The Handbook to a Successful Relationship... Pt. 2

Finally the long wait has ended I’m now able to share with you my opinion about how to have a “successful relationship”. I recently wrote Pt. 1 of the Handbook listing nine characteristics of a “successful relationship”.

“There's compromising, patience, faithfulness, respect, forgiveness, togetherness, and trust which also comes with honesty and COMMUNICATION.”

Here are some questions that will be answered:
1) What is the definition?
2) Why is it important in a “successful relationship”?
3) What are some examples of it in a “successful relationship”?
4) How is it displayed correctly?

Before I begin, I will say this. My boyfriend and I do not have the equivalent of a “PERFECT RELATIONSHIP” however WE are working towards a “successful relationship”, like many other couples out there. From observation of many couples and marriages and divorces I’ve noticed certain characteristics; “rules”. We know that in today’s society a lot of situations are changing. People aren’t exactly the typical HUSBAND and WIFE or GIRLFRIEND and BOYFRIEND anymore. Things have changed and evolved into something much more. According DivorceRate.org, in the United States alone:

• 41% of first marriages end in divorce
• 60% of second marriages end in divorce
• 73% of third marriages end in divorce

Let’s start with COMMUNICATION, since that is my favorite. COMMUNICATION is defined as “an ongoing dynamic process of sharing meaning. Sharing both our ideas and feelings w/out forsaking for the other one.” According to Thomas E. Harris and Mark D. Nelson, authors of Applied Organizational Communication, communication is a very vital part of the human race. Communication is a process where there is a mutual assignment of meaning, simultaneous responses by all persons in the transaction, ongoing giving and receiving of multiple messages, circularity, and numerous channels of communication. Communication is what keeps this world going. Whether it may be nonverbal or verbal communication, it plays a major part in Society.

The verbal communication source has four roles:

1. to determine the meaning of what is to be communicated
2. to encode the meaning into a message
3. to send the message
4. to react to a listener's response to the message

Nonverbal:

a. Kinesics is body movement and body posture as well as facial expressions or gestures.
b. Paralanguage is considered to be the vocal quality/pitch, loudness, and tempo: sometimes also including facial expressions and gestures.
c. Sex roles- the biological prescriptions about what males and females should do with their bodies.
d. Gender Roles refer to the ways women and men are socially and culturally assigned feminine and masculine behaviors.

People may not understand how important communication in a “successful relationship” is, or any relationship for that matter. The thing that makes communication between significant others so important is that a miscommunication can alter so many things.

To Be Continued….