Feelings and Needs Lists

Nonviolent Communication (NVC) suggests we focus our atention differently. It suggests we connect to what's really alive in the moment, both within ourselves and through other peoples' expressions, at the level of Feelings and Needs. When we learn NVC, and in order to get acquainted with this relatively unknown dimension of ourselves, we seek to enrich our feelings and needs vocabulary. This allows us to foster more clarity and meaning in our dialogue with ourselves and others. Here is this famous list!

Please note that different trainers work with different versions of this list. We believe that the differences are superficial and that the main trend of it is essentially the same. What is of paramount importance is to remember that the role of feelings is to get our attention onto underlying needs that want to be taken into consideration. And so, I might express what's alive for me in this way: "I feel... [sad?] [frustrated?] [confused?]" ... "because I need... [ease?] [to be heard?] [to belong?]"

Click here for list in PDF format.