A couple of decades ago, a friend introduced me to a book called Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg. Over the years, I've tried imperfectly to use its gentler forms of communication. At various points in life the techniques of NVC, as it's known for short, have saved me from losing a lawsuit, losing a job, and losing a partner. Still, these techniques didn't always work for me. When our producer Annie Nguyen recently introduced me to a book called Decolonizing Nonviolent Communication, it put words to those challenges.  The book's author, Meenadchi, a somatic healing practitioner, spoke with me recently about the ways that she's updated nonviolent communication to account for the power structures in our society that exacerbate conflicts, and the interdependence between people and our environments that may have been missing from nonviolent communication's original formulation.  I find her approach, distinctly Buddhist as a "middle way" that helps us draw strong boundaries and fight the injustices in the world, while still holding love and compassion, even for our enemies. Meenadchi's therapeutic work centers on social change and embodied transformation. She specializes in healing members of communities impacted by gender-based violence, complex trauma, and serious mental illness.  Episode 151: Decolonizing Nonviolent Communication with Meenadchi Scott Snibbe has just released a new book called How to Train a Happy Mind that shares the accessible approach to Buddhism familiar to podcast listeners. The book features a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and you can order it right now anywhere you buy books. Go to  skepticspath.org for more details on the book and tour, featuring  some of the great artists, authors and activists you’ve heard on the podcast. Support the show