In this blog on the The Circle Way website I share the story of my involvement in a lockdown initiative for self-organized circles “CoronaCircles” – a weave of circle practice and technology.
https://www.thecircleway.net/articles/2020/12/30/coronacircles
Wir sitzen nicht im selben Boot. Die Wiederentdeckung der Kreise
Einer der Wege, mit den Corona-Einschränkungen umzugehen, ist die Wiederentdeckung des Kreises – der Begegnung im kleinen Rund. Im 21. Jahrhundert geht das auch auf digitale Weise. Unter dem Motto CoronaCircles wird dazu eingeladen, selbst kleine Gesprächsgruppen zu gründen um in der Krise die Kraft der Gemeinschaft zu spüren.
Dieser Text wurde erstmals am 27. April 2020 als Blogeintrag auf Englisch auf https://circlesofwisdomblog.wordpress.com/ veröffentlicht, sowie auf der Blogseite von Info3 unter https://info3-verlag.de/blog/corona-circles-die-kraft-der-kreise-in-der-krise/ und anschließend als Artikel in der Printausgabe der Info3, Ausgabe Juni 2020.
Eine der Auswirkungen der gegenwärtigen Corona-Situation liegt darin, dass wir erkennen, wie vernetzt wir als Menschheit sind. Noch nie zuvor waren wir so offensichtlich weltweit und gleichzeitig von einer so unerwarteten, globalen Herausforderung betroffen. Noch nie zuvor wurden in so kurzer Zeit so einschneidende Maßnahmen in so großem Maßstab ergriffen.
Aber nicht alle Menschen auf dieser Welt sind gleichermaßen betroffen. Der britische Autor Damian Barr formulierte es recht treffend: „Wir sitzen nicht im selben Boot. Wir sind im selben Sturm. Manche sitzen auf einer Yacht, andere haben nur ein Ruder.“ Wir lernen jedoch zu erkennen, dass wir als Menschheit eins sind. Was einen einzigen Menschen belastet, wirkt sich auf andere aus, auch wenn sie womöglich meilenweit entfernt sind. Was jetzt geschieht, kann als ein Weckruf verstanden werden, nicht zu dem zurückzukehren, was als normal galt. Veränderung tut not.
Es gab schon immer ein großes Potenzial für Veränderungen in kleinen Gruppen. Obwohl es nicht immer leicht ist, miteinander auszukommen, wenn wir gemeinsam etwas Neues schaffen, können wir uns in unseren Höhen und Tiefen durch das, worauf die Anthropologin Margaret Mead hingewiesen hat, ermutigt und inspiriert fühlen: „Zweifle nie daran, dass eine kleine Gruppe nachdenklicher, engagierter Bürger die Welt verändern kann: Es ist in der Tat das Einzige, was die Welt jemals verändert hat.“
Seit Anbeginn der Zeit kommen Menschen in Kreisen zusammen, um über sich selbst und ihre Anliegen zu sprechen. Im Laufe der vergangenen Jahrzehnte sind viele selbstorganisierte Übungsgemeinschaften und Netzwerke entstanden, die darauf basieren, dass eine Gruppe von Menschen sich im Kreis trifft. Die angewandten Methoden variieren je nach den Bedürfnissen und dem Zweck der Treffen. Inzwischen steht ein großer Werkzeugkasten an Methoden für den Austausch, das tiefe Zuhören und den Zugang zu Weisheit zur Verfügung. Einige davon, die ich in unterschiedlichen Situationen verwende, seien hier genannt: Weisheitskreis, Herzrunden, Collective Presencing, Open Space, World Café, Circle Way, Case Clinic, systemische Aufstellungen und das Flow Game.
Es ist nicht verwunderlich, dass mehrere dieser Methoden zurzeit für Online-Treffen aufgearbeitet wurden und somit unterschiedlichste Gruppenzusammenstellungen entstehen: lokal, regional, national, international, global. Sie ermöglichen es, dass Menschen voneinander hören, neue Perspektiven gewinnen und aus den Erfahrungen der anderen lernen können.
Wenn wir uns mit einer existenziellen Krise konfrontiert sehen, scheint es mindestens vier Phasen oder Zustände zu geben, die wir erleben. Sie sind nicht unbedingt linear-konsekutiv zu verstehen, da sie sich überschneiden und wiederholen können. Man könnte sie wie folgt beschreiben:
1. Akzeptieren, was geschieht: Während wir sehen, wie Systeme, Gewohnheiten und Gewissheiten zusammenbrechen oder sich auflösen, lassen wir Schmerz, Trauer und Schock zu und verleihen dem, was uns passiert, Ausdruck.
2. Sinngebung: Wenn wir Mehrdeutigkeit und Ungewissheit erfahren, versuchen wir, unseren Erfahrungen einen Rahmen und einen Sinn zu verleihen.
3. Neue Formen, Haltungen und Werte entstehen lassen: Wir versuchen, Wege und Mittel zu finden, im Ungewissen trotzdem zu handeln. Als eine Folge von Zusammenbruch, Chaos, Druck, Sinnstiftung, visionärer Kraft beziehungsweise innerer Ausrichtung werden dabei neue Möglichkeiten sichtbar.
4. Diesen neuen Wegen Form und Gestalt geben.
Wenige Tage nach dem Anfang des globalen Lockdowns am 23. März 2020 veröffentlichte Brian Stout einen interessanten Online-Artikel mit dem Titel Turning toward: connecting under quarantine. On the transformative potential of small groups. Am Schluss seiner Überlegungen kam er zu der folgenden Feststellung: „Lasst uns wieder Verbindung miteinander aufnehmen. Da es zurzeit physisch nicht möglich ist, müssen wir Wege finden, wie wir die Technologie nutzen können, um Vertrauen aufzubauen, Beziehungen zu vertiefen und zusammenzuarbeiten. Notgedrungen sind wir plötzlich von den Grenzen der Geografie befreit: Die ganze Welt ist jetzt eure kleine Gruppe.“
Sinngebung und Neugestaltung beginnen damit, dass wir unsere Geschichten, Sorgen und Anliegen miteinander teilen. Eine kleine Gruppe, der ich angehöre, hat eine neue Plattform namens CoronaCircles entwickelt. Sie soll es ermöglichen, sich ganz einfach online in einem kleinen Kreis zu treffen und einander jenseits der geographischen Grenzen und der eigenen Filterblase in Zeiten der Krise und des Wandels achtsam zuzuhören. Für uns ist es ein erster Schritt auf dem Weg der persönlichen und kollektiven Bewältigung der momentanen globalen Krise. ///
CoronaCircles – A Platform for Self-Organized Circles
A few days after the start of the global lockdown, Gerriet Schwen invited some facilitators to an online brainstorming session, focusing on the question how the power of community and sharing can support people in times of Corona. It seemed helpful to offer online spaces where people speak from the heart, listen to each other, and formulate what is important to them. Michael Hoenninger and myself joined Gerriet to combine the powerful tradition of circle work with the current possibilities of video conferencing.
CoronaCircles is a free, open source platform in English and German, with a simple method and structure that encourage mindful sharing & listening. Someone invites to a Circle; up to four others join. The host can invite people from his or her own network or wait and see who shows up, thus getting the chance to get to meet and listen to people from other regions or countries, with other backgrounds and experiences.
The CoronaCircles team would appreciate it if people who have some expertise concerning hosting step in first, so as to offer others the opportunity to experience mindful sharing and listening, gradually empowering them to host circles themselves. Information about the process is available in text and video format on the website and will also be sent by email after registration.
After this long phase of staying at home and social distancing, it seems to be time to talk about what changed for us and within us, as well as sharing our intention and hopes for the future.
Collective Presencing – Video Material & Book Made Available
“We-Space” refers to collective practices that generate deep conversation. In October 2017 a five-day online We-Space summit was presented and helped making such approaches more visible. More than 150 hours of interviews, panels and practice sessions were made available for free during 5 days. The event was organised by Olen Gunnlaugson, who co-edited with Michael Brabant the book “Cohering the Integral We Space: Engaging Collective Emergence, Wisdom and Healing in Groups”, which was published in 2016.
Lately snippets taken from the summit’s interview with Ria Baeck on the genesis and practice of Collective Presencing were put online on her youtube-channel “Collective Presencing”. Now the whole interview is made available, as well as the Collective Presencing Panel with Ria Baeck, Judy Wallace, Luea Ritter and Griet Hellinckx, gracefully hosted by Ann Maare Paré.
The Collective Presencing practice emerged and took its first form during a period of 6 years (2006 till 2012) within the context of Women Moving the Edge, a project initiated by Judy Wallace and Ria Baeck. The material that can be found on the Collective Presencing website and in the book that describes the story of Collective Presencing as an emerging new human capacity is based on the experiences and learnings during those women gatherings.
Dates for Online Council & Circle
As mentioned in the previous blog „The World is your Small Group“ several tools for sharing and listening in circle have been taken online. The Council website offers a page where dates for online Council or Circle meetings can be found. The facilitators mentioned in the entries can be contacted for more information.
„The World is Your Small Group“
One of the effects of the present situation is that we realise how interconnected humanity is. Never before have we so obviously been affected worldwide and simultaneously by such an unexpected, global challenge. Never before were such severe measures taken on such a large scale within such short notice.
Not everyone is affected in the same way. As Damian Barr formulated it: „We are not all in the same boat. We are all in the same storm. Some are on super-yachts. Some have just the one oar.“ We learn to see that as Humanity we are One. What troubles one human being, does have an effect on others even miles away. What is happening now can be heard as a wake-up call not to return to that which we had come to accept as normal. Change is needed.
There is a lot of potential for transformation in small groups. Although it is not always easy to get along with one another as we are co-creating something new, we can feel encouraged and inspired in our ups and downs by what the anthropologist Margaret Mead pointed out: „Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.“
Since the beginning of time, people have been coming together in circles to share about themselves and their concerns. Over the past decades several self-organizing communities of practice have emerged that are based on the principle of a group of people meeting in circle. The methods being used vary according to the needs and purpose of the meeting. A large tool box for sharing, deep listening, and accessing wisdom is available by now. Just to give you a taste and name a few, I pick some that I have been using in different settings: Circle of Wisdom, Council, Collective Presencing, Open Space, World Café, The Circle Way, Case Clinic, Systemic Constellations, and the Flow Game.
It comes as no surprise that several of these tools have been taken online and allow for all sorts of configurations: local, regional, national, international, global. They enable us to hear and learn from one another’s experiences.
As we are confronted with an existential crisis, there seem to be at least four phases or states that we move through. They are not necessarily linear-consecutive, as they can overlap and repeat themselves.
They might be described as:
1. Accepting what is happening – As we witness how systems, habits and certainties break down or dissolve, we allow ourselves to feel in shock, sense pain or grief, and express what is happening for us.
2. Sense-making – As we experience ambiguity and uncertainty, we try to frame our experiences and give meaning to them.
3. Letting new forms, attitudes, values, etc. emerge – We try to find ways to act in the unknown. As a result of break-down, chaos, pressure, sense-making, visionary power and/or inner alignment new possible ways of being and acting become visible.
4. Giving shape and form to those new ways
A few days into the global lockdown (March 23rd, 2020), Brian Stout published an interesting online article called „Turning toward: connecting under quarantine. On the transformative potential of small groups“. He poignantly concluded his reflections with the following lines: „Let’s reconnect. We can’t do so physically, so we need to find ways to use technology to build trust, deepen relationships, and collaborate together. Of necessity, we’re suddenly liberated from the boundaries of geography: the world is your small group.“
Sense-making and co-creating start by sharing our stories and concerns. A small group that I am part of has been developing a new platform called CoronaCircles. It intends to make it easier to come together online in local and global circles and listen deeply to one another in times of quarantine and social distancing. We hope to launch it sooner than soon. Stay in touch!
„What are we being called to do at this time? To wake up together.“ (Joanna Macy)
Highly recommended!!! A long, very beautiful and inspiring article including an extensive interview with Joanna Macy.
„We need to sit together, grab each other and be together as we even take in what is happening, let alone how we respond. Because alone you get overwhelmed, and it becomes traumatizing. But once people have tasted that they can, with each other, speak about what they see and feel is happening to our world, a number of things happen, in addition to the fact that they fall in love with each other. There is a trust and realization of, „Oh my god, I’m not alone.“ There is a return to your own self-respect. I think self-respect has not been realized as such a source of strength in the individual psyche. I think people would rather see themselves facing an overwhelming foe with conviction of their purpose, than to be comfortable.
So that was the release. And the release would come, and as people began to break through their reluctance to suffer with our world, once they took that on and spoke to it, then they found their unity with our world. Often, not only did a sense of bondedness come, but a lot of hilarity. There is laughter and joking, and a shaking off of a kind of spell or curse. A feeling comes, of, „I can be here.“ And that feels more liberating and true to you and brings you into the moment when you are less dependent on someone giving you a failsafe method to make everything fine, because no one can do that. (…)
What is called of us now, from the planet? What are we being called to do at this time?
To wake up together. That is actually the name of the movement in Sri Lanka that I went over to do field work with. Sarvodaya. Taking the Gandhian term, but using it in a slightly different way, but the same Sanskrit, which is „everybody wakes up together.“
It’s hard to wake up alone now. It’s scary to see even what is going on. But there is almost no limit, I’ve come to believe, to what we can do with the love and support of each other. There is almost no limit to what we can do for the sake of each other. This taps into the Bodhisattva heart. That’s that hero figure of Mahayana Buddhism, „the one with the boundless heart.“ The one who realizes there is no private salvation.
If you are going to wake up, you have to wake up together. Never has that been more true than now, at this stage of late stage corporate capitalism.“
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/39448-learning-to-see-in-the-dark-amid-catastrophe-an-interview-with-deep-ecologist-joanna-macy
Bringing Circles Online
On the website of the CircleWay you find blog posts and resources that might be useful when you need to shift your in-person circles and meetings into the so-called virtual space.
www.thecircleway.net/articles/2020/3/16/resources-hosting-circles-online
Compassionate Listening – inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh
„You can call it compassionate listening. You listen with only one purpose: to help him or her to empty his heart. Even if he says things that are full of wrong perceptions, full of bitterness, you are still capable of continuing to listen with compassion. Because you know that listening like that, you give that person a chance to suffer less. If you want to help him to correct his perception, you wait for another time. For now, you don’t interrupt. You don’t argue. If you do, he loses his chance. You just listen with compassion and help him to suffer less. One hour like that can bring transformation and healing.“
See: http://www.compassionatelistening.org/about
Based on this approach there is „An Exploratory Sourcebook About Conflict Transformation“ available on the internet: http://www.newconversations.net/pdf/compassionate_listening.pdf
Circle Work in the Aftermath of Experiencing Terrorism
Nearly a year ago, on March 22nd, 2016 Kristin Verellen lost her partner Johan Van Steen when a bomb exploded in the Maelbeek Station in Brussels. In the first nights after the attack she met with friends to hold vigils for him. They sat in circle, holding space and listening to one another. Gradually more and more people joined. They kept meeting, including others that had in some ways been hurt or touched by what had happened. Kristin and a circle team that emerged out of these experiences goes on organizing circles in different places across the country. A first international online circle in English took place 2 days ago.
„Telling and listening to each others stories is very important to regain our strength. It helps to deal with our emotions and to face life with a new awareness and renewed energy.
By organising these Circles we want to give the opportunity to everybody who was involved or feels impacted in some way by the terrorist attacks and other forms of blind violence in Belgium and elsewhere in the world to take a moment to reflect. What impact do these acts of blind violence have on us, on our choices, on our society? And what do we do with our precious life and the time we have left?“
http://www.wehavethechoice.com/
Kristin speaking at a memorial service for the victims in the palace in Brussels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFm9bmg65jI