Communication and Health: Getting Heard (Healthy Living DIY)

Communication is grand, isn't it? And since your actions, your state, and your posture often speak for you, sometimes you can get away without actually doing much when it comes to getting your point across.

Other times, it's not so easy. You feel like you're shouting from the rooftops, but it seems nobody's listening. Since there are times when your health -- your very life -- depends on your ability to communicate clearly, we're going to take on one little piece of the puzzle today.

There's a common misconception floating around out there about getting heard. Here it is. When you shout from the rooftops but nobody listens, it's "their" fault for not hearing you.

Too bad it's not true, because in a way, things would be so much easier. You'd never have to work on your message, your congruence, your authority, or your presentation style. You wouldn't have to persist when the going gets rough. You could simply blame "them" for not listening.

But guess what? It's not "their" fault.

When the message is yours, guess who has control over it? You! And that's a very good thing. Because truth to tell, you are in the driver's seat. If you get the directions mixed up the first time, so to speak, you go again. And you keep going -- refining, repeating, reworking -- until your message is heard.

I'd like to inspire your journey with a little story, told to me by a man I'll call Bill. It's true!

Several years ago, Bill had heart surgery. Never a big fan of doctors in the past, Bill values his life as much as the next guy. So a short while ago when he had the insight that something was wrong in the area of his heart, he did the smart thing and asked his wife to take him to the emergency room.

Off they went. The doctors checked Bill over and announced that there was nothing wrong.

Now for this next part, it helps if you know Bill's wife, who is an excellent communicator. You see, Mrs. Bill knows her husband. And one thing she knows for sure is that she wouldn't be sitting in the emergency room with him unless something was really, really wrong.

So she pulled herself up and challenged the doctor with these words, "Are you willing to promise me that if I take my husband home from here tonight that nothing will go wrong? No heart attacks? Nothing?"

You can about see the emergency room doctor rolling his or her eyes, can't you? Of course they couldn't promise this irate woman that nothing would go wrong with her husband's heart. So they did what doctors around here do when the patient won't shut up. They referred him to the Mayo Clinic.

And, as Bill told me, no sooner had they arrived than he had a heart attack. At the Mayo Clinic. Now I don't know about you, but if I had to have a heart attack somewhere, at the Mayo Clinic would be one of my top preferred locations. Fortunately, they were able to care for him and he came home in one piece!

This story isn't about a bad doctor in our local emergency room. I'm sure they have a protocol, and Bill probably looked healthy enough that they figured he just had heartburn. It's about creating a model for clear and persistent communication.

Mrs. Bill's communication that night probably saved her husband's life.

She knew her communication had to get heard, and she persisted until it was. Even though she was speaking to an authority figure who told her that she had no reason to be worried.

This is a clear example of communication with an obvious health-related outcome. Other times, it's more obscure. The point that remains is this. When you have something important to say, get heard. In our next article, we'll talk about a couple of things you might need to overcome in order to do that.

Elizabeth Eckert can help you explore how simple everyday choices create health — or undermine even the best of intentions. With a background that ranges from energy medicine to structural bodywork to developmental psychology, this "Stick-To-It Coach" has the experience to support you in creating the healthiest possible expression of — you!

Take our free Less Stress; More Time mini-course!