Initially, Nonviolent Communication grabbed me when I read Marshall Rosenberg's book, Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life around 2011 because I thought this finally showed how to bring up things in my work environment that were close to my heart (or were hurting there) so that the others didn't immediately feel attacked - and would therefore agree with me and do what I want... :-)

As you might guess, this did not work exactly as I expected, but this was the starting point for developing my way of communicating with and seeing others in a completely new direction. I realized that this could revolutionize my ways of living with other people and even with myself so that this living together could be more joyful, relaxed, and fulfilling. Now, I no longer have to retreat when someone behaves differently than I expected. I can find out what I need and make specific requests that are often easy for the other person to fulfill.

When someone is sad, angry, or grumpy, I have ways to listen in a way that allows the other person to relax and reconnect. In this way, I can incorporate NVC into my partnership and family practically every day - sometimes, that doesn't work out so well. But then, at least I have good tools to think and talk about how things could be done differently.  Thirdly, I realised that it would make sense to make my experiences and knowledge accessible to others, because it would increase the likelihood that more and more people in the world will create connection and peace with the help of this type of communication and attitude. My vision is to create spaces where other people can feel emotionally safe and experience the healing miracle of connection with themselves and others, and then ideally bring some of this spirit into their everyday lives.

Currently, I am doing training in the software development company I am working in, trying to help them learn different ways of communicating with each other. Together with my Partner Ruth Wafler, we do trainings mostly for kindergarten and school teachers and leisure carers. Only recently we did an introductory training for some young people, so we are looking forward to whatever appears next. :-)