Copy and paste:

Active listening is a skill that we are trying to hone in the Chalice Circle program.

This means:

• Listening and feeling without thinking about how to respond.

• Delaying any expression of whether you:

o Agree or not

o Are truly interested or not

o Have something that you could add

o Want to empathize

o Feel compassion or sympathy

This is a time of non-judgmental acceptance of the words being expressed.

To give each person in the Circle their time of undivided attention, here are guidelines for eliminating side-bar and cross talk:

• Commit to listening fully. The person sharing should have all attention given to them and be uninterrupted in their thoughts.

• Understand that the sharer may not want to share or explain or expand further on what they are saying.

• Avoid comments, sighing, "hmmms", etc., while someone is talking. These distract the group’s attention away from the person sharing and turn the attention to someone else, possibly causing the sharer to:

o Feel uncomfortable about continuing

o Be reluctant to share the next time

o Be less attentive to others next time because it seems unimportant to be so

• Use your break time to address each other in a compassionate way and ask questions or give comments - but only if this is welcomed.