This post is part of our weekly series of peacemaking practices during the Season of Nonviolence.

Listening to someone who is hurting can be a rare and welcome gift. Listening to suffering can also be challenging; Our hearts often hurt when we are near hurting hearts. Of course, we want to make things better, to reduce their suffering. That can prompt us to give advice, tell them it will be okay, join their judgments, explain, tell our stories, etc. All these actions are attempts to help the person feel better—and sometimes they do.

With Compassionate (Nonviolent) Communication we try to first listen to the hurting person with empathy. …

This post is part of our weekly series of peacemaking practices during the Season of Nonviolence.

What is it like when you are having a conversation with someone, and they are multi-tasking—perhaps looking at their phone or typing on their computer?

It probably depends on the kind of conversation. There are conversations that don’t require full attention. With the busyness of the world, we might be used to multi-tasking our communications while doing other things, and it can work.

However, if it’s something important to you, and someone is giving you partial attention, you might feel frustrated or even hurt because you want connection, consideration, and/or respect. …