People heal from their pain when they have an authentic connection with another human being.

When we hear the other person's feelings and needs, we recognize our common humanity.

Ask before offering advice or reassurance.

Nonviolent Communication shows us a way of being very honest, but without any criticism, without any insults, without any put-downs, without any intellectual diagnosis implying wrongness.

Intellectual understanding blocks empathy.

Every criticism, judgment, diagnosis, and expression of anger is the tragic expression of an unmet need.

To practice NVC, it's critical for me to be able to slow down, take my time, to come from an energy I choose, the one I believe that we were meant to come from, not the one I was programmed into.