Turn It Around

Amruta Patel is a student at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. She has been studying Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication and Heartful Communication for the last several months.

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Here, she describes an experience volunteering at one of the COVID-19 vaccination centers in London, where she was able to apply her newfound communication skills in a challenging situation.

I have been volunteering at COVID-19 vaccine centers in London on some of my days off, and what an experience it has been! After a year of stunted conversations over Zoom and carefully extracting myself from situations with too many people, I found myself in a massive hall welcoming hundreds of strangers on their way to getting their jabs. It was overwhelming, exciting and sobering to be a part of this group effort to help combat the virus.

I did not have to see this situation as right or wrong. I could feel compassion toward someone without letting their behavior or situation upset me or my mood.