Chicago HSP Sharing Circle Information
These circles are facilitated by Carolyn Blum and David King on the first Saturday of each month. To see a complete description and to RSVP, please go to the Chicago Highly Sensitive Meetup Group site.
Our requests for speaking and listening during the circle:
These requests are our way of trying to help us all connect more deeply with our own inner experiences as well as with each other’s experiences.
These requests are our way of trying to help us all connect more deeply with our own inner experiences as well as with each other’s experiences.
- Try your best to connect with your body and your heart. Remember to breathe. Speak honestly about what you are feeling and experiencing.
- Try to speak only about your own experience. Using “I” language instead of “we” or “you” helps you AND those of us listening to better connect with your experience.
- When referencing another person’s speaking, speak from your own experience. For example: “When Susie spoke about her situation, what came up in me was …”
- When someone else is speaking, stay in silence with an intention of open-hearted presence. This is to make space to honor everyone’s experience and what is true for each of us, without judgement, advice, or comment, and will help everyone to feel welcome. Most of us grew up in families where there wasn’t space for our experience.
- After someone finishes speaking, allow 3 breaths before taking your turn speaking.
- Everyone’s voice matters to the creation of the circle, so we encourage everyone to take a turn speaking. See if you can stretch to share even if it’s uncomfortable.
- We’d like everyone to have a chance to speak before anyone speaks for a second time.
- If you'd like to have more interactive dialogue, we encourage you to connect with each other after the meeting to continue discussing any topics of mutual interest.
Our sharing circle confidentiality agreement:
Our aim is to create a space in which you feel safe sharing. One way to help create this type of safety in the group is for each of us to know that our information will be treated with care by everyone once they leave the event. Therefore, at each meeting we ask everyone to agree to:
1. Hold an intention to treat everyone’s information with care, and 2. When sharing outside the group, share only what is relevant to your own experience
For example, when you are about to share something in public, first check with yourself about what your motivation for sharing is. Check that you are sharing about your own experience and framing whatever you are sharing as being about you and whatever is important to you rather than sharing to create gossip. Ask yourself if the person's identifying details are relevant to the story. Use your own best judgement.
Our aim is to create a space in which you feel safe sharing. One way to help create this type of safety in the group is for each of us to know that our information will be treated with care by everyone once they leave the event. Therefore, at each meeting we ask everyone to agree to:
1. Hold an intention to treat everyone’s information with care, and 2. When sharing outside the group, share only what is relevant to your own experience
For example, when you are about to share something in public, first check with yourself about what your motivation for sharing is. Check that you are sharing about your own experience and framing whatever you are sharing as being about you and whatever is important to you rather than sharing to create gossip. Ask yourself if the person's identifying details are relevant to the story. Use your own best judgement.