Debrief

2025-01-04 - Debrief - Empathy Summit
OTTER.AI Summary 

The Empathy Summit debrief highlighted the positive experiences and insights shared by participants. Key points included the importance of empathy, the impact of the summit on personal growth, and the value of community. Participants from various backgrounds, including Pakistan and Mexico, shared their experiences, emphasizing the global reach of empathy circles. Edwin Rutsch and other speakers underscored the significance of empathy in fostering understanding and connection. Practical steps for continued engagement included saving chat links, filling out feedback forms, and participating in future summits and training sessions. The session concluded with a call to action to keep building the empathy movement.

Transcript

https://otter.ai/u/KFVPZ1elcUYozm8fdx45Am08DsI?view=transcript

Action Items


Outline

Empathy Summit Introduction and Initial Sharing


Learning and Personal Growth


Community and Connection


Deep Reflections and Broader Impact


Global Perspectives and Hope


Music and Empathy Connection


Final Thoughts and Closing


DEBRIEF 

Yep, we're all back. Okay, welcome back. And

so now we'll just do a round of sharing how this practice, how you found it, and how it was for you. What is it? Let me see here, it's not cooperating. What is it? 30 seconds to one minute?

Yeah, 30 seconds for your have about 25 people

to share, and then Edwin will do the closing. So I'll just call around based on what I see on my screen. Hillary, would you like to share how 30 seconds, how this has been for you?

Sure, I always enjoy giving back to the empathy community, and of course, it increases the empathy within me. I love seeing familiar faces and meeting new people. And I also love doctor Darling's presentation, with a focus on dei and my second favorite was Arnold jaffs, where he gave some prompts. Instead of asking, What are you doing, you ask, what are you feeling or what are you needing? So thank you for including me today. It was very well structured, and the website told us what to expect.

Thank you. Melanie, nice to see you. Go

ahead.

There we go. Yeah, I've got a cold, so I'm kind of keeping myself on mute in case I cough. And I just dropped in, and I was in and out, and I was I'm glad that I came, because I actually learned a couple things, like, one thing I learned was that empathy wasn't even in the dictionary until 1951 I'm like, mind blown. That was like, an amazing piece of information. So we're like, I guess, the first generation empathists. And so it was a pleasure just hearing the couple speakers that I was able to hear and joining in the empathy circle for a little bit. Thank you.

Thank you. Melanie, nice to see you. Jesse, nice to see you.

Thank you. Yes, I have. I me too. I hear so much

new things about empathy, and always, every time I attend empathy circle and empathy cement always gave me great surprise that I learned so much more about empathy so also helped me personally improve my

my journey. Thank you.

Thank you. Jesse Becky,

this is my first empathy circle and and I look forward to doing more of them. I since it was my first, I don't have much experience with it. And so I was glad to get the bill shared, the link of of the calendar and a place to experience more of this.

Thank you, Yvonne,

I didn't realize we were going around to everybody. Yeah, this was my first empathy circle, and I really also enjoyed hearing all the speakers, and it was very, Idon't know, heartwarming, and I felt a lot of love coming through. Thank you, Edwin 


Bob,

it's always a joy to be part of an empathy circle and to be listened to and to connect with people around the globe. So grateful. Thank you, Edwin and thank you all for keeping this movement going.

Maria, would you like to share how this summit was for you the circle?

Thank you. It was wonderful. I learned a lot about empathy and also about similar practices, and it was also really inspiring to see so many people from the empathy circle community here and sharing their experience. You really amazing group.

Thank you, Beata. Beata, two beaters, beater

so it was a great experience. As always, I took a lot of notes, and I've learned a lot at. Especially, it was interesting to learn about different approaches to empathy circles, different methodologies and different definitions of empathy as well. And it was always nice to see the people that I met during the empathy circle facilitation training. And it was great to participate in the circle at the end, especially, I always enjoy to to participate, participate in circles with people that that I haven't met before, because that that allows me to learn about new perspectives and experiences. Thank you.

Thank you. Veronica,

Most

certainly I am so excited to kick off a new year, I kind of got a well. I did receive confirmation. I attended a holiday celebration, and one of the parting gifts from a host was a inspiration band. And my inspiration band said, Be present. And so today I felt like I was able to be present for some new individuals that hadn't been in a circle before. And I'm just happy and glad to see our circle

again. Thank you. Thank you for the present. 

Thank you. Winona,

oh, hello, thank you. This is the second meeting I've done with being involved in the circle. I participated in a couple of trainings to keep it brief, but I've been doing a deep dive into all sorts of ways to keep hope in our future of humanity. And so I'm really looking for connections between sociocracy, anarchy, uh, social justice, abolition, all these movements that are to, like, solve the problems that capitalism. And maybe I'm going into this a lot, but I love this group is just so amazing and and, like, there's just techniques to communicate I think are foundational to actually like taking to the next level to helping solve those things. So I very much appreciate participating in this and all the input I hear. And your panel, your speaker panel, was amazing. And yeah, and orchestration of it was, was excellent. Thank you.

Thank you. Amanda, hey, Carrie.

Oh, thank you. Yeah, thanks for today. I lived in Santa Barbara a long time. I'm in Ecuador, aiming to come back for the big vision for the play I wrote based on the themes of fear, of the other, divisiveness and generational trauma, and I feel very reinforced as far as the community, the power of community and overlapping desires to improve how people can understand each other and hope to see you again. It was great. I love the circle we did today as well. The speakers I'm going to read, try and connect with Yehuda, who said he was an actor and he has a school of empathy, and others. I wrote down names to connect with. Thank you. Thank you.

Zahara

 Zara, if you can turn on the camera, that would be nice. But if you can't, it's alright.

I'm from Pakistan. This is my first empathy circle meeting, and my overall my experience is very wonderful. I really like the group activity. Purpose of where I realized you have more words, you have more value when other listen you actively. I'm eager to attend more training and join this platform. Thank you so much.  


"I'm from Pakistan. This is my first empathy circle meeting, and my overall experience is very wonderful. I really like the group activity... I'm eager to attend more trainings and join this platform. Thank you so much."  Zahara


Thank you very much. And I'm just curious, where are you from?

I'm from Pakistan. Pakistan.

Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you for coming. Salvador. We have Mexico. You.

And I'm I'm glad that I'm here today, and thank you everybody for your sharings. I feel very joyful, and I want to share three expressions that came to me, A New Hope, new energy, new life. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Yehuda,

well, I'm in Central Europe, and I don't know about you guys, but we hear many of us very worried about what's happening in America today. And this is one of the best thing that I had coming from America today. So you give me hope that lots of good things happen in America too. We don't hear so much about them. We mostly hear the bad news so good for America, and give us hope and blessings on empathy circles. I'm very glad I was a part of

it. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for your presentation, too. Um,


 Maureen,

yes, I'm from Europe too. I'm so worried about the Eastern situation there. And, yeah, it was lovely. Uh, catching up again with the empathy circles. I think I've been a part of it for many years, and I've been missing recent years. So it was a kind of a revival for me again today, and now we have a calendar, so we will be able to see where empathy circles are happening, and we will get to China. Suppose I also learned today from somebody that you can also take an initiative and set up an empathy circle instead. Thanks everyone.

Yeah, thank you. Larry, thank you


 welcome Ed Tina,

thank you. Thank you. Edwin and everyone that helped made this empathy circle possible is probably my favorite one. They're all so great. So I think for me, I'm looking forward to posting about today's summit, and I appreciate the opportunity to share space with everyone I was able to speak with today, and also it reminds me how challenging it is to understand another person's perspective or thoughts or emotions, understanding capacity for empathy. Just a wonderful I had a wonderful time. So thank you, and I look forward to the next

summit. 


Thank you. Thank you so much. Tina Ingrid, would you like to share her? Yes,

I just really love this community. I love how people come and want spend their time to to think and talk and share about empathy. It's really the smallest common denominator that we have as people. And I just can't say enough about this community. I I so happy that you all came. Thank you.

Thank you. And great, the smallest and maybe the greatest common denominator,

my math is not whatever you know what I mean?


Daniel,

yeah, I I keep thinking about the connection between music and empathy circles. And yesterday, while I was driving, I thought, in a way, music is a structured form of relating to each other. It's just like we have a structure here that makes it easier to really connect and relate to each other and to be authentic with each other. Music, in a way, is exactly that people get together and they agree on certain base rules, and because they agree on them, they can become one in the activity of making music with each other. And so I, you know, I think the power is tremendous. It's just really, really, really something else, and we're just, and I feel like we're just sticking our fingers a little bit in it, and we go like, Oh, this is pretty powerful, but there is this an energy source behind it that's far beyond what we know as human beings yet. And so I have great hopes that this can move at some point, like critical mass type of thing, really quickly. Yeah.


Thank you. Daniel Ruth, would you like to share her

Yeah, and I think one of those powerful forces is Mister Edwin rush and because without without him, this, we wouldn't be all together. And being in the empathy circle room today, there was such a strong presence with everybody you know, and I really appreciate, obviously, Daniel Veronica and Salvador. And let's see, how do you pronounce your name? Sorry, I'm going to have to go to the next page I can't find. I can't find you anyway. There was one. There you are. Winona, Winona, I want to thank you all for the authentic empathy circle. It really meant a lot to me today. Thank you.

Thank you. Let's see, I know, I know. Yeah,

it's great to see your smiling face, John, that's always, always makes me happy. And I'm really fortunate that I that I met Edwin, that I live in Santa Barbara, that we've got a community here that is meeting every Sunday to do empathy circles and spreading the word. And it was really powerful today, and I feel 1,000% better than when I started. So thanks.


Thank you, Anna, thank you for your kind word. Zach, have you

spoken? Not yet? Yeah. I just want to say for our friends outside of the United States that empathy circles alone isn't going to fix our democracy, but we do have a really wonderful and simple way that makes it more comfortable and and and more sustainable and just just more straightforward for people to participate in our democracy And in democratic processes. And so I really appreciate all of our friends outside the United States. I shared the concerns with you, and I think there are a lot of very concrete steps going forward, the next 20 years, right? You know, my mind says the next 2030, years of work in terms of continuing to protect and defend our existing democratic systems, but to continue building and establishing more and more democratic systems in governments and nonprofits, as well as for profit companies, right and how we operate our economy as well in our workplaces. So anyway, thank you all for being here, and I really look forward to continue working with with everyone on you know specifically, let's use empathy circles in in driving more and more democratic process. Alright, thank you.

Thank you, Zach and 

Karen. Ah,

I would just echo the hope that I heard. I The there are 27 people in this room right now who are actively engaging and spreading empathy in the world. How can that not give you hope, right? And that does not mean that we have to agree on what empathy is, or even how to do it, or what is the best way to spread it, but we all came when we did an empathy circle together, and we said, Yep, more of that. And that that that's enough for me today.'


"There are 27 people in this room right now who are actively engaging and spreading empathy in the world. How can that not give you hope, right?" Karen


Thank you. Thank you. Karen. Phil,

uh, yeah, I just want to express my gratitude also for people coming from other countries who for whom English may not be the first language. So it takes a certain amount of bravery to do that, and I really honor that, and I really appreciate that, and really enriches my life. And what I find with the empathy circle is that it's kind of like an inoculation between all the, you know, media things that I have to kind of sort through every day. So I meet people like you all, and I realized, well, that's not quite true, and I feel better. So thank you in participating in my own healing. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you. Thank you for for doing the trainings and for being here. Thank you, Edwin,

Jonathan, oh, thank you. Well, I was very grateful to be here and like it was said before, it's so encouraging to see a large group of people come together to empathize with each other. What I'd like to remind everyone is to save the chat. There's three little dots should be there somewhere, and you find the dots and then press save. There's a lot of valuable links there. And on that note, I'll say thank you. All who knows.

 "I was very grateful to be here and like it was said before, it's so encouraging to see a large group of people come together to empathize with each other." Jonathan,

Thank you. Thank you. Jonathan's been dutifully doing the chat for us for summit after Summit. Thank you so much. And who else here? Edwin, so I'll just say I'm the last one. Has anyone not shared? Have I missed anyone? I don't think so. So I just really love empathy circles, and I am thankful to everybody who participated in the empathy circle today, and especially for staying for this part of the empathy circle, which I just was a cause for joy for me, and I love this community. And thank you so much. And Edwin, you can share how this circle is for you, and


CLOSING

yeah, and do the closing too. So yeah, thanks everyone for for taking part. For me, just gives me hope to see, you know, like Cara was saying, there's 27 people here, all thinking about how to build a more empathic society and and that that can just keep growing and and part of growing is just taking the next steps. And one of the next steps is, if you want to save, you know the links you can, as Jonathan was saying, there's three dots in the chat where you can just click on that, then it does save. We have if you just go down the list in the chat. Number two is fill out the empathy summit feedback form so you can share you know how it was for use to help us improve it. 


Our next empathy Summit is April 15, and there's a link to it there. We're going to be doing, as I mentioned at the very beginning, ongoing series. We're really focusing on the empathy circle as a practice. So we'd be doing maybe three to four of these summits a year. And numbers point number seven is to be a future speaker in the empathy Summit. So you know, you can just contact me and get on the calendar just to share. You can share your personal stories, like you know, several people here did just you know, share how the empathy circle has impacted you. Or you can go into the history, or, you know, deeper intellectual insights, or you know, techniques or what have you or other practices built on the empathy circle. 


So we're pretty open to anything, you know, related to the empathy circle that you can, you know, continue. Just do one thing here, spotlight, yeah, just want to spotlight myself for the recording. And then also, there's another link is number four is the empathy Center website. So you can check that website that gives links to all the other different projects that we're doing, and we have the next empathy circle facilitation training, which Bill is leading, that starts next Saturday, January 11, and there's a link there to it. You wanted to say a few words about it? Bill, just the training coming up online. Yeah,

we ask for two prerequisite circles. This is one on Thursday at six o'clock Pacific time, we also have a drop in Cafe, and so you can just go there. So if you've attended this, and you attend Thursday, you've met the requirement, there's a link to the application and best empathy. And the last thing I'll say, it'll be the best experience of your life.

Thanks for that encouragement, Bill, and let's see what we have. Also, number six on the list there for next steps, is the schedule for empathy circles worldwide. So we have a Google Calendar and anyone, if you're holding an empathy circle, or there's a bunch of people just holding empathy circles. We give you permission to add your events to the calendar, so you can just go to that link and just see all the different circles that are that are being held. And if you want to get on the calendar, just contact me and we'll kind of help set that up. Edwin rutsch@gmail.com and I think that's it. I'm gonna, I was had myself remove spotlight. We just get the already. Get a gallery view here. Like to get a picture, if you're if you have your cameras off, if you could turn them on. We like to, want to get a final shot of applause. Hands for everybody. It's always great to capture that and post it to the website. And so thank you for taking part, and we'll see you again next time we're in a circle, and look forward to it. You know, keep building that empathy movement. And thank you so much. Adi. Everyone,

bye, bye, thanks bye,

bye, everybody,

bye, thank you. Bye.