what the issue is focus on the things that need to be done to get your mind of the horrible situation and BE PREPARED.

Fears of Communicating.

Sometimes when we have to present a speech of any sort we intend to go through some issues. We freak out, stress out, and  feel unprepared. So over all we feel NERVOUS! I know for a fact that I freak out when it comes to presenting any form of speech whether it is in front of a small group of 3 people or a huge group of hundred. I fidget and hind my face. I also don't make eye contact. As a child I was told it not nice to stare but when it comes to important things we need to make eye contact but for some reason I feel like its staring and so I don't make the eye contact when it is needed.

We fear messing up, the audience is not interested, or they may think its an amazing speech. A lot of thoughts run through your brains and make us nervous so there are things that we can do to be prepared when it comes to giving a presentation. Number one thing is be PREPARED!! I can say that enough. Go through all your information you have and make sure it is correct and that you have an understanding of what you are talking about. Don't use big words that you may stumble over or you don't understand it at all. Read your presentation over and over so you have it down so you wont have to look at your notes as much or hide behind them because you forgot what the key points are or forget what you are talking about. Practice your presentation with people you know but visualize them as different people so you can help with the calming of the nerves. When it comes time to present and you cant make eye contact look at the tops of the heads or scan the audience, but NEVER visual the audience naked but that will make you more nervous.

There are plenty of alternative things that can help with preparing for a presentation. Never think or say things like oh this is going to suck, My speech is not that great and the audience is not going to be interested. If you ever need help with getting things ready or need some pointers on how to present look up some information on verbal and non verbal communication and that will help you out a ton.   Dont be nervous. Just relax and you will be great!

What The Bleep!!!

Today 02/16/2011 I woke up in a good mood but by the time I got to work my attitude changed and I felt uncomfortable in my own skin and I felt depressed and have all day. In class we watched a movie called What The Bleep and it talked about our emotions. Are emotions are addictions. Love is an addiction. WHAT?? Yes we think to our selves and realize we love that someone but in all reality its just an addiction just like heroin. They referenced being addicted to heroin is like being addicted to love, sex, depression or what ever it may be. They talked about if you have been depressed that's what your body and mind feels is depression. Your used to it and it hard to get in the mind set that you are not depressed or whatever the case may be. This really had me thinking. I have really bad emotions and they change within seconds. I feel like I can't be happy for more than an hour. I feel like just crawling up into a ball because I am not worth anything anymore.  Here is a saying or whatever you would like to call it but I feel like I relate to it in many ways.  She can deal with stress and carry heavy burdens. She smiles when she feels like screaming, and she sings when she feels like crying. She cries when she's happy and laughs when she's afraid. Her love is unconditional. There's only one thing wrong with her, she forgets what she's worth! The song that is my favorite and relate to as well is by Pink called Fuckin Perfect. Its a great song and its about people who feel like there are nothing when in all reality they are something.