A Language of Life: Life-Changing Tools for Healthy Relationships
Ratings38
Average rating4.3
"Most of us have been educated from birth to compete, judge, demand, and diagnose--to think and communicate in terms of what is 'right' and 'wrong' with people. At best, communicating and thinking this way can create misunderstanding and frustration. At its worst, it can lead to anger, depression, and even emotional or physical violence. [This book] uses stories, role-plays, and real-world examples to introduce the Nonviolent Communication (NVC) process. Far more than simple techniques, you'll learn to transform the thinking, language, and moralistic judgments that prevent the quality of relationships you've always wanted. Start to more easily resolve conflicts, get what you want without demands, hear the needs of others, strengthen your personal and professional relationships, and live your fullest potential. With Nonviolent Communication, you'll learn to: significantly improve your relationships with family, friends, and co-workers; stay peaceful in the face of judgment, criticism, and anger; speak, think, and listen in ways that inspire compassion and understanding; break patterns of thinking that lead to stress, depression, guilt, and shame; discover common ground with anyone, anytime, anywhere."--Book cover.
Reviews with the most likes.
I was absolutely blown away by this book! It's an audio-only version of the material covered in [a:Marshall B. Rosenberg 40541 Marshall B. Rosenberg https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1275843700p2/40541.jpg]'s book of a similar name, [b:Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life 71730 Nonviolent Communication A Language of Life Marshall B. Rosenberg https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386925124l/71730.SY75.jpg 2766138]. It distills his lifetime of work on NVC.I think it might have been 20 years since my brother-of-choice recommended Rosenberg's work to me. Yes, sometimes I'm slow. I intend to go ahead and read the print version as well as re-listen to this one several times. The thing that really struck me was the empathic way of approaching people, including oneself.
Great strategies but the content could be so easily weaponized that I have some concern over this text's cult following.
Marshall is the Bob Ross of language. Makes it sound easy, compassion, soothing voice to listen to if you get the audiobook. NVC, while definitely not native language for me, makes sense, and I refer a lot of my clients to it. Reading the book affirms even more my appreciation. I appreciate his personal anecdotes and perspective about clinical psychology as validating to my holistic approach. The book felt relatively comprehensive, although reading it is not enough to make practicing it feel easy...and I would love to hear more about the self empathizing/being with that must be involved to look to connect with the other's pain in egregious and inflammatory interactions.
Even if you have no interest in learning about NVC, I'd recommend this audiobook if you have trouble sleeping. Let his voice tuck you in!
This book is on my ‘Every Human Should Read List' for a reason. It feels like the kind of emotionally intelligent conversations we should have been taught but never heard. It's not easy, but it's eye-opening.