We have all heard the old phrase – you are what you eat! We understand this to mean that if we have a balanced, nutritious diet, we feel the benefits. However, if we deprive our body of the nutrients it needs, the results can be devastating.
So, what about our communication diet? Communication is often called “food for the mind”. Just as food promotes physical health, communication assists our mental health. If we become deprived of the communication we need, our mental health can suffer.
Contents
What makes up a healthy communication diet?
Consider the following:
Regular Meals
To keep our physical body healthy, we can’t just eat once a week. We need regular meals to keep our body satisfied. Likewise, we need to have regular communication to fulfil our “communication diet”
Meal Portions
We may have a small interaction with those around us in our day to day lives, a “good morning” to someone we pass on a walk, or a “thank you have a good day” from the person serving you at the check-out. But is this enough? Our physical body needs adequate meal portions – and our communication diet does as well! We need to have more than just in passing conversations to keep our communication hunger satisfied.
Nutritional Value of communication
We could only eat chips and chocolate and be happy for maybe a day or so. But after a while, our body would be desperate for something with some more nutritional value. When it comes to our communication diet, meaningful content can be likened to nutritious food. We all know how good it feels to have a meaningful conversation with someone – like a good meal it enlivens us!
Like our physical health requires regular meals of adequate size and nutritional value, our mental health requires our communication with others to be regular, of adequate length, and meaningful.
When we have a hearing loss, our communication diet can start to suffer. Like if our physical diet is lacking in some way, the signs may be gradual. We can start to slowly withdraw away from communication without even realising it at first. But hope is not lost! There is always time to reach out for help and get back on your communication diet!
If you feel your communication diet is suffering due to hearing loss, we would love to help. Give us a call on 8331 8047 to book your FREE Hearing assessment.
