Welcome fellow souls to « The Human Family Crash Course Series, » a new project collaborated together by empress2inspire.blog and diosraw0.wordpress.com. Together we will be working on a different topic for each crash course; our fifth topic is focused on «Communication». Each topic will have eight posts with posts on Mondays and Thursdays. We hope you enjoy our series and we look forward to knowing how our posts have inspired you!

I really can’t handle conversations sometimes. I find myself in situations where I am stuck talking to someone and I really just want to go. How do you get yourself out of such situations?

First of all, you may need to access your context. Are you in an airplane, stuck next to somebody in your seat. Damn hopefully not. Well if that is the case and you cannot get out of your situation, try to use some body language to help that person realise that you really want to talk anymore so sitting on an airplane might mean utting some headphones on, putting your nose in a book. Say if you are at a party, or maybe at a starbucks having a conversation, try using a body language to show that you are going in another direction or turn your body away from the person. 

Sometimes when I try to do that, people just don’t get the hint. What should we do in such cases? Now clearly, such people are not master communicators or maybe do not even understand the concept of healthy boundaries because they are not recognising the overt body language that you are suggesting. So what you need to do is take matters in your own hands and try to end the conversation. I think the best way to end a conversation is to not add fuel to the fire. If you are talking to somebody and they make a comment and you can’t help yourself but to reply to the comment, that adds fuel to the fire and they may comment again and again and again and it is going to go on forever. 

Also, you should avoid phrases like “Oh, that’s interesting!” or “Where did you hear that”. It’s all about doing the opposite of what keeps the conversation going. Try to kill the conversation by dousing it with water. Basically don’t add new information and usually let the other person’s comment stand. It might be really hard for you to maintain that silence but oftentimes silence can be the best cure. 

Let’s look at some exit phrases. Say you are at a networking event, if it really easy for you to excuse yourself to go talk to other people. So the best thing to go to end a conversation would be to stick out your hand and say “Hey, it was really nice meeting you”. Another technique you can use is saying the word “Thank you.” as simple as that. Everyone likes to be thanked and so “Thank you so much for talking to me, enjoy the rest of the evening. I really need to go and talk to some other people now.” Giving an example or reason of why you are ending a conversation is a great way to get out of an uncomfortable conversation. Perhaps it could also be like “I’m going to get some more coffee” or “Looks like they brought out some more pizza.” etc. Bringing out an excuse like this is a good way because then you are not commenting on other people’s lack of good communication skills. 

Hope this helps. Happy Conversations!