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1.6 | What have you learned/observed about your experience practicing with the Wisdom Circle in your team?
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My wisdom circle team consists of 4 latinamerican women living in Latin America. My circle mates are socially enterprising young women. We speak fluent English that is our second language. I am a Spanish speaker and the rest are Portuguese-speaking. So my first thought in gathering was, “How different would this conversation, this Wisdom Circle be, if we were communicating in our mother language? How would our cultures influence how we express ourselves and how we pose issues, comments, and questions.”
I loved our honesty and willingness to express our vulnerabilities in confronting work challenges. -
I feel a sense of community and unconditional support which i really appreciate. I found it more helpful to the individual to support them in finding their solution than telling them what to do. I find this approach far more effective when communicating with others in searching for solutions to a problem and have seen people open up-feel empowered a lot more. This process definitely takes practice and effort to refine.
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In our wisdom circle, I represented my challenge to the group for the first time. This experience left me with an overwhelming sense of gratitude, trust, and connectedness, even though some of us were meeting in this context for the very first time! Wow.
In addition to this connectedness, the insights that arose in our Wisdom Circle led to new and unexpected perspectives. So valuable!
Having a few scheduled timeouts for minute-long mindfulness throughout this session allowed me to recognize that talking about my challenge was leading me to physically hold anxiety—which I was unaware of until I stopped to pause to notice. This was a great reminder to find moments—even seconds—to pause, and reflect, and check-in with the body (particularly at times when my mind is distracted).
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I am always impressed at how powerful giving a small group of people a framework to hear each other can be.
I was unable to make the meeting with my team in-between times. I suggest for future iterations of this program that you provide more notice that this will be done prior to the first session. I am paired with a group of extraordinary (and very busy) people, and trying to find a meeting time within two weeks notice simply didn’t work out.
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The wisdom circle gave me a glimpse into the lives of the team members. The dynamism was very palpable, that is, I could feel the communication, and I was able to practice compassion and empathy.
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I felt gratitude of sharing in a safe setting. I am amazed at how often the most personal is the most universal. That we all struggle in our own ways, but that the struggles are so similar for us all.
It was interesting how difficult it was, at first, to listen mindfully without interacting with constant approving comments and expressions. To allow oneself and the other undivided focus was very meaningful, and made me wish we listened more in this way in society today.
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I experienced deep compassion for my fellow wisdom circle members.
One never really knows what is going on with another person until we take the time to ask!
Much of our struggles are universal…I could relate/resonate with the issues of my fellow circle members. -
This was a complete gift for me. I challenged a semi-unconscious belief that I need to figure things out on my own. Having my partners’ care and presence was truly touching.
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– I’ve found it extremely rewarding to help others with their challenges.
– I’ve also gained some valuable insights and takeaways from the discussions.
– I’ve also noticed a resistance from myself to ask for help. I’m still unpacking why. Perhaps it’s partly about vulnerability. Perhaps it’s also that I want to have the answers when going into a situation. This surprised me, because I often think of myself as good at leaning into the discomfort of uncertainty. Perhaps my comfort with uncertainty is contextual. -
I have deep gratitude and respect for my Wisdom Circle: a group of extraordinary women with whom I feel privileged to hold space together. I have not participated in a Wisdom Circle before and appreciated the framework of collective listening, exchange, vulnerability, trust, and care. Although I deferred from presenting, what others presented edged into all of our experiences in different ways — so the questions resonated and allowed deeper reflection, individually and as a group, even in days that followed our session. I struggle talking about my own experience and appreciate the generous space to attempt to articulate challenges. This framework of collective listening generously opens up registers of ways of being, in relationship, which ripple outward (at least in regard to the two issues that have been presented thus far). Our sessions at times blurred questions and advice, which led me to look up a bit about Quaker clearness committees and the framework of distilling questions to open up more space for the presenter and listeners through the questions themselves. I am looking forward to deepening this practice and continuing to be present for my Circle. Much gratitude to all–
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Deep gratitude, curiosity and connection. Gratitude to bear witness to the vulnerability of others. Openness and interest in learning from them. A feeling of oneness with the circle arises.
It’s a beautiful practice from which every person in the group benefits deeply.
Grounding.
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I have really appreciated the opportunity to listen and allow someone to speak at length without interruption or responses from others. I also loved the direction to only ask clarifying questions and refrain from advice giving or problem solving. My tendency is to jump in and problem solve – and this has helped me think differently about my role as a leader and use other tools to help people clarify things for themselves. A wonderful technique and experience of joining with others in the circle.
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I loved learning about these Circles in this course, and have since conducted 2 Wisdom circles with colleagues- who also love the questioning (less answering) approach. I feel so grateful to have another powerful tool to help protect public health and the environment. Thank you so very much.
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learning the value of trust and the capacity for folks to build trust and safety ‘quickly’ or under the right conditions. This is so important in the work I do — I enter many situations at work where there is a acute and immediate need for trust to be build among people who are under strain. my ability to do this is a learned behavior but the HOW is less clear to me== I hope to gain more insight on this through the circle practice. what a wonderful group of curious beings!
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The wisdom circle is a profound exercise. I have had the privilege of both sharing and being present for someone sharing. I’ve thought about how I can bring this curiosity practice into my various relationships and how vulnerability, intimacy, trust, love and understanding can be cultivated when the unspoken rules are to create space for intent listening without judgment or the desire to solve.
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