Nonviolent Communication - A Language of Life, Second Edition @Team LiB (6 page)

Chapter 4:
Identifying and Expressing Feelings

The first component of NVC is to observe without evaluating; the second component is to express how we are feeling. Psychoanalyst Rollo May suggests that “the mature person becomes able to differentiate feelings into as many nuances, strong and passionate experiences, or delicate and sensitive ones as in the different passages of music in a symphony.” For many of us, however, our feelings are, as May would describe it, “limited like notes in a bugle call.”

The Heavy Cost Of Unexpressed Feelings

Our repertoire of words for calling people names is often larger-than our vocabulary of words that allow us to clearly describe our emotional states. I went through twenty-one years of American schools and can’t recall anyone in all that time ever asking me how I felt. Feelings were simply not considered important. What was valued was “the right way to think”—as defined by those who held positions of rank and authority. We are trained to be “other directed” rather than to be in contact with ourselves. We learn to be “up in our head” wondering, “What is it that others think is right for me to say and do?”

An interaction I had with a teacher when I was about nine years old demonstrates how alienation from our feelings can begin. Once I hid myself after school in a classroom because some boys were waiting outside to beat me up. A teacher spotted me and asked me to leave the school. When I explained I was afraid to go, she declared, “Big boys don’t get frightened.” A few years later I received further reinforcement through my participation in athletics. It was typical for coaches to value athletes willing to “give their all” and continue playing no matter how much physical pain they were in. I learned the lesson so well I once continued playing baseball for a month with an untreated broken wrist.

At an NVC workshop, a college student spoke about a roommate who played the stereo so loudly it kept him awake. When asked to express what he felt when this happened, the student replied, “I feel that it isn’t right to play music so loud at night.” I pointed out that when he followed the word feel with the word that, he was expressing an opinion but not revealing his feelings. Asked to try again to express his feelings, he responded, “I feel, when people do something like that, it’s a personality disturbance.” I explained that this was still an opinion rather than a feeling. He paused thoughtfully, and then announced with vehemence, “I have no feelings about it whatsoever!”

This student obviously had strong feelings. Unfortunately, he didn’t know how to become aware of his feelings, let alone express them. This difficulty in identifying and expressing feelings is common, and in my experience, especially so among lawyers, engineers, police officers, corporate managers, and career military personnel—people whose professional codes discourage them from manifesting emotions. For families, the toll is severe when members are unable to communicate emotions. Country and western singer Reba McIntire wrote a song after her father’s death, and titled it “The Greatest Man I Never Knew.” In so doing, she undoubtedly expressed the sentiments of many people who were never able to establish the emotional connection they would have liked with their fathers.

I regularly hear statements like, “I wouldn’t want you to get the wrong idea—I’m married to a wonderful man—but I never know what he is feeling.” One such dissatisfied woman brought her spouse to a workshop, during which she told him, “I feel like I’m married to a wall.” The husband then did an excellent imitation of a wall: he sat mute and immobile. Exasperated, she turned to me and exclaimed, “See! This is what happens all the time. He sits and says nothing. It’s just like living with a wall.”

“It sounds to me like you are feeling lonely and wanting more emotional contact with your husband,” I responded. When she agreed, I tried to show how statements such as “I feel like I’m living with a wall” are unlikely to bring her feelings and desires to her husband’s attention. In fact, they are more likely to be heard as criticism than an invitation to connect with our feelings. Furthermore, such statements often lead to self-fulfilling prophecies. A husband, for example, hears himself criticized for behaving like a wall; he is hurt and discouraged and doesn’t respond, thereby confirming his wife’s image of him as a wall.

The benefits of strengthening our feelings vocabulary are evident not only in intimate relationships, but also in the professional world. I was once hired to consult with the members of a technological department of a large Swiss corporation troubled by the discovery that workers in other departments were avoiding them. When asked why, employees from other departments responded, “We hate going there to consult with those people. It’s like talking to a bunch of machines!” The problem abated when I spent time with the members of the technological department, encouraging them to express more of their humanness in their communications with co-workers.

In another instance, I was working with the administrators of a hospital who were anxious about a forthcoming meeting with the hospital’s physicians. They wanted support for a project that the physicians had only recently turned down by a vote of 17 to 1. The administrators were eager to have me demonstrate how they might use NVC when approaching the physicians.

Assuming the voice of an administrator in a role-playing session, I opened with, “I’m feeling frightened to be bringing up this issue.” I chose to start this way because I sensed how frightened the administrators were as they prepared to confront the physicians on this topic again. Before I could continue, one of the administrators stopped me to protest, “You’re being unrealistic! We could never tell the physicians that we were frightened.”

When I asked why an admission of fear seemed so impossible, he replied without hesitation, “If we admitted we’re frightened, then they would just pick us to pieces!” His answer didn’t surprise me; I have often heard people say how they cannot imagine ever expressing feelings at their workplace. I was pleased to learn, however, that one of the administrators did decide to risk expressing his vulnerability at the dreaded meeting. Instead of his customary manner of appearing strictly logical, rational and unemotional, he chose to state his feelings together with reasons for wanting the physicians to change their position. He noticed how differently the physicians responded to him. In the end he was amazed and relieved when, instead of being “picked to pieces” by the physicians, they reversed their previous position, voting 17 to 1 to support the project instead. This dramatic turnaround helped the administrators realize and appreciate the potential impact of expressing one’s vulnerability—even in the workplace.

Expressing our vulnerability can help resolve conflicts.

Finally, let me share a personal incident that taught me the effects of hiding our feelings. I was teaching a course in NVC to a group of inner city students. When I walked into the room the first day, the students, who had been enjoying a lively conversation with each other, became quiet. “Good morning!” I greeted. Silence. I felt very uncomfortable, but was afraid to express it. Instead, I proceeded in my most professional manner, “For this class, we will be studying a process of communication that I hope you will find helpful in your relationships at home and with your friends.”

I continued to present information about NVC, but no one seemed to be listening. One girl, rummaging through her bag, fished out a file and began vigorously filing her nails. Students near the windows glued their faces to the pane as if fascinated by what was going on in the street below. I felt increasingly more uncomfortable, yet continued to say nothing. Finally, a student who had certainly more courage than I was demonstrating, piped up, “You just hate being with black people, don’t you?” I was stunned, yet immediately realized how I had contributed to this student’s perception by trying to hide my discomfort.

“I
am
feeling nervous,” I admitted, “but not because you are black. My feelings have to do with my not knowing anyone here and wanting to be accepted when I came in the room.” This expression of my vulnerability had a pronounced effect on the students. They started to ask questions about me, to tell me things about themselves, and to express curiosity about NVC.

 

Feelings Versus Non-Feelings

A common confusion generated by the English language is our use of the word
feel
without actually expressing a feeling. For example, in the sentence, “I feel I didn’t get a fair deal,” the words “I feel” could be more accurately replaced with “I think.” In general, feelings are not being clearly expressed when the word
feel
is followed by:

a) words such as
that
,
like
, as
if
:
“I feel
that
you should know better.”
“I feel
like
a failure.”
“I feel
as
if I’m living with a wall.”

b) the pronouns
I
,
you
,
he
,
she
,
they
,
it
:
“I feel
I
am constantly on call.”
“I feel
it
is useless.”

c) names or nouns referring to people:
“I feel
Amy
has been pretty responsible.”
“I feel
my boss
is being manipulative.”

Distinguish feelings from thoughts.

Conversely, in the English language, it is not necessary at all to use the word
feel
when we are actually expressing a feeling: we can say “I’m feeling irritated,” or simply, “I’m irritated.”

Distinguish between WHAT WE FEEL and WHATWE THINK we are.

In NVC, we distinguish between words that express actual feelings and those that describe
what we think we are
.

A. Description of what we
think
we are:
“I feel
inadequate
as a guitar player.”

In this statement, I am assessing my ability as a guitar player, rather than clearly expressing my feelings.

B. Expressions of actual feelings:
“I feel
disappointed
in myself as a guitar player.”
“I feel
impatient
with myself as a guitar player.”
“I feel
frustrated
with myself as a guitar player.”
The actual feeling behind my assessment of myself as “inadequate” could therefore be disappointment, impatience, frustration, or some other emotion.

Likewise, it is helpful to differentiate between words that describe what we think others are doing around us, and words that describe actual feelings. The following are examples of statements that are easily mistaken as expressions of feelings: in fact they reveal more
how we think others are behaving
than what we are actually feeling ourselves:

Distinguish between WHAT WE FEEL and HOW WE THINK others react or behave toward us.

A. “I feel unimportant to the people with whom I work.”
The word
unimportant
describes how I think others are evaluating me, rather than an actual feeling, which in this situation might be “I feel
sad
” or “I feel
discouraged
.”

B. “I feel misunderstood.
” Here the word
misunderstood
indicates my assessment of the other person’s level of understanding rather than an actual feeling. In this situation, I may be feeling
anxious
or
annoyed
or some other emotion.

C. “I feel
ignored
.”
Again, this is more of an interpretation of the actions of others rather than a clear statement of how we are feeling. No doubt there have been times we thought we were being ignored and our feeling was
relief
, because we wanted to be left to ourselves. No doubt there were other times, however, when we felt
hurt
when we thought we were being ignored, because we had wanted to be involved.

Words like “ignored” express how we
interpret others
, rather than how we
feel
. Here is a sampling of such words. distrusted interrupted intimidated let down manipulated misunderstood neglected overworked patronized pressured provoked

abandoned

distrusted

put down

abused

interrupted

rejected

attacked

intimidated

taken for granted

betrayed

let down

threatened

boxed-in

manipulated

unappreciated

bullied

misunderstood

unheard

cheated

neglected

unseen

coerced

overworked

unsupported

co-opted

patronized

unwanted

cornered

pressured

used

diminished

provoked

 

 

Building A Vocabulary For Feelings

In expressing our feelings, it helps to use words that refer to specific emotions, rather than words that are vague or general. For example, if we say, “I feel good about that,” the word
good
could mean
happy
,
excited
,
relieved
or a number of other emotions. Words such as
good
and
bad
prevent the listener from connecting easily with what we might actually be feeling.

The following lists have been compiled to help you increase your power to articulate feelings and clearly describe a whole range of emotional states.

How we are likely to feel when our needs “are” being met

absorbed

engrossed

moved

adventurous

enlivened

optimistic

affectionate

enthusiastic

overjoyed

alert

excited

overwhelmed

alive

exhilarated

peaceful

amazed

expansive

perky

amused

expectant

pleasant

animated

exultant

pleased

appreciative

fascinated

proud

ardent

free

quiet

aroused

friendly

radiant

astonished

fulfilled

rapturous

blissful

glad

refreshed

breathless

gleeful

relaxed

buoyant

glorious

relieved

calm

glowing

satisfied

carefree

good-humored

secure

cheerful

grateful

sensitive

comfortable

gratified

serene

complacent

happy

spellbound

composed

helpful

splendid

concerned

hopeful

stimulated

confident

inquisitive

surprised

contented

inspired

tender

cool

intense

thankful

curious

interested

thrilled

dazzled

intrigued

touched

delighted

invigorated

tranquil

eager

involved

trusting

ebullient

joyous, joyful

upbeat

ecstatic

jubilant

warm

effervescent

keyed-up

wide-awake

elated

loving

wonderful

enchanted

mellow

zestful

encouraged

merry

 

energetic

mirthful

 

How we are likely to feel when our needs “are not” being met

afraid

disgusted

intense

aggravated

disheartened

irate

agitated

dismayed

irked

alarmed

displeased

irritated

aloof

disquieted

jealous

angry

distressed

jittery

anguished

disturbed

keyed-up

annoyed

downcast

lazy

anxious

downhearted

leery

apathetic

dull

lethargic

apprehensive

edgy

listless

aroused

embarrassed

lonely

ashamed

embittered

mad

beat

exasperated

mean

bewildered

exhausted

miserable

bitter

fatigued

mopey

blah

fearful

morose

blue

fidgety

mournful

bored

forlorn

nervous

brokenhearted

frightened

nettled

chagrined

frustrated

numb

cold

furious

overwhelmed

concerned

gloomy

panicky

confused

guilty

passive

cool

harried

perplexed

cross

heavy

pessimistic

dejected

helpless

puzzled

depressed

hesitant

rancorous

despairing

horrified

reluctant

despondent

horrible

repelled

detached

hostile

resentful

disaffected

hot

restless

disenchanted

humdrum

sad

disappointed

hurt

scared

discouraged

impatient

sensitive

disgruntled

indifferent

shaky

shocked

terrified

upset

skeptical

tired

uptight

sleepy

troubled

vexed

sorrowful

uncomfortable

weary

sorry

unconcerned

wistful

spiritless

uneasy

withdrawn

startled

unglued

woeful

surprised

unhappy

worried

suspicious

unnerved

wretched

tepid

unsteady

 

 

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