Get a Better Handle On Life

You’ve heard the expression, you may even have used it. ‘Communication breakdown’ is a handy metaphor, but a metaphor is symbolic, which means it shouldn’t be taken literally.  
Communication breakdown is a handy concept, but it can also be a cop-out. It’s a useful term in that it suggests an impasse, but if you take it literally it becomes an excuse to stop trying.
What 'communication breakdown' really means is missed opportunity to help a damaged relationship. 
Whether you are directly involved in a dispute, or you are a professional conflict resolver helping others,  this episode is packed with sound, practical advice to enable you to fix an impasse.
 
© Backing Track: Adventure, Chad Crouch, www.soundofpicture.com, licence CC BY-NC 4.0

Depending on where you live in the World you are either under lockdown, or it is imminent in your area. This measure has been inflicted on us to help protect our physical health and that of the community. But it might seem that our mental health and wellbeing could now be put at risk by forced confinement.
But it doesn't have to be. There are several steps you can take to keep yourself occupied, emotionally stable, and even on a positive track so that you flourish despite your curtailed freedom of movement.
We still have control
Of course, there are limitations to being stuck at home, and it feels as though something has been taken away. But there's a lot you can do to help keep a sense of control and so bolster your morale. 

Fear of therapy is a very real phenomenon. It’s ironic that while it is seen as irresponsible not to seek help with a physical illness, there is a taboo against wanting to fix an ailment of the spirit (if ‘spirit’ turns you off, try ‘psyche’).
In a world so preoccupied with happiness, success, wellbeing and fulfilment, there is an equal and opposite tension the deflects people from the things that can help a person achieve them.

Is it worth seven minutes of your time to learn how to stop an argument? Like most people, I learned the hard way how NOT to do it. But then, 25 years as a professional conflict resolver has taught me a thing or two about how to stop an argument, now I'm sharing it with you.

We hear a lot of talk about optimism and it is often promoted as a sort of cure for personal and social ills. Despite the banter between optimists and pessimists, there are compelling reasons to consider optimism as a key factor in wellbeing. These go far beyond the usual, glib ‘glass half full’ ideas or the entreaties of the positive thinking movement.
There are now thousands of studies that attest to the value of optimism at all stages of our lives. From childhood to old age an optimistic outlook confers all sorts of advantages.
Even if you are a die-hard pessimist, you can learn to use optimistic habits of thinking when things are getting you down.
This episode explains some of the benefits of thinking optimistically, and how to train yourself into the habit.
#optimism #positivepsychology #negativity #optimistic #adversity #personaldevelopment

This episode introduces your author, explains what drives the podcast, and outlines some of the topics covered.
Topics in the 2020 episodes include surviving lockdown, why we need solitude, resilience, handling difficult behaviour, the benefits of knitting and other pastimes, anxiety, conflict... more to be announced soon.

Other people’s difficult behaviour can affect us in all sorts of ways. If we are fortunate, it will simply irritate us, but when it is extreme it can cause more serious problems.
This is the second and final part of the concise audio-version of my book of the same name. Using studio role-plays it shows you how to achieve more productive outcomes in a whole range of relationships. It will help you successfully settle those difficult interactions – at work or at home – that just won’t resolve themselves.
You'll also be given the opportunity to understand how to prepare yourself so that you are more effective more often in your relationships.
This episode covers:
The Complainer
The Silent Type
The Congenial
The Expert.

We all come across them. People who either won't or can't change the ways they behave towards us. It might be outright hostility and boorishness, across the spectrum to those who appear to agree with us, only to go off and do their own thing.
Confronting them doesn't work (as if you dared), and ignoring their behaviour only serves to reinforce it. This episode will give you plenty of ideas on how to respond so that difficult behaviour no longer obstructs or troubles you. 
Using studio actors to demonstrate failed 'how-not-to' tactics followed by the successful 'how-to' scenarios, the two 30-minute episodes (part 2 next week) will empower you to take control in any situation where someone else's behaviour is getting you down. 
This episode explains how to deal with:
The Steamroller
The Guerilla
The Grouser
The Shadow.