Jeff Brown's blog

Breathing Life into NVC with Abundance Consciousness (Jeff Brown)

I am copying here a recent email I sent to the "Nonviolent Communication and Abundance Project" that I co-founded with fellow NVC trainer, Francois Beausoleil.

It's
about a topic that has a lot of juice for me lately -- how does the
notion of abundance and sufficiency relate to Compassionate
Communication.

Some questions that have come alive in me:

Q: Can I be in integrity receiving money in exchange for sharing NVC?

Posted Tue, 2009-08-04 17:08 by Jeff Brown

Is Nonviolent Communication an effective decision-making model? (Jeff Brown)


I'm
participating in a 5-day retreat in New York state this week for
Nonviolent Communication (NVC) trainers. I am feeling very nourished to
be with a group of my colleagues who are truly peers to me (so it's
great to have empathy, shared understanding, authenticity, and all the
goodies that come with NVC! ;-)

The group's decision-making process, though, has left me unsatisfied overall, and at times feeling a lot of frustration.

It raises some questions in my mind that have been "on my mind" a lot lately:

Q: Is NVC an effective decision-making model?

Posted Fri, 2009-07-24 09:05 by Jeff Brown

Does NVC lead to endless discussions that go nowhere? (Jeff Brown)


Recently, my friend Sean from Columbus, Ohio posted this message to an online group that I created for Compassionate Communication of Central Ohio (CCCO).

Sean
and I were friends in the 1990s and we were both part of the Student
Environmental Action Coalition and involved in environmental activism.

Here is what Sean wrote:

>
SEAN: OK, Jeff- I'm joining this group, bringing a communication
degree, 20 years of non profit work, and a nagging skepticism born of

Posted Sat, 2009-07-18 08:30 by Jeff Brown

How does Nonviolent Communication differ from other types of conflict resolution? (Jeff Brown)

What makes Nonviolent Communication (NVC) unique?

Many people
point to the inclusion of universal human needs as a way of identifying
the deeper source of our feelings, whereas many systems point only to
our thinking as what causes our feelings.

I agree, and I was intrigued several years ago when I came across a chart developed by Bay Area Nonviolent Communication (Bay NVC) that compared and contrasted NVC with conventional conflict resolution.

First
of all, let me say that I regard NVC as much, much more than a method

Posted Sun, 2009-07-12 15:43 by Jeff Brown

Jeff Brown interviewed for radio program

A few weeks ago, I met Mitchell Dahood at a Nonviolent
Communication (NVC) conference in Santa Barbara, CA. We found that we
shared similar life missions, and he subsequently interviewed me for
one hour and uploaded the interview on his website.

Click here to listen to the interview (or download it)

In the interview, we cover a broad range of topics that I predict you'll find interesting and stimulating.

Posted Thu, 2009-06-18 16:04 by Jeff Brown

When Empathy might not be the most Life-Serving Response


Frequently when I am teaching people empathy skills and practice, I get a question that sounds something like this:

"How could you just stand there and talk with the person endlessly if they ______," and then the person fills in the blank with any number of scenarios.
Posted Wed, 2009-03-11 09:32 by Jeff Brown

Joyful RECEIVING goes along with joyful giving


One of the concepts from Nonviolent Communication (NVC), as I understand it, is that of joyful giving and receiving. 

In other words, the most fun and fulfilling way to play the game of life is to contribute to the well being of others, and receive that same giving from others.

I embraced, almost from the beginning of my NVC experience in 1999, the practice of joyful giving (i.e. "contributing to the well being of others."). This brought me great joy, and continues to fuel my mission to share NVC around the globe.
Posted Wed, 2009-03-11 09:31 by Jeff Brown

When agreements are permeable -- living NVC for real


I recently completed a weekend Nonviolent Communication workshop with my work partner, Myra Walden. We led a 2 1/2 day event titled, "Inner Peace, Inner Freedom" in Sedona, Arizona, which was videotaped.

I am excited to be able to share our work more widely by showing people how to use NVC skills to support healing and inner peace, which are skills that I see becoming more vital all the time in our ever-changing and rapidly evolving world.
Posted Wed, 2009-03-11 09:30 by Jeff Brown

New Year's Resolutions -- Why do they fail so often?


In the spirit of the season, I have been hearing a few people talk about making New Year's resolutions.

I reflected on common resolutions that people make -- to lose weight, stop smoking, be nicer to their spouse/partner, or whip themselves into shape in some fashion.

It seems like about 95% or more of the time, people are not successful at keeping their resolution. This reminds me of when I worked as a Nutritional Counselor for 5 years, and found that people's success rate at implementing my nutritional advice was very low, maybe 25% at best.

Posted Sun, 2009-01-04 00:04 by Jeff Brown

Is NVC compatible with stereotypically conservative worldview?


Henry, a friend of mine in St. Louis, recently posed a question to me about NVC in an email exchange we were having.

I am inspired to share it in my blog, in the hopes that it will stimulate you in some positive way. As always, I welcome feedback about my musings.

> HENRY: Question: in your judgment, is a stereotypical, sociopolitically conservative worldview compatible with NVC?

JEFF: I like this question -- it challenges me and stimulates me to grow and explore this question myself.

Posted Sun, 2009-01-04 00:03 by Jeff Brown

The Center for Nonviolent Communication
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