Life Alienating Motivations

The key insight here can be summarized by a phrase often emphasized by Dr. Marshall Rosenberg, creator of NVC:

The energy with which we do anything for each other is just as important as the action itself.

Life-alienated motivations include fear, guilt, shame, duty/obligation, to obtain an extrinsic reward, to avoid punishment, or acting out of “shoulds” or “have-tos.”

When we do something for each other out of these motivations, it creates disconnection, resentment, and serves to break down trust. We want to do things for each other when we are connected to how it serves life, how it also contributes to our needs.