Welcome to Compassionate Interactions
Helping People Communicate Compassionately!
Jeff Tretsven
Looking for an effective and refreshingly different approach to communicating? You've found it!
You can learn to communicate clearly and without moral judgments that sound critical. Compassionate Communication shows you how you can demonstrate compassion in your life. Jeff says "for me I heard in church and advice from books and teachers that we should be compassionate. We shouldn't judge others." I thought it was great advice but how do you actually act compassionately and nonjudgmental? When I discovered Compassionate Communication (also known as Nonviolent Communication, acronym - NVC) I thought, "oh, so this is how you demonstrate compassion."
The reason many people don't know how to act compassionately is that no one has ever taught them how to demonstrate compassion. Marshall Rosenberg has developed a simple way of communicating that allows people who practice it, to take the journey from their thinking head to their loving heart. He calls it Nonviolent Communication. This method will automatically put you in a compassionate place if you follow it. I was amazed at how others responded once I operated from this perspective. Marshall developed four simple components for the process of NVC. Just doing any one of the four can make a difficult situation much better. When you do all four the results are amazing.
Compassionate Communication works well for conflict resolution and mediation. Whether you have an internal conflict, external conflict or would like to help others in conflict this is a great system to know and use. What is internal conflict? This could be something like I know I shouldn't smoke but I don't seem to be able to quit. External conflict is with someone else. It could be a boss, coworker, spouse, mother, son and so on. The last situation is if two people who are near you are in conflict you could use Compassionate Communication to help resolve the conflict.
Do you know how compassionate you are to yourself? Dr. Neff has a self-compassion test you can take. One of the most valuable aspects of Compassionate Communication is learning to be compassionate toward yourself. If you don't give the gift of compassion to yourself you will have a hard time giving it to others. A big step in staying centered is being connected to what you are wanting in the moment. Connecting with what you are wanting is self-empathy.
Wishing you great success in connecting with yourself and others!
