KPFA - Talk-It-Out Radio

A lot of people don’t understand how to get along. People use force and power to get their needs met in ways that cause so much suffering. So many of us have forgotten that we all share power, and each of us needs acknowledgement and respect and inclusion. Nonviolent Communication and Mindfulness teachers Phoenix Soleil and Timothy Regan carve out some clarity about power, force, requests and demands, and the universal needs that bring us together in the end.

Phoenix Soleil is a personal development connoisseur/nerd who values the power of dance, play and laughter to bring us alive. She helps people have an embodied experience of NVC concepts so that they can retain, integrate and use them in their day-to-day lives. She has trained individuals and groups all over the country in  Nonviolent Communication, meditation, theater improv, racial justice and meditation, including the Mind Body Awareness Project, East Bay Meditation Center, Kellogg Foundation and Google. She is a teacher and deep practitioner of the Insight Meditation Tradition, and was nominated and selected for Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leader Program.

The post Clear Thinking on Power, Force, and Human Needs appeared first on KPFA.

Host Nancy Kahn talks with special guest Kangs Trevens, an Oakland-based counselor and facilitator of Nonviolent Communication. Join us for a meaningful conversation about how the practice of Nonviolent Communication supports people in talking about gender and gender identity with more sensitivity and awareness.

Kangs Trevens is a Nonviolent Communication trainer, mediator, activist, animal rights advocate and empathic counselor as well as a gender abolitionist. He has been learning, teaching and living the principles of Nonviolent Communication since 2008. He currently is part of the West Oakland Holistic Community Clinic which provides low cost donation based alternative healing once a month. He specializes in but is not limited to working with people from the Queer/LGBTIQQA community, with a focus on transgender sensitivity. He’s also passionate about providing care around diversity issues, underserved populations, politically radical folks, activists, highly sensitive people and animal liberationists, as well as those with nontraditional or alternative lifestyles.

The post The Practice of Nonviolent Communication across Gender and Gender Identity appeared first on KPFA.

As Buddhism came to the west, U.S. feminists like Sandy Boucher have challenged some of its patriarchal traditions. Boucher is an internationally known Buddhist-feminist teacher, author and editor who has been active in the San Francisco Bay Area and Pacific Northwest for 35 years. She is the author of nine books exploring women’s experience and spiritual practice and was active in the Women’s Liberation Movement in the San Francisco Bay Area in the seventies, and helped to organize Women and Buddhism conferences in the eighties and nineties. Boucher has worked as editor on magazines such as Inquiring Mind, and the online magazine of the arts Persimmon Tree and was named an Outstanding Woman in Buddhism in 2006. Boucher has a love of language and teaches writing and coaches others on writing, offering workshops combining meditation and writing. Host Marlena Willis talks to Boucher about her Buddhist and feminist career, her life, how Buddhism helped her survive cancer and many other topics.

The post 80 Years of Wisdom and Insight, an Interview with Writer and Buddhist Teacher, Sandy Boucher appeared first on KPFA.

Your host Timothy Regan and guest Sarah Peyton take you into how your brain works in relationship, with detailed attention to our capacity for empathy – what it is, and how to know it and grow it, through stories, demonstrations, and live calls.

Sarah Peyton, international speaker and facilitator, has a passion for weaving together neuroscience knowledge and experiences of healing that unify people with their brains and bodies. Funny, touching, and filled with personal stories and up-to-date research on our nervous systems and how they interact with each other, her teaching changes lives and invites self-acceptance and self-compassion. Sarah offers healing experiences of hearing ourselves and others deeply.

The post Your Brain on Empathy appeared first on KPFA.

Are you longing for inspiration and want to hear how one voice can contribute to change? Are you eager to learn practical skills in Nonviolent Communication that transform pain, anger, fear and frustration into vulnerable and empowered self expression? Do you want to build skills in communicating your truth without replicating forms of communication that separate us further and dehumanize others?

The post Pathways to Bringing Authentic Voice, Fueled with Love and Compassion, to Dialogue across Differences appeared first on KPFA.

In this time of many scary changes in the world, are you feeling powerless?  Would you like to be able to recognize the power you do have and be able to use it more wisely and compassionately?  How can we take leadership to create a world that works for everyone?  Host Marlena Willis talks with Miki Kashtan, cofounder of Bay Area Nonviolent Communication (BayNVC), international teacher of Nonviolent Communication and the author of three books and an ongoing blog, on how we can use the skills of Nonviolent Communication to empower ourselves and then use that power in ways that empower others, even when we are not in formal positions of leading.

The post Power and Leadership with Nonviolent Communication Teacher and Author, Miki Kashtan appeared first on KPFA.

Are you staying true to your own dream?  Do you want some powerful help to stay connected to yourself?  In this special KPFA fund-drive edition of Talk It Out Radio, we host Jyoti, a Minister of Earth-Based and Indigenous ways of prayer and healing. In her unique and beautiful voice, Jyoti will help us remember that we each have a sacred life, and that we can move with meaning, love, and service through this unprecedented time on Earth. She speaks from a life of direct relationship with the divine and with teachers and medicine people from across the world. Self-connection practices and healing prayers will be offered.

Jyoti is one of the founders of Kayumari, a spiritual healing community located in the Sierra foothills of California, the North Bay of San Francisco, New York, Switzerland, Prague and the Brazillian Amazon. She is the Spiritual Director of the Center for Sacred Studies, a church dedicated to protecting and sustaining the spiritual practices of first-nation peoples around the world as they join their hearts in a prayer for world peace.

Jyoti is an internationally renowned spiritual adviser and psychological consultant. She has devoted her life to bringing unity to the planet by facilitating the development of alliances between individuals who are the guardians of indigenous culture and traditional medicine ways.

The post Staying Connected to Your Dream in Scary Times appeared first on KPFA.

Have you ever told yourself that you don’t really have a choice about accessing and eating food that actually nourishes your body? Did you know that you personally can change your local food system? Learn how nonviolent communication can support your choices around good food and change your local food economy.

Host Nancy Kahn talks with Theo Ferguson, founder of Healing Living Systems, a local leader and lifelong activist in the sustainability movement who has dedicated her life to raising awareness around individual choice in choosing good food for our bodies. For more than a decade, Theo has focused on advocacy and designing community food, farming, and finance infrastructure investments.

We welcome you to call in with questions and comments during the second half of the show.

The post Good food, my body, my life, my community–how NVC supports choice, interdependence, and awareness around food to grow our lives and community appeared first on KPFA.

Talk It Out Radio host Timothy Regan welcomes Gregory Rouillard, founder and leader of Family HEART Camp, a place where adults and children come together to learn relationship and communication skills in a unique community experience of Nonviolent Communication. We explore key principles of authentic and compassionate communication for the well-being of our children and families, especially necessary in these scary political times where children are affected by conflict and strong emotions. Hear stories of successes in family communication and community building, and receive a couple of practices that you can try with your own children. You are welcome to call in with your questions!

Gregory Rouillard, a self-described “community impresario,” envisions a world where people live, work, and play in nurturing communities. He passionately cultivates authentic and compassionate multi-generational community for people of all ages through Family HEART Camp and other collaborative projects. He is thrilled to experience the companionship and fun of mentoring and learning. He is a Certified Trainer with the Center for Nonviolent Communication and received a Master of Divinity degree from Naropa University.

When he is not at camp, Gregory lives with his family in a cohousing community near Boulder, Colorado. His dream is to establish and operate a retreat community where people can gather to explore the question, “How do we live together?”

The post Healthy Communication, Healthy Children: Stories from Family HEART Camp appeared first on KPFA.

This country just confirmed Donald Trump, a self proclaimed billionaire, as the 45th president of the United States. The media has also reported that President Trump’s cabinet picks have a combined wealth of more than $14  billion (CBS News). Yet in the bay area and beyond, we see what appears to be a growing number of visible homeless encampments along the freeways and streets. How often do you feel saddened and concerned by this? Do you wonder what role you can take in your community and workplace to address the severity of homelessness in your local neighborhoods? Do you sometimes find yourself numb or desensitized to people you see living on the street or asking for help, or feel helpless in being able to support change? We interview a local leader, Kristie Fairchild, who directs a community-based organization that addresses the needs of homeless people at the local level, a neighborhood model in San Francisco. We hear innovative practices and skills at both the personal  and organizational levels that increase our capacity to support dignity, empathy and compassion when addressing the needs of homeless population in our neighborhoods.

Since 2003, Kristie Fairchild has been the Executive Director of North Beach Citizens, a community-based non-profit organization focused on addressing the needs of homeless and low income people living in North Beach. In 2005, she was appointed by Mayor Gavin Newsom to serve on the Implementation Council of San Francisco’s Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness. Kristie has been recognized as an innovative leader by the City and County of San Francisco, California State Senate, and California State Assembly. In 2014, she was awarded the Jefferson Award for Public Service and was the Women’s History Month Honoree by San Francisco City Hall.

The post Compassionately Addressing Needs of Homeless and Low Income People Across Differences appeared first on KPFA.