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Intrapersonal Communication Activities

Many people confuse intrapersonal communication activities with interpersonal communication activities. Intrapersonal communication activities occur within your mind while interpersonal communication activities occur between two people.

Although we spend a large amount of time talking with other people, intrapersonal communication dominates the majority of our communication and has the largest impact upon our personal attitudes, successes and/or failure.

Intrapersonal communication can encompass:

  • Sense-making e.g. interpreting maps, texts, signs, and symbols
  • Interpreting non-verbal communication e.g. gestures, eye contact
  • Communication between body parts; e.g. "My stomach is telling me it's time for lunch."
  • Day-dreaming
  • Nocturnal dreaming
  • And many others...

Do you think you have enough mental discipline for intrapersonal communication activities? Okay, try this:

  1. Set a timer or alarm for 10 minutes. Sit down and do nothing.
  2. Reacting endlessly to the pleasant or unpleasant feelings, the mind grows more unmanageable and controlling of your attention. It's as if the mind has a mind of its own!
  3. With this loss of control comes anxiety and fear.

That is where intrapersonal communication activities can be extremely effective. There are hundreds of courses and books on mental discipline that can help you create the process you need to structure your thoughts. However, below are some intrapersonal activities that will help you slow down and control your mind.

  1. When feeling anxious or nervous: Breathe! Slow down breathing, take deep breaths and exhale as slowly as possible.
  2. Concentrate and focus on one item then slowly and deliberately move to another.
  3. Close your eyes and think about your body. Not how it looks, but how it feels. Mentally search your entire body SLOWLY. Where are you tense? This takes practice, but within a short amount of time, you will become more aware, or ‘tuned’, to your body. Consciously relax any body parts that feel tense.
  4. Set a timer or alarm for a specified amount of time, i.e. 5, 10, 15 or 20 minutes. Pick one topic and think ONLY about that topic. Note when your mind begins to wander and bring it back to the topic. I can almost guarantee the first time you do it you will spend more time thinking about how much time is left!

If you are still looking for more assistance with intrapersonal communication, one of our personal or executive coaches may be what you are looking for. Several coaches are carefully selected depending upon your background and then you select the coach you would like to work with. Our customers have had tremendous success using this service.

Please call one of our representatives for more information on intrapersonal activities, or to inquire about a personal coach.

Resources: intrapersonal communication activities

Executive coaching for intrapersonal communication