Hone Your Interpersonal Skills While Studying Online from Home
Home study attracts students for various reasons – it cuts distance, saves time and allows you us to juggle work and study, in order to work in our desired profession. Although you will carry out most of your study in the privacy and solitude of your own home, don’t neglect one vital feature of any professional dealing in holistic, alternative and spiritual fields: interpersonal skills. Most of us confuse these skills with simply expressing ourselves or getting a desired result from others. In fact, communication is as much about listening, as it is speaking… and in order to heal people or animals through massage, energy, or other mediums such as crystal and colour, it is important to begin by healing ourselves.
Interpersonal and Interpersonal Skills
Interpersonal skills are crucial for professional and personal success. They can be defined as the skills we rely on to communicate effectively in groups. Communication comprises three essential elements: interpersonal, intrapersonal, and non-verbal communication skills. Since studying online does not generally involve body language, we shall focus on interpersonal and intrapersonal elements, which, as we see, are intertwined. In essence, unless we know, understand and manage our own emotions, then it is difficult to interact with respect and sensitivity when dealing with others.
When we are studying at our own pace from home, interpersonal skills are vital; knowing ourselves and our capabilities well enables us to formulate a realistic study plan, know when it is time to stop, and make sure we include activities in our live that deepen our ability to concentrate and focus. Study time should always be balanced by mindfulness activities such as yoga, meditation and healing methods that help us deal with stress, so we can be truly ‘present’ when we are studying.
We should exercise self-compassion, being patient with ourselves so that when we communicate with our tutors, we do so in a calm, respectful manner. Taking responsibility is another sign of interpersonal intelligence; not blaming our tutor or course material if we do not understand something – instead, asking for help sincerely and being open to our tutor’s suggestions for change.
Resilience is an important quality – knowing how to bounce back when we don’t perform as well as we’d like in an exam or when we need to rewrite an essay. Finally, true confidence comes from knowing our strengths and limitations; taking the risks we need to, knowing that if ever we should fail, we can always try again; no human being is infallible and we all have better and worse days.
Dealing with our Tutors and other Students
Even if you study at home, you will be in communication with tutors and you may also find it useful to share information with other students in the same fields – you may encounter them on online forums or social media pages, or meet them in person then continue communicating online. To improve communication with others, learn to listen as much as you speak. Sometimes, our essays fail to answer the question posed, or we spend time on unimportant information when studying for tests, because we haven’t listened to our tutors mindfully.
Intrapersonal intelligence involves asking for what we need respectfully – understanding that our tutors are as busy as we are, and letting them know we are grateful for their help. When communicating online, irony should be kept to a minimum, since when we don’t know the message recipient well, it can seem like are being rude or flippant. Finally, when communicating, it is important to be fearless about asking for clarification, giving our point of view, or making suggestions we feel are valuable.
‘It’s not what you say, but how you say it’ that matters. To communicate better with tutors, teachers and other students, the journey begins within. When we are stressed, confused or tired, it becomes very difficult to interact with others in a respectful yet confident manner. Make sure you balance study and relaxation time, ask your tutors for the help you need and above all, show your gratefulness for the hard work they are investing into helping you build a better future.
Source: Sally Writes
