Barbara Small, M.A.
Barb is an expert author and her articles are also available at:
She is a member of the Federation of BC Writers.
These articles are available for your own personal use, to distribute to your clients or to publish in your newsletter or on your blog. Please ensure that you acknowledge Barbara Small as the author of the article and include a link to this website.
Assertiveness Skills articles
How Changing Your Beliefs Can Help You Become More Assertive
Have you always wanted to become more assertive - to speak up for yourself, express your feelings freely, say no when you want to or stop being a people-pleaser? If so, what has prevented you from doing so? One obstacle many people have to behaving assertively is their beliefs about the acceptable ways to interact with other people. These thoughts become habitual and are strengthened by repeated patterns of thinking and the impact of past experiences. Discover which of your current beliefs impact your ability to be assertive and learn how to change your beliefs and increase your ability to be stand up for yourself.
Ten Signs That You Are Not Being Assertive
Not sure if learning assertiveness skills would be beneficial to you. This article lists ten scenarios that you might find yourself in if you are not assertive and express your feelings, needs, wants and personal opinions. Check to see if these sound familiar to you.
Are you assertive? Understanding the four styles of communication.
This article will help you identify which of the four common styles of communication best describes you. Find out if you are passive, aggressive, passive-aggressive or assertive. Learn the first step to becoming more assertive including taking a good look at how you and those around you interact.
Become More Assertive: 13 Stepping Stones Along Your Path to Assertiveness
This article outlines thirteen clear and practical steps to becoming more assertive from someone who has made the journey herself. Learn how to speak up for yourself and ask for what you want. Also dispells some common myths about assertive communication.
This article gives readers 10 concrete tips for communicating more assertively. These tips include how to get started, what to say and how to say it. Self-talk: We Don’t Have Control Over Events, But We Do Have Control Over Our Thoughts Even though we do not have control over events around us, we do have control over our reaction to those events. Not sure if you believe this. This article explains how your thoughts determine your feelings and actions in any given situation and how changing them can change your reaction.
Positive self-talk articles
Self-talk: What Is It and How Does It Affect Your Life?
This article explores what self-talk is (both positive and negative) and how it impacts how we feel, what we do and the choices we make. It explains in simple terms how our negative thoughts attract negatively into our lives and how positive thoughts can allow us to feel more happiness and satisfaction.
Positive Thinking: Why Those New Positive Thoughts Feel Fake
Have you ever felt embarrassed or uncomfortable when you tried to replace your negative self-talk with positive thoughts or positive affirmations? This article explains why this is a normal occurrence and how persisting through these negative reactions can help make your positive thoughts begin to feel even more familiar than your original negative ones.
Now that you have started thinking more positively, here are 28 tips for keeping your positive energy flowing. It includes positive thought patterns you can adopt, questions that you can ask yourself to increase your awareness and choices you can make in your life. The more you focus on the positive, the more of it you will attract.
Communication Skills articles
Communication is a 2-way process and our inner self-talk can interfere with how effective our communication is by distracting us from focusing on the other person. Simply said we can't listen to ourselves and someone else at the same time. Also, we can't speak to another person and be talking to ourselves in our heads as well. Learn how to get out of your own head and participate more fully in each of your conversations with others.
Twelve Signs That You are Not Communicating Effectively
Are you not sure if you are an effective communicator or not. This article lists twelve scenarios which can result from us not communicating effectively and clearly. Do these sound familiar to you?
Twelve Signs You Are Not Listening
Do you ever find yourself in any of these situations? If so, you might benefit from improving your active listening skills. These scenarios often occur when we are busy rehearsing, mind-reading, getting defensive or simply distracted and are not focused on listening fully.
Effective Communication Skills: Active Listening
Active listening is the ability to capture and understand the messages that others are communicating whether these messages are transmitted verbally or nonverbally, clearly or vaguely. It is not simply the ability to repeat the other person's words. It includes being present physically, psychologically, socially and emotionally. This article outlines key tips to listening actively.
Effective Communication Skills: Sending Your Message
Effective communication is key to getting our messages across to others both at work and in our personal relationships. It maximizes the impact of our message while minimizing misunderstanding and defensiveness. This article outlines 7 key tips for communicating your messages clearly.
Stress Management articles
Stress Less: 28 Practical Stress Management Skills
Learn twenty-eight practical tips that you can apply in your everyday life to help reduce stress once it develops and to be proactive to prevent you from becoming stressed in the first place.
Goal-setting articles
Tips for Setting Effective Goals
Setting clear and concrete goals helps facilitate us making changes. This article outlines the key steps to setting achievable and realistic goals and includes a Personal Goal Setting worksheet.
Copyright . Barbara Small. All rights reserved.
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