You can't make your kids do anything. All you can do is make them wish they had. And then, they will make you wish you hadn't made them wish they had.

Conventional compliments often take the form of judgments however positive, and are sometimes offered to manipulate the behavior of others. NVC encourages the expression of appreciation solely for celebration.

It's never what people do that makes us angry; it's what we tell ourselves about what they did.

Fear of corporal punishment obscures children's awareness of the compassion underlying the parent's demands.

The Chinese philosopher Chuang-Tzu stated that true empathy requires listening with the whole being: The hearing that is only in the ears is one thing. The hearing of the understanding is another. But the hearing of the spirit is not limited to any one faculty, to the ear, or to the mind. Hence it demands the emptiness of all the faculties. And when the faculties are empty, then the whole being listens. There is then a direct grasp of what is right there before you that can never be heard with the ear or understood with the mind.

To practice the process of conflict resolution, we must completely abandon the goal of getting people to do what we want.

As we learn to speak from the heart we are changing the habits of a lifetime.