iExamen1

Communication in All Senses

            Through my self-reflection, I have found that I communicate with people in a lot of ways in many different aspects of my life. When I am on the volleyball court, I need to tell people what plays to run, so I have to communicate through hand signals, which I never thought of as weird or really even a form of full communication until this exercise. Also on the court, I use claps and pointing as ways to say that I appreciate someone or that they did something well. Outside of volleyball, when I am just with my friends, we communicate a significant amount with our eyes. If something happens around us there is just a way that we talk to each other and express and understand how we are feeling. This is very interesting to me because you can actually do this wit most people, not just your friends, and they will get what you are saying, so that universal connection that you have with people is something really strange and kind of comforting to know that it’s always there. I also realized that, since I’m a sassy person, I communicate and express myself a lot with my body movements. I flip my hair and use my hands a lot when I talk, which may also be because I’m Italian, and people understand how I am feeling through these actions. Another big way that I can express my feelings is through my body and posture. My coach always has a way of knowing when we are sulking after points because of our body language and that is something that I need to stay consciously aware of or else it just happens which is something I had never realized I was doing for such a long time. I also have noticed that when you stand or act a certain way, the person you are talking to will act or stand in a similar way. This is also psychological because subconsciously you want to mirror the person you are with in order to seem more likeable to the person.

Through this exercise I realized that I communicate in a lot more ways than I thought I did. Pretty much everything I do communicated in someway about how I am feeling or reacting to my surroundings. It is also very interesting and sort of crazy to see how other people have different ways of communicating and do different things than you do, but will still act a certain way just because they know the ways of their surroundings at that moment.

Going without a phone is not something super foreign to me. At least 2 hours before every single game, our coach takes away our phones. They do this so we have no distractions from the outside world and con focus on each other and the game. In these times, my teammates and I usually play music, dance around, and draw on the white board in the locker room. In these moments, I usually completely forget that I do not have my phone. When I did the exercise it was more on my mind that I didn’t have my phone, but when I kept myself busy, the idea was much less present in my mind. I really don’t think it is the end of the world to not have your phone or technology 24/7, however it is very nice for communication purposes with people far away. During the summer, most days I would not have my phone for 8 hours, so majority of my waken day. This was not very difficult because I was doing something the entire time. However, if I had to do that now, it would be a different story because my family and boyfriend are far away and is usually talk to them throughout my day. Overall I think there are positives and negatives to having technology but I definitely feel that everyone should take a break here and there.