JTBlog

Communication is truly an amazing thing. There are so many different forms, often times we forget that words aren't the only thing showing how we feel. One way to look at the breakdown of communication is by putting it in three categories. These categories are, 1.) Words, 2.) Tone, and 3.) Non-verbal. Studies show that words make up 14% of communication, tone makes up 35%, and    non-verbal 51%. I can already see how true this is in my own life because I'm almost always an open book. I often times find myself having a hard time controlling my non-verbal gestures, facial expressions more than anything. Even though we each express ourselves differently and have different flaws in communication, there are ways we can make up for some of those flaws. David D. Burns wrote a book called "Feeling Good Together." In this book there is something called the 5 secrets of communication, these are ways to help us improve relationships specifically. I would like to take a moment ...

There are a lot of things that we each have to deal with in life. We don't get to choose what we go through, but we can choose how to react to each of the trials we face. Two of the things we learned in class that really stuck out to me were, "the ABCX Model" and "The Ten Forms of Twisted Thinking." We were able to apply these in class which I really liked. Seeing these principals applied to actual situations made it easier to identify these things in my own life and the lives of those close to me. In the ABCX model each letter stand for something specific. A: Actual event, B: Both resources & response, C: Cognition, and X: Total eXperience. Its important to know the ten forms of twisted thinking as well. The following are the ten forms: 1. All-or-nothing-thinking 2. Overgeneralization 3. Mental filter 4. Discounting the positive 5. Jumping to conclusions 6. Magnification 7. Emotional reasoning 8. "Should statements" 9. Labeli...

This last week we spoke about marital intimacy and the benefits of knowing the differences in males and females views on intimacy.  As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we believe that sexual intimacy should be saved for your spouse only after marriage.  God gave us the commandment to "multiply and replenish the earth." This has always been apart of Gods plan. Marital intimacy is a blessing and gift that we have been given to both bring us closer to our spouse, and to bring children into this world. The only problem is that Satan has distorted and warped the way the world views sexual intimacy and sexuality in general.  As we discussed this topic, I was reminded of a message that was shared by Sister Nelson. The message is called "Love and Marriage." I would like to share 4 truths that she brings to attention, and discuss each one a little bit.  " Truth #1:  Truths about love and marriage are brought to you by the Holy Gho...

This week we discussed a little bit of everything leading up to marriage. There was a model we used throughout this week and the last. Imagine 4 stairs, at the top is dating, the next is courtship, then engagement, and finally marriage. The main focus these past few days was the last two steps of the model. There are a lot of things we can do to help prepare ourselves for marriage! Some of these preparations should be taking place before we are engaged in the courtship stage. Something that I believe was really important was the connection and merging of the husband and wife. We discussed different things that come along with each step. Some of the things that I had written down under the engagement step were, planning the wedding, learning to plan, founding a family, and preparing to make and keep covenants. I want to talk a little bit about what I meant by the merging of the husband and wife. The way it was depicted was that there were two families, two sets of parents, one set o...

This week we discussed many things about dating in today's day and age. We looked at and compared some of the dating norms from today with some of the dating norms from back when our teacher was dating. We also examined some different concepts and teachings from the book "How to Avoid Falling in Love with a Jerk."  It was interesting to see how much things have changed with technology and our culture. Today the word dating has had its definition changed. More often than not people think that dating not only means going out on dates with someone, but it can also mean that you are exclusively seeing this person. I was speaking with one of my classmates and she was pointing out that kids dating today is even looked down upon by other kids. If one girl is going on dates with many different guys she can be shunned or disliked by other girls for doing what everyone one should. Everyone should be comfortable with going on dates, but we have this idea that once we start going ...

This week's discussions and topics really intrigued me. We spoke a lot about differences in gender and the qualities that come with those differences. We also discussed and took a look at the statistics and some situations that homosexuals have been through. Something we spoke about were the roles of parents in a family. mothers are more aligned with what is going on with all of the children around them, not only their own but the kids at school as well. They are able to determine how the things that happen at school affect their relationships at home and with others. Father's on the other hand are not as good at focusing on everything that is going on, but it allows them to put much more effort and focus on the task at hand a little better. They are able to switch modes in some cases. For example a father at work will be able to focus on being who he needs to be at work and then can switch the way he is with his family at home. Not to say that this is always the case, but...

     This week we discussed some interesting topics. The topics we studied showed a lot of the difficulties and different circumstances that many families around us experience. We were examining differences in low, and high social economic standing (SES) families. Along with that we looked at the effects that either a low or high SES situation had on the family. We watched a couple of documentaries on different peoples family situations. These videos can be an eye opener for some people, for me the follow up video was what caught my attention.      In the videos it follows Tammy and her family. They are on the low spectrum of the SES scale so it shows where they live and what kind of a job Tammy has. Tammy is a single mother of 2 boys, the oldest's name is Matt. The interviewer in the video focuses on Matt for a while because he acts like he is above everyone else in his family. He said he wouldn't want to have his friends go to his house because it would...