Modar HIJAZI

Kristin Wong

Your partner drops the ball and forgets to pay rent on time. You’re hit with a late fee. The practical thing to do? Come up with a solution so it doesn’t happen again. But you’re angry, so instead, you criticize your partner, and a fight erupts. Criticizing is one of seven common habits that can destroy healthy communication.

We all know how important communication is to just about any relationship. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always come easy. Psychiatrist William Glasser came up with the concept of the “seven deadly habits” of communication. In basic terms, the idea is that most of us have a handful of habits we’re accustomed to, and those habits are destructive to our relationships. If we can reframe them and choose better habits (what he called the “seven caring habits”), we can improve our communication, and therefore, our relationships.

Read more »