Home / Quotes / Quote by Marshall B. Rosenberg

Quote by Marshall B. Rosenberg

“The best way I can get understanding from another person is to give this person the understanding, too. If I want them to hear my needs and feelings, I first need to empathize.”

Quote by Marshall B. Rosenberg

Author

Marshall B. Rosenberg

Marshall B. Rosenberg was a renowned psychologist known for his theory of Nonviolent Communication. His theory emphasizes the importance of listening and expressing needs to promote harmonious relationships. Rosenberg was born on October 6, 1934, and passed away on February 7, 2015. more

You May Also Like

“NVC enhances inner communication by helping us translate negative internal messages into feelings and needs. Our ability to distinguish our own feelings and needs and to empathize with them can free us from depression.”

Needs Helping Feelings Ability Communication Messages Empathy Negative Internals Translate

Author:Marshall B. Rosenberg

“Our ability to offer empathy can allow us to stay vulnerable, defuse potential violence, help us hear the word 'no' without taking it as a rejection, revive lifeless conversation, and even hear the feelings and needs expressed through silence.”

Needs Helping Feelings Ability Silence Violence Offers Conversation Empathy Vulnerable Rejection Revive Lifeless

Author:Marshall B. Rosenberg

“Life-Enriching Education: an education that prepares children to learn throughout their lives, relate well to others, and themselves, be creative, flexible, and venturesome, and have empathy not only for their immediate kin but for all of humankind.”

Wells Children Creative Empathy Relate Humankind Be Creative Flexible Enriching

Book:Life-enriching Education: Nonviolent Communication Helps Schools Improve Performance, Reduce Conflict, and Enhance Relationships

Source: Life-enriching Education: Nonviolent Communication Helps Schools Improve Performance, Reduce Conflict, and Enhance Relationships

“Empathy is a respectful understanding of what others are experiencing. Instead of offering empathy, we often have a strong urge to give advice or reassurance and to explain our own position or feeling. Empathy, however, calls upon us to empty our mind and listen to others with our whole being.”

“In nonviolent communication, no matter what words others may use to express themselves, we simply listen for their observations, feelings, needs, and requests. Then we may wish to reflect back, paraphrasing what we have understood. We stay with empathy, allowing others the opportunity to fully express themselves before we turn our attention to solutions or requests for relief.”

“To do this, you can bring in nothing from the past. So the more psychology you've studied, the harder it will be to empathize. The more you know the person, the harder it will be to empathize. Diagnoses and past experiences can instantly knock you off the board. This doesn't mean denying the past. Past experiences can stimulate what's alive in this moment. But are you present to what was alive then or what the person is feeling and needing in this moment?”

Knows Mean Persons Moments Feelings Past Psychology Alive Empathy Harder Boards Diagnosis Past Experiences

Author:Marshall B. Rosenberg

“If you think ahead to what to say next - like how to fix it or make the person feel better - BOOM! Off the board. You're into the future. Empathy requires staying with the energy that's here right now. Not using any technique. Just being present. When I have really connected to this energy, it's like I wasn't there. I call this "watching the magic show". In this presence, a very precious energy works through us that can heal anything, and this relieves me from my "fix-it" tendencies.”

Ifs Thinking Feels Persons Shows Next Energy Magic Right Now Empathy Connected Technique Heal Tendencies Boards Staying Just Being Feel Better Magic Show

Author:Marshall B. Rosenberg

“When you ride the wave, the thrill is so exhilarating that you forget everything else. You live in the moment where nothing else matters, so intent on riding the wave perfectly that you and the wave become one. Pain and worry disappear, replaced by euphoria, akin to flow. Similarly, when giving empathy, you want to strive for this kind of total presence for the person you are listening to.”

“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.”

Mind Whole Spirit Understanding One Thing Heard Listening Demand Empathy Understood Direct Empty Ears Philosopher Hearing Chinese Emptiness Faculty Chinese Philosopher

Author:Marshall B. Rosenberg

“An affective response more appropriate to another's situation than one's own.”

Situation Empathy Response Appropriate

Author:Martin Hoffman