Nonviolent Communication (NVC) or Compassionate Communication, developed by Marshall Rosenberg, is both a personal practice that helps us see our common humanity, and a concrete set of skills which help us to live more peacefully. These skills apply to thought, language, and using our power in a way that honours everyone's needs.
NVC is a learnable process for creating emotional freedom, self-acceptance, inner peace, and fulfilling relationships. It involves expressing ourselves honestly, listening with empathy, and developing a more compassionate inner relationship.
People around the world are using NVC skills to transform conflict, create harmony in their relationships, and build a world where everyone's needs are honoured through compassionate giving, and without the use of coercion or violence.
NVC helps people to:
speak in a way that inspires compassion and understanding
initiate difficult conversations with more ease and confidence
remain centred and peaceful while hearing difficult messages
find the gift underneath anger so that instead of blasting someone with blame, anger is transformed into life-serving energy
shift patterns of thinking that lead to depression, guilt, shame
enliven yourself by expressing and receiving gratitude
translate criticism, judgments and blame into life-serving messages
resolve long-standing conflicts and heal painful relationships
inspire others to change their behaviour willingly
HOW CAN NVC HELP IN OUR WORLD?
Most of us are hungry for skills that can improve the quality of our relationships, increase our contribution through our work, and deepen our sense of personal empowerment.
Unfortunately, most of us have been educated from birth to compete, judge, demand and diagnose... and to think and communicate in ways that create distrust and alienation, rather than connection.
At best, these habitual ways we think and speak hinder communication and create misunderstanding and frustration. And still worse, they can cause anger and pain, and may lead to violence, either physical or emotional. Without wanting to, even people with the best of intentions stimulate needless conflict in their lives. This practice helps us reach beneath the surface and discover what is alive and vital within us, and how to express what's important to us in a way that generates connection, goodwill and compassion.
NVC helps us to express our feelings and needs so that other people can more easily relate to us. It helps us make key differentiations between observing and judging, requesting and demanding, wants and strategies, that helps stimulate compassion from others.
In addition, NVC helps us to distinguish between partnership and domination approaches in our own lives and in the institutions around us, and guides us to recognise our interdependence, and create a world where everyone's needs matter.