What people say about Hi! Conversation Change Lives

What people are saying about Hi! Conversation Changes Lives… [ Also check out our book launch ]

Endorsement 1
If ever there was a need for a guide to conversation and how it enriches our collective and inter-connected lives, it is now when conversations—like potlucks and spending time in nature— are the most radical acts one can do. Bowers is the modern alchemist in my home town that mixes people together, throws questions into the brew and produces gold.
Briony Penn, PhD

Endorsement 2
I like it, and I think it accomplishes all of its goals. It’s a successful mix of storytelling, desiderata, heartfelt cheerleading, how-to…and it sounds like you. I can hear your voice on every page. And thank God, it’s not preachy, but just very encouraging and helpful.
Gene Miller

Endorsement 3
Christopher Bowers can show you how to appreciate your own life as it is even while he demonstrates how you can expand both your desire and your ability to enrich it.

Jack Hodgins CM, DLitt, BEd, FRSC

Endorsement 4
A timely and accessible set of principles, guidelines and practical techniques for cultivating the lost art of conversation, and applying it in our daily lives. This book shows how a simple conversation can be a powerful vehicle for transforming our lives, our workplaces, and our collective future.
Michael K Epstein PhD
Managing Director, Centre for Integrative Medicine

Endorsement 5
Life changes with a conversation”, indeed, life is a conversation!
How we interact, listen, engage and communicate with those around us not only enriches our personal lives, it enhances the community we inhabit.
“Hi” is a wealth of useful approaches to engaging in conversation, full of thoughtful practices, wonderful stories and encouraging insights into the joys of conversation.
By reflecting on what we have done in order to “pull out”, reveal, a story from our past, enables us to know or realize a little more about “who we are” and how our stories enrich the tapestry of life that communities embody.
“Hi” is a wealth of information that will encourage you, entice you, to take the first tentative steps to engage with others, to develop a sense of worth in one’s involvement with others, and with the community we share.
I highly recommend this treasure trove of practices, delightful story ‘snippets’, and compelling rationale for conversation.
Ken Annandale, Educator

Endorsement 6

Friendliness, kindness and humour are just a few of the qualities Bowers discovered researching the magic keys to opening transformational conversations.
His new book is a gem, full of deep wisdom and his joy of reconnecting us all to what matters.
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Bowers has taken everyday conversations and turned them into opportunities to enter into deep transformational conversations that change lives. This book is a gem – good tonic for the soul in these turbulent times…..

Dr. Robin June Hood

Endorsement 7
Firstly, it is a beautiful book…inviting and crossing easily into the internet world…”this frustrating age of digital self-absorption” (forward). It is written with respect for the language arts as well as conversational arts. Great examples of clear communication.

I liked the reference “Good tonic for the soul in these turbulent times.”

I often think of Conversation as an old fashioned art form…a lost art. People talking at, and then tuning out. You remind us of its importance , and yes The Art of Conversation.p78

I was doing my Bible study this morning and came across James 3:13. King James

“Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.”
I support totally “the depth people are able to share when they feel heard.”p126

I agree “everyone has a story”

P157 conversations must start from within.
We are at a time of “social isolation and civic disengagement.”

I like the creative risks you take in your lives…ie. music after math class. P127

What a lot of work, sharing and history have gone into
“Hi!
Conversation Changes Lives”

Thank you for letting me have a first read.
Joan Lawrence

Forward

Hi! Conversation Changes Lives by Christopher Bowers

It all begins with Hi!
Shortly before the publication of Hi! Conversation Changes Lives, I talked with author Christopher Bowers, “the story-catcher of Victoria”. Like many of the examples in the book, our meeting arose out of a chance encounter. Although professional acquaintances for many years, only occasionally had we sat and talked at length.
I was captivated by the passion and genuine curiosity Christopher displays in his deceptively simple notion that “conversation changes lives”. The current book, like the hundreds of video interviews online at MobilizingHope.com, present people at their best, revealing an inherent, and overlooked, wisdom in the “ordinary”.
As Christopher has found over many years, most folks encouraged by a gentle “Hi!” and an appreciative question – “What’s gone well with you today?” – quickly become engaged and connected. The interviews and excerpts are filled with humility and insight, and suddenly what seems ordinary is imbued with that special understanding that strikes us when we truly pay attention to the moment.
At our meeting, I asked Christopher about the apparent “magic” of the process (clearly, there is something more going on than accosting strangers and pointing a camera at them). He talked of a seasoned blend of “empathy, curiosity and respect” as the basis for encounters with strangers, friends and family, and as a tonic for this frustrating age of digital self-absorption.
Hi! Conversation Changes Lives is both a testament to our need to connect and a how-to manual for creating magic and insight in our everyday encounters.
Christopher invites us to become travelers rather than tourists in our own lives – to seek opportunities to engage, connect and create moments to support and learn from one another. While an easy and satisfying read, Hi! Conversation Changes Lives also delivers on the promise to de-construct the why, what and how of powerful, everyday conversations.
Learn how to creatively start, navigate and graciously
end conversations. Design questions to capture people’s imaginations and invite further discussion. Find ways to deal with delicate or awkward issues and generate value for the conversations and experiences we take part in.
Whether a chance encounter with a stranger or our everyday exchanges at work, school and home, Hi! Conversation Changes Lives provides inspiration, instructions, conversation starters, and sample questions to integrate the practice of great conversations into our everyday lives. And a timely reminder to appreciate and celebrate the human spirit.

Peter Norman, MA – Teacher and Consultant

Book liner (2) description

“Hi! Conversation Changes Lives” is both a testament to our need to connect and a how- to manual for creating magic and insight in our everyday encounters. It provides inspiration, instructions, conversation starters, and sample questions to integrate the practice of great conversations into our everyday lives. And a timely reminder to appreciate and celebrate the human spirit.