I Like

At the end of every meeting, we hand out a questionnaire for feedback on the meeting. Everyone fills it out and then we go around and share. We ask,

I Like...

I Wish...

What if..

This is a compilation of participants: I Like...

Format - Structure

• • The structure of this practice allowed /facilitated connection and understanding with my partners

  • The intentions setting and lighting the candles. Felt it set a great tone for the group and why we were all there. I enjoyed splitting into the smaller groups so the we could have a lot of involvement in the group

  • That I figured out near the end that the dialog could be a dialog by choosing to speak back to the same person that was just speaking. also- Really like this Q&A at the end. Great idea!

  • The structure and safety

  • Switching people between tables

  • Randomization of the circle groups - I think it works fairly well

  • The relatively open structure (giving back feelings guesses or not) was for me successful

  • That we broke into groups of 4-5

  • That Vicki open another possibility of having the group empathy listen instead of on one-on-one

  • The structure held up through a difficult noisy chaotic start

  • The group, the structure, the fact that I felt connected and could speak freely and got heard

  • Switching groups so that I got to connect with more people and tell my story twice!

  • Also-Really like this Q&A at the end. Great idea!

  • That we had people switched tables and be with new people

  • The format of this discussion /practice group

  • The frame of open and closing the circle

  • How focused the exercise was.

Being heard and hearing others

• being heard

  • that I felt heard and that felt good

• Opportunity to listen, share, be heard and be seen

• Being heard and hearing others

  • being heard and hearing and empathizing with others

• being heard, wonderful reflective statements and empathy given and received

  • Being heard, hearing similar, hearing very different

  • being heard, hearing others, listening, hearing new /different ideas and perspectives, understanding more

  • sharing and feeling heard

  • No Judgement

  • being heard, not being judged/pressured into saying the right thing.

  • being heard about my celebration, anxiety, uncontrolled state

  • being heard, and getting some practice in being heard!

  • I really enjoy hearing what other are going through to give me a different perspective

  • being heard, wonderful reflective statements and empathy given and received

  • that I felt fully heard about my experiences and anxieties. I enjoyed hearing about other people's life experiences and seeing how productive the practice of active listening and feedback encourages authentic communication and healing.

  • the quiet after a while. keeping things moving. being heard several times about an ongoing subject.

  • hearing different ideas and perspectives

  • listening, being heard,

  • the opportunity to be heard and to feel the sense of genuine empathy expression in response

  • the way we just got reflected and heard

  • being able to talk about what I have been going through and having people reflect and make guess about feelings and needs

  • hearing peoples shares and self reflections

People

Meeting People

• • Meeting people and get really comfortable to have a discussion with them that makes me happy.

  • that I got to interact with a variety of people

New People

• • that new people joined and brought new energies and insights.

  • meeting new people that I really like

  • new faces

  • Different new people and old timers

  • the people we have today and hope all those people show up next time

  • new people, people returning,

  • New Faces, Familiar faces

  • having new people who can get into empathic listening and experience their hoi over doing so

  • meeting new folks

  • new people with a lot of new creative insights and ways of being

  • there a richness in the experience of new people

  • new attendees

People Returning

• • familiar faces

  • 4 new people who bring new energy

  • seeing familiar folks

  • seeing people again that I've seen before and getting to know them a little better

Turnout

• • good turnout

  • the size of the group present

  • a big group - new people

  • the turnout and the deep insights that are arising

  • That 10 people showed up and that most of the time we made good use of the timers and that is was quite here tonight

  • people showed up

Practice; empathy, listening, reflective listening,

• • being able to practice empathy, especially reflective listening

  • spending time just reflecting back what is being said as a listening practice

  • the opportunity to practice with being blown away by rapid back and forth

  • Practicing empathy discussion to get better at listening.

  • Practicing and getting feedback.

  • being able to practice empathy, especially reflective listening

  • spending time just reflecting back what is being said as a listening practice

  • lot's of practice

  • the actual exercise to put it into practice

  • being able to practice listening and reflecting

  • practicing reflective listening and the opportunity for connection, conversation with others

  • I felt is was a good practice

  • practicing listening

  • the opportunity to practice empathic listening

Listening

• • People listening rather that giving advice

  • The fact that the listener doesn't give answers to the thoughts of the speaker, only listens and reflects, letting The speaker genuinely express his/her feelings fluidly and according to his feelings not being guided by the listener.

  • being listened to w/ individual attention

  • listening to people who want to be heard

  • the opportunity to share, to listen, to hear people express vulnerabilities

  • People listening rather that giving advice

  • how engaged everyone was in listening

Connection

• • connecting, gain wisdom, learning

  • The connectedness that I felt today with all people I was in empathic listening groups (which we end all people)

  • Getting to connect with unity that underlies all diversity. I feel hope that when young people develop these skills that the world will become more peaceful.

  • our circle felt really good for me, I felt a deeper and deeper since of connection

  • how ego drops away with true connection

  • connecting with the community

Learning

• • To lean relearn how to speak back what I heard from others as well as to mirror myself about my own issues

  • listening to many different people

  • learning how to reflect listen and listen empathically

  • I'm learning and getting experience in hosting these empathy circles in this setting

  • hearing the different approaches to active listening and reflective listening.

  • everything I learned about the reflective listening

  • now I learned how to listen more closely

  • have been told I need to work on listening, really

Vulnerability

• • participants willingness to be vulnerable

  • to feel vulnerable and be authentic and feel safe doing so

  • other participants willingness to be vulnerable

Sharing

• • being given the space to speak and say what I want to say

  • sharing what is on my mind with strangers who are accepting and defer judgment

  • to have had the opportunity to share some of my feelings and thoughts in the group

The Feelings

• • The different emotional energies

  • companionship

  • the feeling of companionship at the end

  • Humor

  • laughing

  • warm, spacious

  • my dark cold mood shifted to feeling warm, spacious, and connected

  • Connection

  • How openings feel and feel of possible empathy is as a skill can create dissolves of walls and rigidities

  • Caring

  • caring group of people

  • the rekindling my fait in our ability to care for others

  • Companionship

  • finding companionship and understanding around this growing edge of mine

Location

• • convenient location

Quite

• • not to noisy tonight

  • quiet space

  • low noise level

Intention

• • to set an intention at the being of meeting.

Attention

• • Getting attention and sharing my experience w/people how car (or seem to)

Empathy

• • that I came and had some good conversation and empathy

  • getting empathy

Seeing others

• • seeing/experiencing peoples interest aversions concerns

Peoples Skills in listening

• • the skill others had in listening reflectively and empathically

Reflection

• • pure reflection

  • the pure reflection of what was said y the speaker

  • the reflections of what is said. I like the direct reflections and checking about what was said

Mediation

• • mediating a conflict with empathy

Dialog

• • that we had some natural dialogue develop out of our empathy circle.

Grounded

• • I like I felt more grounded after

    • • 1. being able to share

      • 2. hearing others speak and be heard

      • 3. reflecting others

Being Understood

• • truly knowing how well I was understood

Openness

• • the openness

  • I liked a feeling of expanded awareness or of using new or little used parts of my brain

Going Deeper

• • getting beneath the surface

  • other people getting into depth and my being able to get into a wide range of my problems and feelings

  • we worked our way into deeper dialogue

Reflections

• • the starting and restating ideas because it makes me hear the ideas in another light

Presence

• • the company and presence of everyone

Location

• • good location

  • good convenient location

  • The place this time was much better that last week

Group size

• • the bigger group

  • that the group is getting larger

Theme - Topic

• • theme of respect - disrespect

  • interesting topic

  • getting into some of the deeper aspects of disrespect resulting from social stratification

  • having a topic theme of empathy and respect

Shared Facilitation

• • Vicki leading and me relaxing

  • Vicki inspired the theme

NVC

• • connecting using nvc

Miscellaneous

• • Reflection leading to further insight

  • I feel nourished by the stories and feelings everyone shared. nice location, 6 people was a good size. like that the group is slowing growing

  • this is the 3rd meeting and we're rolling along

  • being able to talk about thing I normally don't talk about

  • getting lost in other peoples life

  • empathy singing - reflection

  • empathy arm waving - reflection

  • I also like coloring these people

  • how using this skill leads into asking question to assist occurring answers

  • flipping the coin - thank you Michael for the creativity

  • having received advice from Vicky about how a low-histamine diet will relieve pain

  • the idea of different algorithms - ie new ways of responding

  • Receiving what people think and are willing to share.

  • the focus on the other person and individual attention and pressure to reflect back everything the speaker said. It feels great to focus on someone like that.

  • that I figured out near the end that the dialog could be a dialog by choosing to speak back to the same person that was just speaking.

  • Vicki was very helpful

  • I would like to join you all again

  • In our almost autistic society, it is so great to find the group, where people are aware of the issue of being heard and understood.

  • ease of getting started

  • It feels very productive to be able to spend an entire hour or two on building a particular skill.

  • the connection of Chris and Steven to design

  • I also like that we were in a cafe because I felt more comfortable sharing without knowing everybody

Sort

• I benefited from learning new non-verbal empathy practice as well as practicing the verbal reflection and empathy