Compassionate Communication: Creating Connection through our speech
How can we promote peace at home, at work and in the world through the language we use? Nonviolent speech is a spiritual practice. Join Judith Hanson Lasater as she offers a fresh approach for Nonviolent Communication based in yogic philosophy. She shares practical exercises to help improve and deepen all our relationships.
Judith Hanson Lasater, Ph.D in East-West Psychology, is a physical therapist, and has taught yoga since 1971. She is a founder of Yoga Journal Magazine as well as the California Yoga Teachers Association, of which she is President Emeritus. She has studied directly with Marshall Rosenberg, and has been sharing his Nonviolent Communication for years, incorporating her study of yoga philosophy into her NVC teaching. She is the author of 11 books on Yoga.
THE YOGA HOUR TEAM COMMENTS: Judith Hanson Lasater started the conversation with a quote from one of her poems, “Words are my paintbrush.” Such a beautiful introduction to discussing the power of speech. What we say matters - speech changes the world. The question is whether we are going to speak intentionally or unintentionally. Judith shared many stories to give an insight into the power of speech. Through her stories she gives listeners insights on how to remain truthful (satya) and non-harming (ahimsa). I highly recommend this interview.
DR. TRUJILLO’S COMMENTS: I really appreciated Judith Hanson Lasater’s deep understanding of the power of what we say. As she writes in her book, “our words change the world every time we speak”. In combining the Yogic practice of truthfulness, the Buddhist practice of Right Speech, and the principles of Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication into what she calls “spiritual speech”, she provides some suggestions about how we can put these principles into action. Our discussion of the relationship between harmlessness (Ahimsa) and truthfulness (Satya) was helpful. I found her advice about self-compassion very powerful, and thought that the phrase she suggested, “how human of me” to be very useful as a way to practice that self-compassion.