2018-12-29: Bridge Divides

Benefits of Bridging Political Divides with Empathy Circles

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"I like being listened to."

I like being listened to. I think everybody does a really good job of listening. I can be a difficult person to listen to and that is what I would hope for in the future. That I will be less defensive, and that I will feel safer, and that I can be easier to listen to and be easier to be understood because of that.

― Tyler Morris

"I feel really grateful to be back in this kind of

a space, and I am glad it exists."

I really liked the unique moment of Meagan doing a role play to bring in a different voice to cause us to go deeper. So I feel really grateful to be back in this kind of a space, and I am glad it exists. So thank you Edwin.

― Clare Hedin

"I really liked this thing where we started to say,

“I’m Listening” right after someone chose us."

I really liked this thing where we started to say, “I’m Listening” right after someone chose us. I mean not everyone did it every time. I’m not saying it should be mandatory, it just felt good when it started happening organically. There is something very comforting about someone just saying, “I’m listening.”

I Wish:

As far as improvements or moving forward. I notice I a little worry of anything I say as being static, like it’s all a work in progress. I might say things slightly differently at some point or there might be another piece of information that I’m not sharing that is really crucial to what I did say. I hope we can remember that we are not static. That this in one moment in time and we can continue to learn about each other and those who participate.

― Meagan

For the most part I think it was another good session.

I Wish:

The only critique I might have is maybe having more variety of meeting times, because I am in different moods in different times of the day. And I have a strong feeling that people I have the most conflict with so to speak, sleep in late. So I would like to talk with those people. So a more evenings circle will bring a different crowd, that would be interesting as well.

― David Carson

" I thought is was a really good circle today.

There was a lot of deep listening and sharing."

Despite technical difficulties I thought is was a really good circle today. There was a lot of deep listening and sharing.

What I would wish for is that we could get to the deeper level of our needs and talking about what we each need and maybe even to guessing needs in a NVC format.

― Corey Collier

I enjoyed the session as well.

I Wish:

I agree with Cory that I would enjoy going a layer deeper to the needs.

Another thing I would wish for is to know what to speak about because I don’t really have a lot of topics in my mind to speak to other people. I can not produce them like. So, that was a difficult thing for me.

― Julia May

I really enjoyed it. There were all new people that I really enjoyed hearing their different opinions.I really liked how everyone was comfortable just talking about how much the thoughts where they challenge different things. I liked hearing that and know that everyone felt comfortable enough to just talk about how they wanted to challenge various things or ideas.

― Evan Magor

"I enjoyed, pretty much, the

connection with everybody."

I enjoyed pretty much the connection with everybody. I really enjoyed the facilitation that Evan did and it was very clear and I enjoyed all that human connect stuff and hearing what everyone had to say was also good.

I Wish:

I have a slight sense of frustration that often do with NVC empathy circling of it being just a bit mono directional and never really getting off the space and into the guts of things. So I am not sure how one will do that.

― Nick Wood

I also enjoyed the facilitation and I guess the sense of safety and actually given that it could have been that the topics were quite difficult, I guess there was a sense of safety know that things would just simply be reflected back.

I Wish:

But equally, and a couple of people touched on this, I would probably feel maybe, a bit more satisfied, knowing that it would be possible to talk about the feelings and the needs that are around that, to get another layer of depth.

― Sophie Varlow

I really welcomed this opportunity. This was quite new to me and I think it’s quite fascinating that do many of us can come together. Like other people have said it’s perhaps the beginning and further work, empathy circle can be done and I feel quite confident that were those discussions can come forth in an empathic way.

― Rona Burt

"I absolutely love this process.

I’m so enamored with it and

I come to these as often as I can."

I absolutely love this process. I’m so enamored with it and I come to these as often as I can.

I think that one thing that is present for me as a possible improvement is. It’s funny because a few people have mentioned the word safety, and I feel it might be helpful to intentionally create this as a safe place. I got the sense that a couple of people were holding back for fear of something. I felt like vulnerability was not completely open. That was just one thing that was present for me.

― Art Burns

"It felt like it is a little muscle,

that each time you got to do it,

and it gets better with practice I think"

It was really interesting to do something like this after a long time. It felt like it is a little muscle, that each time you got to do it, and it gets better with practice I think. It was interesting to see Evan has a lot of practice so he was very fluent.

Also, the role of the observer is really interesting. You learn a lot doing that, because you are not involved in either speaking or listening. I’m aware of that as well.

I would echo the point about safety, that Nick made. Structure versus safety. He made a point that a lot of structure can mean that people don’t get down to the actual thing, because it’s too difficult or conflicted and that can be unsafe for people, by not having resolution.

It’s an interesting process and the skill is definitely useful to speak in such groups to develop the skill of listening.

― Joy

"It’s an interesting process and the skill is

definitely useful to speak in such groups to

develop the skill of listening. "

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