What We Say Matters

Larn how to communicate with compassion and choose language that reflects your personal values and aims with this essential guide to Nonviolent Communication (NVC). Judith Hanson Lasater and Ike Lasater, longtime students of yoga and Buddhism, had studied the concepts of satya (truth) and the Buddhist principle of right speech for years, but it was not until they began practicing Marshall Rosenberg’s techniques of NVC that the concept of speech as a spiritual practice became real for them.

Here the authors describe their personal journey through NVC and reveal how speech becomes a spiritual practice when you give and receive with compassion all the time—at home, at work, and in the world. They introduce the basics of NVC with clear explanations, personal examples, exercises, and resources. Some of the skills you’ll learn include how to:

• Extend empathy to yourself and others
• Distinguish between feelings and needs
• Make requests rather than demands
• Choose connection over conflict
• Create mutually satisfying outcomes
• And much more