One thing I’ve learned about blogging is that, whenever I tell myself I “have to” write another blog post, that’s basically a surefire guarantee that I won’t finish one that day.  Or, maybe I’ll end up churning out something that feels second-rate to me.  Whatever happens, I probably won’t be happy with the end result.
I [...]

Earlier in this series, I wrote about how we can stay attentive and compassionate even when we’re listening to an angry or critical person.  In this piece, I’ll offer another perspective that’s useful to keep in mind in emotionally charged interactions.  The perspective is this:  there are no rules for what you “must” or “should” do.  [...]

My last post in this series was about staying receptive and curious when we’re listening, even in the face of a “difficult conversation” or a lot of emotional intensity.  On the same issue, a few commenters on Part One said they sometimes find themselves feeling exploited and resentful when they’re listening to someone.
I suspect you, like [...]

My last post was about empathic reflection—the practice of reflecting back the desires and emotions of the person you’re listening to.  While this may sound simple, it’s trickier than it sounds.  When an interaction starts to feel emotionally intense, it’s easy to fall back into old, reactive patterns of thinking and behaving.  If someone is [...]

In my last post, I talked about a few of the challenges we often face when trying to fully bring our minds and hearts to listening to another person.  In this post, I’ll discuss a style of communication we can use to express our empathy with the people we listen to and deepen our connection [...]