# Vika Miller | Thriving Life ## Posts - [NVC Essentials](https://thriving-life.org/nvc-essentials/): We all have our “NVC story” — how we discovered NVC, and what our reaction was in the moment that we “got” what NVC makes possible for our human connections. The essential elements of NVC are relatively simple: Life is about thriving, and the only thing anyone is every doing, is trying to expand their well-being … even when our efforts are tragically or even absurdly ineffective When we’re thriving, we feel happy, and we have access to all that is best in us — our capacity for creativity, acceptance, generosity, patience, etc. all expand, the more we thrive Our ... Read more - [Peace & Security Begin Here: Your Core Value & Ideal Self](https://thriving-life.org/core-value/):   Today’s the day after Thanksgiving:  Black Friday. The day when millions of us look outside ourselves in hopes of finding a great deal on something that will make us or someone we love … happier. This also begins a time of year when we tend to spend more time with relatives … who don’t necessarily see us as separate people with our own deeply valid preferences, values, and dignity. To put it simply, it’s a really easy time of year to lose ourselves. And when we lose ourselves, usually what’s next is feeling inadequate, unworthy, unlovable, and unwanted … ... Read more - [How to Stop Saying and Doing Things You Regret Later](https://thriving-life.org/stop-saying-things-you-regret-later/):   Click on the picture to enjoy this video blog. (Includes the favorite “plug your bathtub” metaphor!)   * NOTE:  “Shared Witnessing” is now called “Compassionate Noticing.”   Want more? Join us from anywhere for COMPASSIONATE NOTICING or PRESENCE PRACTICE!   Blessings on us all, Vika               - [Our "Wise I" and "Inner Orphans"](https://thriving-life.org/our-wise-i/): One of the greatest awakenings I’ve ever had was realizing that there was an “inner child” within me who has never grown up: left behind, stuck in my past, and able to pull me back there with her without warning, not realizing that we don’t live in my mother’s house any more. It was almost as huge a revelation when I realized that there wasn’t just one inner child in here; I have an entire orphanage. Each one represents an experience that I didn’t have the resources to fully process at the time it happened that never got tended to ... Read more - [Getting Free of Judging](https://thriving-life.org/getting-free-of-judging/):   Thriving 101:  Getting Free of Judging Lately I’ve been asked a lot of anguished questions about judging: “How can I stop judging?” “My therapist says I’ll always judge other people. Is this really true?” “I’m practicing (NVC, Thriving Consciousness, compassion, mindfulness, etc.), but I’m still judging myself and others, what’s wrong (with me)?” The astonishingly simple, liberating answer I found for myself came several years ago as an unexpected miracle when I was “being a jerk” during a Compassionate Noticing1 session. In Compassionate Noticing (CN), we practice having and noticing our experience — body sensations, emotions, thoughts — without ... Read more - [Reacting vs. Choosing](https://thriving-life.org/reacting-vs-choosing/): The Power of Noticing One of the most helpful things I practice is noticing whether I’m reacting or choosing. It might be surprising that this is my go-to first step, rather than starting with identifying my life-needs.  I suspect this works better for me because so often my perceptions of what I need are distorted by my discomfort, anxiety, and/or pain. It’s not that there aren’t real life-needs — a genuine reaching for thriving — underneath whatever’s going on for me. It’s that when I’m reacting, I’m not clear enough about what my life-needs really are, to be able to ... Read more - [A New View of Valentine's Day](https://thriving-life.org/valentines-day/): A New View of Valentine’s Day: The Power of Perspective (2/6/2013) When “how things are” isn’t working for us, it can often help to stop, pause, and look at them from another angle. Valentine’s Day is one of those suspected Hallmark Holidays (holidays invented to encourage us to buy stuff) that can cause us a lot of pain. If we’re not in an intimate relationship, we can ache from the sense of loneliness and not belonging anywhere. If we’re in an intimate relationship that doesn’t have much openheartedness or authenticity left in it, we can feel even more sadness, loss, ... Read more - [Playing in The GAP -- Transforming our Experience of FAILURE](https://thriving-life.org/playing-in-the-gap/): I often bless the teacher I never met.  Once upon a time, she had a pottery student who was struggling to make a perfectly round pot. The pottery student’s name was George.  George and I were both participants in a personal growth group back in the early ’90s. One evening he shared about how his teacher had seen him struggling in pottery class earlier that day. When she asked him what the trouble was, he explained with exasperation, “I’m trying to make a perfectly round pot!” What she said to him next changed my life. “Ah, but George — in ... Read more ## Pages - [Welcome - 2024](https://thriving-life.org/): I’m glad you’ve found me! Please connect with me at my personal website, www.vikamiller.com,  or at www.thrivingworldcommunity.org, our Thriving Community’s nonprofit organization devoted to making this work accessible to everyone.  Because   it’s our birthright to THRIVE … together.   - [Uplifting Movies & Television](https://thriving-life.org/uplifting-movies/): This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below: Password: - [Discover Human Design](https://thriving-life.org/discover-human-design/):   Discover Your Human Design We’re born to THRIVE.  And we can support our thriving even more effortlessly when we discover and learn how to navigate our Human Design — our unique energetic blueprint.   Are you ready to reclaim your deepest authenticity, find your life purpose, and unlock your greatest potential?Whether you’re wanting to: create more satisfying relationships improve your rest, vitality, and productivity feel more confident in your choices learning about your Human Design can help!   For as long as I could remember, I’d had periods of tremendous productivity, followed by very frustrating periods of “inactivity.” During ... Read more - [NVC Feelings and Needs Lists](https://thriving-life.org/nvc-feelings-and-needs/): NVC Feelings and Needs Lists To download our NVC Feelings and Needs Lists, click on the links below:   Thriving-Life FEELINGS LISTS, including: > Feelings When Life-Needs Are NOURISHED > Feelings When Life-Needs Are DEPLETED   Thriving-Life LIFE-NEEDS CATEGORIES and LIST           - [Life-Needs](https://thriving-life.org/essential-life-needs/): The 10 Essential Human Life-Needs    To download your copy of the 10 Essential Human Life-Needs, click here. - [Amazing Relationships Fundamentals - LAST CONTENT VERSION](https://thriving-life.org/ar/): This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below: Password: - [Connect-embedded](https://thriving-life.org/connect-embedded/): Connect     - [About Vika](https://thriving-life.org/about/): About Vika     Vika Miller, MA is a visionary educator, speaker, cultural creative, and relationship whisperer who loves to awaken and empower deep, authentic connection with ourselves, with each other, and with Life Itself. Her big-picture Calling and deepest devotion has always been to help (re)create a world where we can all genuinely thrive — personally and collectively — in a sustainable, attuned dance of connection with the Community of Life on Earth, of which we’re an eternal, irrevocable part. Her greatest genius lies in being able to discern key patterns and principles at the individual, relational, and systems ... Read more - [Terms and Conditions](https://thriving-life.org/terms/): Terms and Conditions (Last updated 1/1/2025.) By entering your credit card information to make a purchase, clicking “I Agree”, physically or electronically signing this agreement, emailing or mailing a signed copy of this agreement, or otherwise enrolling, electronically, verbally, or otherwise, in any Event, Offering, or Program (“Program”), you (“Client”) are entering into a legally binding agreement with THRIVING LIFE INSTITUTE, LLC, an Oregon Limited Liability Company (“Company”), whereby Client agrees to abide by all policies and procedures outlined in the following terms and conditions, as a condition of their participation in the Program. COMPANY DEFINITION. The “Company” shall include ... Read more - [Privacy Policy](https://thriving-life.org/privacy/): PRIVACY POLICY Last updated March 1, 2025 This privacy notice for THRIVING LIFE INSTITUTE, LLC (“we,” “us,” or “our”), describes how and why we might collect, store, use, and/or share (“process”) your information when you use our services (“Services”), such as when you: Visit our website at https://thriving-life.org, or any website of ours that links to this privacy notice Engage with us in other related ways, including any sales, marketing, or events Questions or concerns? Reading this privacy notice will help you understand your privacy rights and choices. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, please do not ... Read more - [Get Your Free Human Design Chart](https://thriving-life.org/human-design-chart/): Get Your Free Human Design Chart         - [Transaction Failed](https://thriving-life.org/checkout-2/transaction-failed/): Your transaction failed, please try again or contact site support. - [Welcome to our Thriving Village](https://thriving-life.org/welcome/): Life isn’t about pursuing happiness. It’s about learning how to THRIVE in our life and relationships. Because thriving is what creates real happiness. In the end, we all just want to be loved, secure, and happy, and to know that our lives have made some kind of positive difference for others.Why is that so hard? Why do our serious efforts to “get ahead” in life leave us stressed, exhausted, anxious, and overwhelmed? (And sometimes resentful, angry, hopeless, or depressed?) And why is there so much confusion and pain in some of our most important relationships, no matter how hard we ... Read more - [Express](https://thriving-life.org/store/express/): [express] - [Receipt](https://thriving-life.org/store/receipt/): Your Receipt [receipt]     Click here to schedule your coaching sessions.       - [Cart](https://thriving-life.org/store/cart/): Your Shopping Cart [cart] - [Subscribe to THRIVING LIFE List at ActiveCampaign](https://thriving-life.org/subscribe-2/):       - [Subscribe](https://thriving-life.org/subscribe/):       - [Compassionate Noticing](https://thriving-life.org/compassionate-noticing/): Compassionate Noticing Mindfulness Practice “[With Compassionate Noticing] I … go from overwhelm to almost instantly relaxed. “I’m also grateful to be using it regularly now with my wife, to deepen our relationship. It’s a simple, effective well-being practice, we look forward to tapping into it for the rest of our lives!“ — Chris V.S., California, USA   “I more often have the choice of what my reaction is, instead of being swept away down the river of sadness/anger/frustration/overwhelm. Now I know that experiencing those things is okay too, and that I will recover and that I’ll be okay. That may be the biggest ... Read more - [Core Values](https://thriving-life.org/core-values/): Our Core Values  These are the Core Values and Practices that guide us in honoring and supporting everyone’s honorable thriving: SHARED HUMANITY and COMPASSION We’re all equally human. We all have the same life-needs; we all long to be welcome, safe, and happy; we all suffer when we experience rejection; and we all are greatly challenged when we experience toxic shame. We all also have our own special blend of “warts and farts and ugly, crazy parts” — the ways our mistaken beliefs and unconscious survival brains can leave us disconnected from ourselves, our deepest values, and each other. We all ... Read more - [Start Here](https://thriving-life.org/start-here/): The Thrive Roadmap Level 1: Compass and Territory         The Thrive Roadmap is based on the following principles: It’s our birthright to THRIVE … in alignment with other people and the rest of the Web of Life Happiness is the feeling we get when we’re THRIVING. So, if we want to feel happy, we have to learn how to thrive Everyone has the same right to thrive; no person’s well-being is more important than another’s The only thing anyone is ever doing, is trying to thrive (however unconscious, misguided, counterproductive, or tragically destructive their strategies might be) All ... Read more ## Products - [Product as gift](https://thriving-life.org/product/f6d7acbe7aa2164fe44360be25dea748/): This is an automatically created product for Send product as gift functionality. - [Purchase a Gift Card -
Give the gift of THRIVING!](https://thriving-life.org/product/gift-card/): Purchase a Gift Card, and Give the Gift of THRIVING! You can purchase any specific item as a gift — just go to that item’s page and select “Gift this Item.” But what if you don’t want to gift a specific item? No problem!  Here you can choose any gift card amount, from $100 to $5,000. You can even specify the date you want it delivered!  (NOTE: The time of delivery will match the time of day you purchased the gift card.) What better way to show you care, than to give the gift of thriving?   Click here to continue ... Read more - [
Presence Practice Depth Work - Group Coaching](https://thriving-life.org/product/presence-practice/): This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below: Password: [comment]: # (Generated by Hostinger Tools Plugin)