{
  "name": "Nonviolent Communication — Feelings and Needs",
  "description": "Nonviolent Communication (NVC), the communication framework developed by Marshall Rosenberg from the 1960s onward, treats feelings not as verdicts about other people (\"you make me angry\") or as fixed inner objects to be diagnosed, but as signals pointing toward a need that is either met or unmet in the present moment. A feeling word, on this model, is information — frustration points toward an unmet need (autonomy, perhaps, or effectiveness), relief points toward a need that has just been met (ease, or safety). NVC practice pairs a feelings vocabulary with a needs vocabulary and trains people to move fluently between them, rather than staying at the level of judgment or blame. There is no single, official, universally agreed feelings-and-needs list: Rosenberg's own books present illustrative lists that changed across editions, and the Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC), certified trainers, and independent NVC organizations (BayNVC among others) each publish their own versions, overlapping heavily but not identical in wording or grouping.",
  "grammar_type": "custom",
  "image_credit": "Deliberately left without a cover or item images. NVC is a living, modern training practice with no period art to draw on (per this school's own _art_direction), and its own workshop photography and branding are copyrighted. Generic stock photography of dialogue circles or mediation settings was considered and rejected: it would not depict NVC specifically, and stock 'feelings' imagery risks the same fixed-signature problem this illustration pass was told to avoid for every school. Leaving the school unillustrated is judged better than a generic or misleading substitute.",
  "tags": [
    "nvc",
    "nonviolent-communication",
    "needs",
    "rosenberg",
    "feelings"
  ],
  "creator_name": "PlayfulProcess",
  "is_published": false,
  "metadata": {
    "status": "expanded"
  },
  "_note": "Expanded Aug 2026 from a 5-item skeleton. Machine-readable convention: `category` tells a consumer which of the three buckets an item belongs to — `feeling-met` / `feeling-unmet` (leaf feeling items) roll up into L2 groups `feeling-met-group` / `feeling-unmet-group`; `need` (leaf need items) rolls up into `need-group`; the L3 root carries `category: \"root\"`. Only feeling items carry `metadata.emotion_key` (lowercase category name) — needs never do, because a need is not an affect; that is the whole distinction this school exists to draw. Structurally, each feeling/need item here is a CATEGORY (e.g. \"peaceful\", \"fear\", \"connection\"), not a single word: its full member vocabulary (e.g. peaceful's ['calm', 'content', 'relaxed', 'serene'…]) lives in that item's `keywords` array, verbatim from the source tool's own reference lists (see the root item's `Source` section) so the grammar and the journaling tool that reads it stay one piece of content, not two. Five original items (frustration, loneliness, anxious, relief, joyful) predate this expansion and keep their ids and hand-written prose; every other item was added in this pass. There is no single canonical CNVC feelings-and-needs list — see the root item's own \"No single canonical list\" section.",
  "_art_direction": {
    "period_place": "NVC developed from the 1960s onward, chiefly in the United States, and is a living training practice rather than a text tied to one historical setting — a second case, like ekman-basic, where the \"contemporary imagery\" principle strains against a modern, ongoing tradition whose own materials (workshop photography, CNVC branding) are copyrighted and not usable here.",
    "candidates": [
      {
        "name": "Openverse (CC-search aggregator)",
        "url": "https://openverse.org/",
        "note": "Aggregates openly-licensed (CC0 / CC BY) contemporary photography; searchable for generic dialogue-circle, mediation, or community-conversation imagery that does not claim to depict NVC specifically but fits the register."
      },
      {
        "name": "Wikimedia Commons — community and dialogue photography",
        "url": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/",
        "note": "Search for CC0/CC BY images of community circles, restorative-justice or mediation settings; confirm each image's specific license rather than assuming category-wide clearance."
      },
      {
        "name": "U.S. National Archives — general late-20th-century community and civic-life photography",
        "url": "https://catalog.archives.gov/",
        "note": "Public-domain US federal photography; useful only as generic period texture for the tradition's founding decades, not as an illustration of NVC's own specific claims."
      }
    ]
  },
  "_grammar_commons": {
    "schema_version": "1.0",
    "license": "CC-BY-SA-4.0",
    "attribution": [
      {
        "name": "Marshall Rosenberg and the Nonviolent Communication tradition",
        "role": "source tradition",
        "note": "Structural basis: the feelings-signal-needs framework central to Nonviolent Communication, developed by Marshall Rosenberg from the 1960s onward and carried forward by CNVC and independent trainers. Rosenberg's books (including Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life) and CNVC's published materials remain in copyright; no text is quoted from them. Every Definition on this deck is paraphrased in original prose, describing the framework rather than reproducing any published book text. The category labels and their member words (in each item's `keywords`) are a common-language vocabulary list, not narrative prose, reproduced from the reference lists published in a self-guided NVC journaling tool (see `nycnvc.org/the-exercise` via that tool, and this school's practice page `../tools/nvc-journaling.html`) — see the `nvc-needs-root` item's own `Source` section for the full provenance chain."
      },
      {
        "name": "PlayfulProcess",
        "role": "creator",
        "note": "Author of this grammar's text, its composite items, and the library's editorial commentary (Research note, Constructionist lens, evidence_tier)."
      }
    ]
  },
  "nodes": [
    {
      "id": "frustration",
      "name": "Frustration — Signals an Unmet Need",
      "category": "feeling-unmet",
      "sort_order": 1,
      "keywords": [
        "frustration",
        "nvc",
        "unmet need"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "In NVC practice, frustration typically points toward an unmet need for effectiveness, autonomy, or competence — the sense that one's efforts aren't landing, or that a choice one wants to make is being blocked. NVC asks the practitioner to locate the need underneath the frustration rather than stopping at the feeling or, worse, at blame directed at whoever seems to be causing it.",
        "Not a verdict about someone else": "NVC draws a sharp line between a genuine feeling word (\"I feel frustrated\") and a pseudo-feeling that smuggles in a claim about another person's behavior or character (\"I feel ignored,\" \"I feel dismissed\") — the second kind names a story about someone else's action, not a state in the speaker, and NVC practice asks a person to trace it back to the actual feeling and need underneath.",
        "Practice": "The NVC move is not to suppress frustration or to blame its apparent cause, but to ask: what need of mine is unmet right now, and what specific, doable request could address it?"
      },
      "metadata": {
        "emotion_key": "frustration"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "loneliness",
      "name": "Loneliness — Signals an Unmet Need",
      "category": "feeling-unmet",
      "sort_order": 2,
      "keywords": [
        "loneliness",
        "nvc",
        "unmet need",
        "connection"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Loneliness typically points toward an unmet need for connection, companionship, or being seen — NVC treats the feeling as accurate information about a real gap, not as a flaw in the person feeling it.",
        "Not a verdict about someone else": "As with frustration, NVC distinguishes loneliness (a feeling) from a pseudo-feeling like \"I feel abandoned\" or \"I feel unloved,\" which build in a specific causal story about another person's action or intent rather than simply naming the felt state and its underlying need.",
        "Practice": "NVC's four-step practice model — a concrete observation, the feeling it brings up, the need underneath, and a specific request — is one route from loneliness to a workable next step: naming the observation (\"we haven't spent time together this week\"), the feeling (lonely), the need (connection), and a request (\"could we set aside an hour on Thursday?\") rather than an accusation."
      },
      "metadata": {
        "emotion_key": "loneliness"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "anxious",
      "name": "Anxious — Signals an Unmet Need",
      "category": "feeling-unmet",
      "sort_order": 3,
      "keywords": [
        "anxious",
        "nvc",
        "unmet need",
        "safety"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Anxious, in NVC's framing, typically points toward an unmet need for safety, security, clarity, or predictability — the sense that something important is uncertain or at risk. As with the other unmet-need signals here, NVC treats the feeling itself as useful data rather than as a problem to be argued away.",
        "Not a verdict about someone else": "NVC would flag \"I feel threatened\" or \"I feel set up\" as pseudo-feelings if they're standing in for anxious plus an unexamined story about someone's intent — the practice asks the speaker to separate the felt anxiety from any claim about why it's happening.",
        "Practice": "Naming the specific unmet need (safety? clarity? predictability?) underneath a general sense of anxious usually points toward a more answerable request than the vaguer feeling does on its own — a request for information, a timeline, or a check-in, rather than a request to simply stop feeling anxious."
      },
      "metadata": {
        "emotion_key": "anxious"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "relief",
      "name": "Relief — Signals a Met Need",
      "category": "feeling-met",
      "sort_order": 4,
      "keywords": [
        "relief",
        "nvc",
        "met need"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Relief typically signals that a need for safety, ease, or resolution has just been met — a tension that was present has resolved. NVC treats naming relief, and the specific need behind it, as just as useful a practice as naming a harder feeling: it builds the same fluency in the same direction.",
        "Practice": "NVC materials commonly ask practitioners to also notice and name met-need feelings deliberately, not only to diagnose problems — naming what need relief is pointing to (here, ease or safety) makes it easier to recognize and ask for the conditions that produce that state again."
      },
      "metadata": {
        "emotion_key": "relief"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "joyful",
      "name": "Joyful — Signals a Met Need",
      "category": "feeling-met",
      "sort_order": 5,
      "keywords": [
        "joyful",
        "nvc",
        "met need"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Joyful, in this framing, typically points toward needs like connection, play, meaning, or contribution being met — NVC treats it, like every feeling on this deck, as a signal rather than a self-sufficient endpoint, worth tracing back to the specific need it's responding to.",
        "Practice": "Naming which need is behind a joyful moment (was it connection? contribution? play?) is itself a practiced skill in NVC training, intended to build the same feeling-to-need fluency that the harder, unmet-need feelings require, so it isn't only exercised under difficulty."
      },
      "metadata": {
        "emotion_key": "joy"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "affectionate",
      "name": "Affectionate — Feeling Category (Met Needs)",
      "category": "feeling-met",
      "sort_order": 101,
      "keywords": [
        "compassionate",
        "fond",
        "loving",
        "openhearted",
        "tender",
        "warm"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "In NVC's vocabulary, affectionate names warmth directed toward another person — the tenderness that often shows up when a need for connection or closeness is being met."
      },
      "metadata": {
        "emotion_key": "affectionate"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "engaged",
      "name": "Engaged — Feeling Category (Met Needs)",
      "category": "feeling-met",
      "sort_order": 102,
      "keywords": [
        "absorbed",
        "curious",
        "engrossed",
        "enchanted",
        "enthralled",
        "entranced",
        "fascinated",
        "interested",
        "intrigued",
        "involved",
        "open",
        "spellbound",
        "stimulated"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Engaged covers the family of feelings that show up when attention is fully caught by something — curiosity, absorption, fascination — usually a sign that needs like stimulation, meaning, or discovery are being met."
      },
      "metadata": {
        "emotion_key": "engaged"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "excited",
      "name": "Excited — Feeling Category (Met Needs)",
      "category": "feeling-met",
      "sort_order": 103,
      "keywords": [
        "amazed",
        "ardent",
        "aroused",
        "dazzled",
        "energetic",
        "enlivened",
        "enthusiastic",
        "exuberant",
        "invigorated",
        "lively",
        "passionate",
        "surprised",
        "vibrant"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Excited names the more activated end of a need being met — energy, aliveness, anticipation — distinct from the calmer register of peaceful or content."
      },
      "metadata": {
        "emotion_key": "excited"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "exhilarated",
      "name": "Exhilarated — Feeling Category (Met Needs)",
      "category": "feeling-met",
      "sort_order": 104,
      "keywords": [
        "enthralled",
        "radiant",
        "electrified",
        "euphoric",
        "overjoyed",
        "thrilled"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Exhilarated is excited turned up further still — an intense, often sudden charge, as when a need for stimulation or celebration is met all at once."
      },
      "metadata": {
        "emotion_key": "exhilarated"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "grateful",
      "name": "Grateful — Feeling Category (Met Needs)",
      "category": "feeling-met",
      "sort_order": 105,
      "keywords": [
        "appreciative",
        "moved",
        "thankful",
        "touched"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Grateful names the feeling of having received something valued — appreciation turned toward whoever or whatever met the need."
      },
      "metadata": {
        "emotion_key": "grateful"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "happy",
      "name": "Happy — Feeling Category (Met Needs)",
      "category": "feeling-met",
      "sort_order": 106,
      "keywords": [
        "amused",
        "blissful",
        "cheerful",
        "delighted",
        "ecstatic",
        "elated",
        "giddy",
        "glad",
        "jolly",
        "joyful",
        "jubilant",
        "merry",
        "overjoyed",
        "pleased",
        "rapturous",
        "tickled"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Happy is the broadest, most familiar family here, covering everything from mild pleasure to jubilation — a useful starting point before narrowing to a more specific word."
      },
      "metadata": {
        "emotion_key": "happy"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "hopeful",
      "name": "Hopeful — Feeling Category (Met Needs)",
      "category": "feeling-met",
      "sort_order": 107,
      "keywords": [
        "confident",
        "expectant",
        "jazzed",
        "lighthearted",
        "sanguine",
        "up",
        "upbeat"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Hopeful points forward — confidence or expectancy that a need not yet met is on its way to being met."
      },
      "metadata": {
        "emotion_key": "hopeful"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "inspired",
      "name": "Inspired — Feeling Category (Met Needs)",
      "category": "feeling-met",
      "sort_order": 108,
      "keywords": [
        "amazed",
        "eager",
        "enthused",
        "motivated",
        "moved",
        "psyched",
        "stimulated",
        "stirred",
        "wonder"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Inspired names the feeling of being moved toward action or possibility, often when needs for meaning, contribution, or growth are met by something encountered outside oneself."
      },
      "metadata": {
        "emotion_key": "inspired"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "peaceful",
      "name": "Peaceful — Feeling Category (Met Needs)",
      "category": "feeling-met",
      "sort_order": 109,
      "keywords": [
        "calm",
        "comfortable",
        "centered",
        "content",
        "equanimity",
        "fulfilled",
        "mellow",
        "open",
        "quiet",
        "relaxed",
        "relieved",
        "satisfied",
        "serene",
        "tranquil"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Peaceful covers the settled end of the met-needs spectrum — calm, contentment, equanimity — a need met without urgency left over."
      },
      "metadata": {
        "emotion_key": "peaceful"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "refreshed",
      "name": "Refreshed — Feeling Category (Met Needs)",
      "category": "feeling-met",
      "sort_order": 110,
      "keywords": [
        "recharged",
        "rejuvenated",
        "renewed",
        "rested",
        "restored",
        "revived"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Refreshed names the specific feeling of restoration — rest, recovery, renewal — when a need for physical or mental replenishment has just been met."
      },
      "metadata": {
        "emotion_key": "refreshed"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "anger",
      "name": "Anger — Feeling Category (Unmet Needs)",
      "category": "feeling-unmet",
      "sort_order": 111,
      "keywords": [
        "aggravated",
        "angry",
        "animosity",
        "annoyed",
        "contempt",
        "disgruntled",
        "enraged",
        "exasperated",
        "furious",
        "hate",
        "hostile",
        "incensed",
        "irate",
        "irritated",
        "irked",
        "livid",
        "miffed",
        "nettled",
        "outraged",
        "peeved",
        "resentful"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Anger names the family of feelings that show up when a need is blocked and the energy of that block is directed outward — irritation, frustration, and their more intense relatives."
      },
      "metadata": {
        "emotion_key": "anger"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "aversion",
      "name": "Aversion — Feeling Category (Unmet Needs)",
      "category": "feeling-unmet",
      "sort_order": 112,
      "keywords": [
        "abhorrence",
        "appalled",
        "bothered",
        "displeased",
        "disgust",
        "dislike",
        "enmity",
        "horrified",
        "loathing",
        "repulsion",
        "revulsion"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Aversion covers feelings of active dislike or repulsion — a signal that something is moving against a need rather than simply failing to meet it."
      },
      "metadata": {
        "emotion_key": "aversion"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "confusion",
      "name": "Confusion — Feeling Category (Unmet Needs)",
      "category": "feeling-unmet",
      "sort_order": 113,
      "keywords": [
        "ambivalent",
        "baffled",
        "bewildered",
        "conflicted",
        "dazed",
        "discombobulated",
        "disoriented",
        "mixed",
        "mystified",
        "perplexed",
        "puzzled",
        "torn"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Confusion names the feeling of not yet being able to locate the need underneath a reaction — mixed, conflicted, unable to settle on one read of a situation."
      },
      "metadata": {
        "emotion_key": "confusion"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "disconnection",
      "name": "Disconnection — Feeling Category (Unmet Needs)",
      "category": "feeling-unmet",
      "sort_order": 114,
      "keywords": [
        "apathetic",
        "bored",
        "closed",
        "detached",
        "distant",
        "indifferent",
        "listless",
        "numb",
        "withdrawn"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Disconnection covers the withdrawn end of unmet needs — numbness, distance, apathy — often present when a need for connection or engagement has gone unmet for a while."
      },
      "metadata": {
        "emotion_key": "disconnection"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "disquiet",
      "name": "Disquiet — Feeling Category (Unmet Needs)",
      "category": "feeling-unmet",
      "sort_order": 115,
      "keywords": [
        "agitated",
        "alarmed",
        "concerned",
        "distraught",
        "disconcerted",
        "dismayed",
        "disturbed",
        "frustrated",
        "perturbed",
        "rattled",
        "restless",
        "shocked",
        "startled",
        "surprised",
        "troubled",
        "turbulent",
        "turmoil",
        "uncomfortable",
        "uneasy",
        "unnerved",
        "unsettled",
        "upset"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Disquiet names a lower-grade, more diffuse unease than fear or anger — something feels off, though the specific unmet need may not yet be clear."
      },
      "metadata": {
        "emotion_key": "disquiet"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "embarrassment",
      "name": "Embarrassment — Feeling Category (Unmet Needs)",
      "category": "feeling-unmet",
      "sort_order": 116,
      "keywords": [
        "ashamed",
        "chagrined",
        "discomfited",
        "flustered",
        "mortified",
        "self-conscious"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Embarrassment names the feeling that follows a sense of having been seen in a way that doesn't match how one wants to be seen — often pointing toward needs for acceptance or self-respect."
      },
      "metadata": {
        "emotion_key": "embarrassment"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "fatigue",
      "name": "Fatigue — Feeling Category (Unmet Needs)",
      "category": "feeling-unmet",
      "sort_order": 117,
      "keywords": [
        "beat",
        "burnt out",
        "depleted",
        "exhausted",
        "listless",
        "pooped",
        "sleepy",
        "tired",
        "weary",
        "wiped out",
        "worn out"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Fatigue names depletion — a need for rest, ease, or physical replenishment that has gone unmet for long enough to be felt in the body."
      },
      "metadata": {
        "emotion_key": "fatigue"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "fear",
      "name": "Fear — Feeling Category (Unmet Needs)",
      "category": "feeling-unmet",
      "sort_order": 118,
      "keywords": [
        "afraid",
        "anxious",
        "apprehensive",
        "dread",
        "fearful",
        "foreboding",
        "frightened",
        "guarded",
        "insecure",
        "leery",
        "mistrustful",
        "panicked",
        "petrified",
        "scared",
        "shaky",
        "terrified",
        "trepidation",
        "wary",
        "worried"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Fear covers the family of feelings that show up when safety, predictability, or security feel uncertain or at risk."
      },
      "metadata": {
        "emotion_key": "fear"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "pain",
      "name": "Pain — Feeling Category (Unmet Needs)",
      "category": "feeling-unmet",
      "sort_order": 119,
      "keywords": [
        "aching",
        "agony",
        "anguished",
        "devastated",
        "grief",
        "heartbroken",
        "hungry",
        "hurting",
        "lonely",
        "miserable",
        "regretful",
        "remorseful"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Pain names some of the heavier feelings on this list — grief, hurt, heartbreak — usually present when a significant need has gone unmet for some time, not just momentarily."
      },
      "metadata": {
        "emotion_key": "pain"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "sadness",
      "name": "Sadness — Feeling Category (Unmet Needs)",
      "category": "feeling-unmet",
      "sort_order": 120,
      "keywords": [
        "depressed",
        "dejected",
        "despairing",
        "despondent",
        "disappointed",
        "discouraged",
        "disheartened",
        "forlorn",
        "gloomy",
        "heavy hearted",
        "hopeless",
        "melancholy",
        "miserable",
        "unhappy",
        "wistful"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Sadness covers the feeling of loss or disappointment when a hoped-for outcome doesn't happen, or a need that mattered goes unmet."
      },
      "metadata": {
        "emotion_key": "sadness"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "tension",
      "name": "Tension — Feeling Category (Unmet Needs)",
      "category": "feeling-unmet",
      "sort_order": 121,
      "keywords": [
        "anxious",
        "closed",
        "distressed",
        "edgy",
        "fidgety",
        "frazzled",
        "frustrated",
        "jittery",
        "nervous",
        "overwhelmed",
        "restless",
        "stressed out"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Tension names a felt tightness or activation in the body or mind — often present when several needs are competing for attention at once, or a need feels urgent."
      },
      "metadata": {
        "emotion_key": "tension"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "yearning",
      "name": "Yearning — Feeling Category (Unmet Needs)",
      "category": "feeling-unmet",
      "sort_order": 122,
      "keywords": [
        "longing",
        "nostalgic",
        "pining"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Yearning names the feeling of reaching toward something not currently had — longing that points fairly directly at the specific unmet need behind it."
      },
      "metadata": {
        "emotion_key": "yearning"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "autonomy",
      "name": "Autonomy — Need Category",
      "category": "need",
      "sort_order": 123,
      "keywords": [
        "choice",
        "dignity",
        "freedom",
        "independence",
        "self-expression",
        "space",
        "spontaneity"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Autonomy names needs around choosing one's own path — freedom, independence, the space to set one's own direction rather than have it set by someone else."
      },
      "metadata": {}
    },
    {
      "id": "connection",
      "name": "Connection — Need Category",
      "category": "need",
      "sort_order": 124,
      "keywords": [
        "acceptance",
        "affection",
        "appreciation",
        "authenticity",
        "belonging",
        "care",
        "closeness",
        "communication",
        "communion",
        "community",
        "companionship",
        "compassion",
        "consideration",
        "empathy",
        "friendship",
        "inclusion",
        "inspiration",
        "integrity",
        "intimacy",
        "love",
        "mutuality",
        "nurturing",
        "partnership",
        "presence",
        "respect/self-respect",
        "security",
        "self-acceptance",
        "self-care",
        "self-connection",
        "self-expression",
        "shared reality",
        "stability",
        "support",
        "to know and be known",
        "to see and be seen",
        "trust",
        "understanding",
        "warmth"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Connection is the largest need-family here, covering everything from closeness and belonging to being known, trusted, and supported by others."
      },
      "metadata": {}
    },
    {
      "id": "meaning",
      "name": "Meaning — Need Category",
      "category": "need",
      "sort_order": 125,
      "keywords": [
        "awareness",
        "celebration",
        "challenge",
        "clarity",
        "competence",
        "consciousness",
        "contribution",
        "creativity",
        "discovery",
        "efficiency",
        "effectiveness",
        "growth",
        "integration",
        "integrity",
        "learning",
        "mourning",
        "movement",
        "participation",
        "perspective",
        "presence",
        "progress",
        "purpose",
        "self-expression",
        "stimulation",
        "understanding"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Meaning covers needs that point beyond the immediate moment — growth, purpose, contribution, understanding — the sense that something matters or is going somewhere."
      },
      "metadata": {}
    },
    {
      "id": "peace",
      "name": "Peace — Need Category",
      "category": "need",
      "sort_order": 126,
      "keywords": [
        "acceptance",
        "balance",
        "beauty",
        "communion",
        "ease",
        "equanimity",
        "faith",
        "harmony",
        "hope",
        "order",
        "peace-of-mind",
        "space"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Peace names needs for balance and ease — harmony, order, equanimity — the absence of ongoing struggle rather than any particular gain."
      },
      "metadata": {}
    },
    {
      "id": "physical-well-being",
      "name": "Physical Well-Being — Need Category",
      "category": "need",
      "sort_order": 127,
      "keywords": [
        "air",
        "care",
        "comfort",
        "food",
        "movement/exercise",
        "rest/sleep",
        "safety (physical)",
        "self-care",
        "sexual expression",
        "shelter",
        "touch",
        "water"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Physical well-being covers the body's own needs — rest, food, safety, touch — the most concrete layer of the needs list, and often the layer underneath needs that look abstract at first."
      },
      "metadata": {}
    },
    {
      "id": "play",
      "name": "Play — Need Category",
      "category": "need",
      "sort_order": 128,
      "keywords": [
        "adventure",
        "excitement",
        "fun",
        "humor",
        "joy",
        "relaxation",
        "stimulation"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "Play names needs met through lightness — fun, humor, adventure, stimulation for its own sake rather than toward any further goal."
      },
      "metadata": {}
    },
    {
      "id": "group-met-needs-signals",
      "name": "Feelings That Signal a Met Need",
      "category": "feeling-met-group",
      "sort_order": 200,
      "parts": [
        "relief",
        "joyful",
        "affectionate",
        "engaged",
        "excited",
        "exhilarated",
        "grateful",
        "happy",
        "hopeful",
        "inspired",
        "peaceful",
        "refreshed"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "NVC's own feelings inventories are commonly split into two columns — feelings when a need is met, and feelings when a need is not. This group holds every feeling-category item on this deck read as a signal that a need has just been met, from the two hand-written examples (relief, joyful) through the ten broader categories (affectionate, engaged, excited…) carried over from the source tool's own list."
      },
      "keywords": [
        "nvc",
        "met needs"
      ],
      "metadata": {}
    },
    {
      "id": "group-unmet-needs-signals",
      "name": "Feelings That Signal an Unmet Need",
      "category": "feeling-unmet-group",
      "sort_order": 201,
      "parts": [
        "frustration",
        "loneliness",
        "anxious",
        "anger",
        "aversion",
        "confusion",
        "disconnection",
        "disquiet",
        "embarrassment",
        "fatigue",
        "fear",
        "pain",
        "sadness",
        "tension",
        "yearning"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "The other column of NVC's typical feelings-inventory structure: every feeling-category item on this deck read as pointing toward a need that is not currently met, from the three hand-written examples (frustration, loneliness, anxious) through the twelve broader categories (anger, aversion, confusion…) carried over from the source tool's own list."
      },
      "keywords": [
        "nvc",
        "unmet needs"
      ],
      "metadata": {}
    },
    {
      "id": "group-needs",
      "name": "Needs",
      "category": "need-group",
      "sort_order": 202,
      "parts": [
        "autonomy",
        "connection",
        "meaning",
        "peace",
        "physical-well-being",
        "play"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "The needs half of NVC's practice: what a feeling is read as a signal about. Six broad need-categories (autonomy, connection, meaning, peace, physical well-being, play), each carrying its own more specific words as keywords. A need is not itself a feeling, so items in this group carry no emotion_key."
      },
      "keywords": [
        "nvc",
        "needs"
      ],
      "metadata": {}
    },
    {
      "id": "nvc-needs-root",
      "name": "Nonviolent Communication — Feelings as Signals of Needs",
      "category": "root",
      "sort_order": 300,
      "parts": [
        "group-met-needs-signals",
        "group-unmet-needs-signals",
        "group-needs"
      ],
      "sections": {
        "Definition": "NVC treats every feeling as a signal about whether a need is currently met or unmet, rather than as a fixed inner object, a diagnosis, or a verdict about another person's behavior. Practice centers on tracing a feeling back to its need and then to a specific, workable request — the four steps commonly taught as observation, feeling, need, request.",
        "No single canonical list": "This point matters enough to state directly: there is no one official CNVC feelings-and-needs list. Rosenberg's own published lists changed across editions of his books; CNVC's website, certified trainers, and independent organizations like BayNVC each publish their own versions of a feelings inventory and a needs inventory, overlapping substantially in content but differing in wording, grouping, and length. The categories and words on this deck are drawn from one specific published tool's inventory (see Source below) — treat them, like any such list, as one workable version among several the tradition itself has produced, not as the definitive NVC vocabulary.",
        "Source": "The category labels and their member words on this deck (affectionate, engaged, excited… for met needs; anger, aversion, confusion… for unmet needs; autonomy, connection, meaning… for needs) are reproduced from the reference lists published in the self-guided NVC journaling tool this school's practice page (../tools/nvc-journaling.html) is built on, which in turn credits NYC NVC's self-empathy process. They are common-vocabulary word lists, not narrative prose, so they are reproduced directly rather than paraphrased; the surrounding Definition text on every item is this library's own original writing.",
        "Research note": "NVC has a growing body of applied research (workplace communication, mediation, couples and family contexts, some school-based conflict-resolution programs) reporting positive outcomes, alongside a smaller amount of controlled outcome research isolating NVC specifically from adjacent communication-training approaches it overlaps with. The evidence base is broader in practitioner-reported and applied-program outcomes than in independently replicated controlled trials."
      },
      "keywords": [
        "nvc",
        "nonviolent communication",
        "rosenberg",
        "needs-based"
      ],
      "metadata": {
        "evidence_tier": "growing",
        "evidence_note": "NVC has an expanding body of applied and practitioner-reported evidence (workplace, mediation, education, couples contexts) and increasing academic interest, but a comparatively thin base of independently replicated controlled outcome studies isolating NVC's specific mechanisms from those of adjacent communication and conflict-resolution training it shares territory with. This is a live, growing evidence base, not yet an independently-replicated one in the strict sense.",
        "source_deck": "overflow",
        "source_node_id": "the-ledger",
        "deck": "Overflow — Structures, Process, Possibilities"
      }
    }
  ]
}