Communication is an innate ability and survival motive that humans develop even before learning to speak. Whether verbal or non-verbal, it is the ability of people to establish relationships and exchange information and interests with others. Although like all skills, communication can be trained to learn how to forge healthy and stable relationships in the long term.
Practicing non-violent communication will allow you to ask for help, express wills or demand rights before the people around you effectively. This type of communication is fundamentally verbal and if you know how to use it, it will help you in any situation or life context, from the personal sphere or as a couple to the work environment. Assertiveness, empathy and rejection of prejudices are the keys to this unique tool to improve your connections and satisfy your own needs.
Marshall Rosenberg was the one who coined the concept of nonviolent communication, which he developed in his work Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life. This American psychologist started from the hypothesis that, in order to resolve conflicts peacefully, it was necessary to satisfy all the actors involved. To reach these agreements, together with compassion as an ally in the search for common places, it is necessary to honestly apply the three principles of this theory: observation, expression and request.
Taking into account one’s own feelings and needs and those of others is the starting point of non-violent communication. Empathy is essential for you to know how to successfully express your wishes for autonomy, integrity or security before others. In this way, your requests, for help or affection, will be satisfied to the extent of your ability to be assertive. There are, according to Marshall Rosenberg’s theory, other basic needs such as closeness, connection or the endowment of meaning to life.
Communication influences your social interactions. It is a determining vehicle to get closer to or move away from other people and, in any case, you must know how to do it with the right tone and manner. If the starting point of communication is violence, prejudice or aggressiveness, conflicts will not only remain unresolved, but will perpetuate over time. This attitude is usually an indication of toxic relationships, the complete opposite of the healthy bonds that nonviolent communication promotes.
