Needs & Feelings Cards

Publisher: Intended Being

Needs and Feelings are often used in Nonviolent Communication, but have many other uses. What sets this deck apart from other feelings and needs cards is that these have other words that are similar in the middle section, which can lead to more precision and clarity.  

I use them most for what I call “Needs Studies”, in which you can gain a better understanding of what is driing your desires, behaviors, thoughts, etc.. or better understand the desires, behaviors, and thoughts of others. Needs Studies basically follow four steps:

1. What do you want to reflect on?  (could be a specific situation, a nagging feeling you have, creating a vision for the future, working through issues from the past, etc)…  Take a moment and get into the mindset of whatever it is you want to reflect on (for example, if you want to meditate on a situation, try to bring yourself back into that situation and feel how you felt then)

2. Go through the feelings cards, and pick out the feelings you connect with… if you end up with a lot of feelings, group them according to feelings you tend to have at the same time or related to the same issue.

3. As you connect with your feelings, go through the needs deck and and pick out the needs you connect with.  Again, group them if you pull a lot.

4. Depending on what you are meditating on, the needs you pulled should give you more clarity in terms of the direction you want to go..

These instructions may seem a little vague, but it is difficult to give good instructions that cover all the different uses for these cards. For other ideas on how to use these cards, check out some of these resources:

Intended Being (website, or channel on YouTube)

Center for Nonviolent Communication

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