Talk

Nonviolent Communication works its magic at B4C workshop

This morning I had the honor of helping facilitate the first ever Breathe for Change two hour workshop on Transformation of the Self at a small, local high school.

It was magical, in no small part thanks to the work of Marshall Rosenberg's Center for Nonviolent communication.

What a powerful process! You can visit this website to access all of the resources, but basically the process has four parts:

1) State an observation about something that happened or something someone did or said that affected your life in some way. Do not include judgement about this or how you feel about it.

2) Use the feelings inventory to state how the thing that happened or that was said made you feel, using at least three words from the list.

3) Use the needs inventory to say that you had the feelings you just mentioned based on your need(s) for at least three needs from the needs inventory.

4) Make a specific request that would enrich your life, preferably one that can be answered yes or no.

I practiced this today, along with the other participants, and relearned how powerful it is and how straightforward it can make communicating even about difficult topics.

Today's song, brought to you by Coldplay, is all about the importance of communication:

Oh brother, I can't, I can't get through
I've been trying hard to reach you 'cause I don' know what to do
Oh brother, I can't believe it's true
I'm so scared about the future, and I wanna talk to you
Oh, I wanna talk to you

You can take a picture of something you see
In the future where will I be?
You can climb a ladder up to the sun
Or a write a song nobody has sung
Or do something that's never been done

Are you lost or incomplete?
Do you feel like a puzzle, you can't find your missing piece?
Tell me, how do you feel?
Well, I feel like they're talking in a language I don't speak
And they're talking it to me

So you take a picture of something you see
In the future where will I be?
You can climb a ladder up to the sun
Or write a song nobody has sung
Or do something that's never been done
Or do something that's never been done

So you don't know where you're going and you wanna talk
And you feel like you're going where you've been before
You tell anyone who'll listen, but you feel ignored
Nothing's really making any sense at all, let's talk
Let's talk, let's talk, let's talk

Yes, let's!