56 pages • 1 hour read
Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life
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Essay Topics
Rosenberg suggests that our natural inclination is toward loving kindness, but that we are led away from this through societal conditioning. Can you think of examples of societally normalized ways in which children are “trained” into proper behavior which rely on classifications of “goodness” and “badness”? These examples could be universal truisms, school disciplinary systems, or examples from your own childhood. Do you agree with Rosenberg that these examples inhibit the natural inclination toward loving kindness? Why or why not?
According to Rosenberg’s principles of compassionate self-talk, explain why treating yourself with loving empathy is the first step in managing to treat others with loving empathy?
According to Rosenberg’s findings on the importance of labeling feelings and needs, why might a limited vocabulary be connected to frustration and depression?
How does Rosenberg’s interaction with the cab driver in Chapter 10 illustrate that it is those moments when our empathy feels the hardest to access that it is the most important, in terms of finding human connection and shared understanding? Can you think of an example in your own life when empathy was very difficult to access because of feelings of rage; how might that situation have been diffused with empathy?
Rosenberg condemns compliments that judge a person more generally rather than celebrating a specific action. Can you think of a time when a compliment has felt life-alienating, inauthentic, or difficult to respond to with humility? Can you contrast these feelings with a time when you were celebrated for a specific task that made a difference in a person’s life? Record your findings through the lens of Rosenberg’s model of Nonviolent Communication.
Record an instance of critical self-talk. Can you restructure it into a compassionate statement that instead acknowledges the need which you were trying to meet? Introspectively sit with each piece of self-talk, and compare how each makes you feel. Record your findings through the lens of Rosenberg’s model of Nonviolent Communication.
What are the pitfalls of prioritizing logic and a facade of impregnability in a workplace?
Think of an instance where your observation of a situation, and your evaluation of the people involved, become entangled. By intentionally separating these elements, and focusing instead on the potential needs of the people involved, does your emotional interpretation of the situation change? Record your findings through the lens of Rosenberg’s model of Nonviolent Communication.
How is our history and our language inextricably entangled with the condemnation that we level at ourselves and others?
What is the logical contradiction with deciding to utilize Nonviolent Communication so that everyone will do as we say?
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