Compassionate Communication is about consciously intending to connect, moment by moment to yourself, and to others.
With Compassionate Communication we hold everyone’s values and needs as important. Rosenberg believed that we are all trying to meet our needs the best way we know how, and that when needs are not met, we experience pain and upset.
Integrating Compassionate Communication into your life entails a change in how you view yourself and others. What matters most in practicing Compassionate Communication is a change in mindset. When you focus on everybody’s full humanity and their universal human needs, even when they are behaving in ways that you find unpleasant (or even destructive or violent) you are more open to empathetic connection and action.
When you look beneath the behaviour or words that you find unsettling, you can try to figure out what needs the person may be trying to meet. When you practise looking for needs, rather than making judgements, you will feel calmer and you will be able to respond in a way that is more likely to meet the needs of the person you are encountering.
When you realize that you can choose how you think, how you behave and how you speak, you know that you can choose what kind of human being you want to be.
When you can imagine walking in someone else’s shoes and have the language to give those imaginings details, you become more deeply connected to all humanity. This profound change in mindset is a foundation for life-long learning, ever growing emotional intelligence and more peaceful relationships.