The Courage to Be Seen

Nowadays, there are plenty of spaces to learn from experts, consume ideas, or hear polished success stories. Spend a little too long scrolling through your Instagram feed and you’ll soon know how a random person on the other side of the world managed to build a successful organization, or which five books you should read next to be more effective. What often feels harder to find are spaces where we can slow down, authentically connect, and speak honestly about what it means to try to make a difference.

We first imagined the NOE Circles because we believe that sharing and listening to each other’s stories is an integral part of the work. Having a space where we are heard and our experience is acknowledged, has profound effects: It stabilizes our nervous system as cortisol levels drop, helps us regulate by processing difficult emotions, and reduces loneliness and isolation. NOE Circles have become a space where we celebrate how far we’ve come, while also acknowledging the struggles, and uncertainties that come with it. They allow us to make sense of our experiences and resource ourselves for what lies ahead. Over the past three circles, we’ve been reminded of this again and again.

In the beginning of June, Madina invited us into the story behind her work in sustainability and science communication. Rather than presenting a polished narrative of success, she generously shared the uncertainty that accompanied each step: the moments of not knowing what came next, the weight of carrying many responsibilities at once, and the quiet courage of continuing anyway. It was a powerful reminder that meaningful change rarely begins with certainty. More often, it begins with curiosity and the willingness to start where we are.

A few weeks later, opened up a conversation that many of us rarely have: our emotional relationship with money. Instead of offering another lesson in financial literacy, she invited us to look beneath our habits and ask where our beliefs about money came from. Together, we explored how shame, scarcity, and the systems we live within shape our relationship to work, purpose, and possibility. Simply speaking these experiences out loud felt healing. In a community where many people are trying to create social impact while navigating financial uncertainty themselves, that honesty created space for compassion instead of comparison.

Finally, gathering in person in Berlin, we found ourselves in a small group at KUKUMU. We spontaneously decided to let our conversation be guided by a deck of oracle cards. Each person reflected on what was currently alive in their lives while the rest of the group offered active listening, curiosity, and support. Sometimes the greatest gift a community can offer is simply to witness one another with care.

While, on the surface, these conversations covered very different topics, they were ultimately all about practicing a different way of being together: A way that values active listening over having the right answers. A way that reminds us that vulnerability is not a weakness but an invitation for connection. A way that helps us remember that behind every project, campaign, or organisation is a human being trying to navigate complexity as best they can.

In a world that often rewards certainty, speed, and individual achievement, choosing to slow down and genuinely listen can feel surprisingly radical. Thank you to everyone who has joined a Circle over the past months - whether by sharing your own story, asking a thoughtful question, or simply listening with presence. You are helping create the kind of community we hope more people can experience: one where we don’t just exchange ideas, but truly feel that we are in this together.

What’s new

Join us for a new format and imagine the world we want to create.

On 30 July, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and facilitator will host Letters from the Future, a one-hour creative writing workshop designed to fit into your lunch break or after your work.

Guided by creative writing prompts, reflection, and conversation, you’ll be invited to imagine a future where people and places flourish by writing a letter from the year 2050. Together, we’ll explore not only what that future could look like, but also the choices and turning points that made it possible.

We hope you’ll join us for an hour of imagination, connection, and hopeful futures.

Register now

With warmth,
Alex, Mareike, Nada & Rimma

P.S. If someone forwarded this to you and you’d like to learn more — you can subscribe to the newsletter below, join a NOE Circle here, or find out about membership here.

What if the most radical thing we could do was pause?

Most of us are taught that momentum is the point. Keep moving, keep producing, keep pushing. Rest is something you earn at the end - if you earn it at all.

Over the past - wow it’s almost been 8 months - we decided to test that assumption. We slowed down, stepped back, and reflected on what we want Network of Empathy to become and why.

What follows is some of the thinking that we did during that time.

Facing the double drain

Change makers - the people working hardest to create a more just, regenerative, and humane world - are running on empty.

It’s not a mystery why. When you care deeply about systemic change, you take on a particular kind of weight: the grief of what’s broken, the frustration of working inside institutions that contradict your values, the isolation of holding a vision that most people around you don’t share. And all of this happens inside systems that are themselves extractive - that take more than they give back.

The result is what we’ve started calling the double drain. Energy spent pushing against a dysfunctional world, while that same world depletes what remains. Burnout. Disconnection. The quiet question that so many of us carry but rarely say out loud: can I actually keep doing this?

Even though this lack of motivation and energy seems like a personal failing, it is not. It is a structural condition. And it deserves a structural response.

Empathy as supportive infrastructure

During our strategy sessions we returned to our original point of departure: empathy. The symptoms we saw in ourselves and others were quite likely linked to empathy burnout - exhaustion caused by consistently absorbing and trying to fix other people’s pain. However, reflecting on it further, we came to the conclusion that empathy is not the problem - the absence of support for it is.

When change makers are properly held - in a space where authentic connection is possible, co-regulation can take place and we feel a sense of belonging that allows us to build up new resources - something different becomes possible. Empathy stops being a drain and becomes what it actually is: the ignition for individual action, the connective tissue of collective action, and the root system of change that lasts.

We also believe that we are never really working alone. We are always in relationship - with other humans around, before and after us as well as the eco-systems that we are a part of. And cultivating that relational capacity is not a distraction from the real work. It is what makes the real work possible.

This is the thinking behind why we continue to build Network of Empathy as well as what supportive infrastructure we want to build going forward.

What’s new

1. We are now a registered non-profit association.

Network of Empathy is officially a German Verein - a membership-based organisation, legally and structurally. That means we are owned by our members. If you become a member, you hold a stake in how this organisation grows and where it goes. It feels important to us to create an organisation that serves us as a community. If you’d like to become a member, we’d love for you to join us. You can find out more and download a membership application here.

2. We are launching a new series of NOE Circles.

NOE Circles are our online gatherings - small, facilitated spaces where change makers come together to share experiences, listen deeply, and find the relief of being genuinely seen and heard. Each Circle features a guest speaker sharing something from their own journey, followed by open exchange.

Our next Circle is already this Saturday, 6th of June at 10am CET: Never Too Small to Make Big Changes with Madina R.

Register now

Joining a NOE Circle is always free! Check out all upcoming events here.

3. This newsletter is back.

We’ll be using this platform to share our thinking, introduce the people and ideas shaping our work, and offer insights into what we are working on behind the scenes. If you’d like to contribute an essay, op-ed or something else on a topic that matters to you, please get in touch (contact@networkofempathy.org)!

An invitation

While we are restarting our activities, we are still figuring out the details: what spaces and formats are needed to create the supportive infrastructure we are imagining. However, we want to make sure that they are relevant for those who need them most, which is why we want to build with you, not for you.

So we want to ask you directly: What do you need from a space like Network of Empathy?

What would make a difference in your work right now? What’s missing from the conversations you’re part of? What would it mean to feel genuinely resourced — not just for the next sprint, but for the long run?

Feel free to comment or email us (contact@networkofempathy.org). We’d love to hear from you and co-create together.

With warmth,
Alex, Mareike, Nada & Rimma

P.S. If someone forwarded this to you and you’d like to learn more — you can subscribe to the newsletter below, join a NOE Circle here, or find out about membership here.

In this edition of our newsletter you’ll find:

🌱 Thoughts and reflections on moral ambition — An essay by noe Co-Founder, Mareike Peschau

💧 Join our upcoming noe circle season on Reigniting hope in the face of systemic collapse. For the first time ever, we are also offering a fellowship option!

🪴 Mobile application recommendations and reviews to support your attention and focus by our very own noe team.

Enjoy!

Your noe team

Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up to get your own copy of the noe newsletter to your inbox with inspiration, empathy knowledge, and community building.

Subscribe now

Contribute! You would like to contribute to our community column, be featured by our noe stories, or join our next noe circle? Shoot us an email: contact@networkofempathy.org

🌱 Planting Seeds

In this section we share thoughts and concepts around empathy that have inspired us and made us think.

What does it mean to be morally ambitious?

By Mareike Peschau

In the past weeks, whenever I told friends about the book that I am currently reading they responded with: “Wait, me too!”. Seemingly as if the author managed to capture the feeling of a generation of young professionals: disillusioned by the job world and finding themselves in careers they had never imagined a couple of years ago. The subtitle “Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference” tells people to their faces what they have secretly been telling themselves.

“Moral Ambition” by Rutger Bregman proposes a simple idea. Ambitious people can be divided into two groups: those that are not idealistic and strive for conventional measures of success and those that are driven by idealism, striving to create change in the world. As Bregman makes clear, these latter ones are ultimately the superior group, driven by morality.

For many people with social science and humanities degrees from Western universities, Bergman’s proposition is compelling: We have all experienced the cognitive dissonance of entering and facing the reality of the job world. Suddenly being forced to perform in a system we have only just criticized for its deep flaws. Bregman is empowering us, insecure overachievers, by saying that rather than continuing in this internal struggle, it is ultimately better to seek out the opportunities for change that we once dreamed of in our classrooms. In fact, rather than attaining recognition by fulfilling societal expectations, enacting social change is what speaks of true excellence. In a way, the book therefore feels like a permission slip. Whispering: go out and do what you’ve meant to be doing all along.

Rather than reflecting on the concept of morality and the characteristics that make “moral ambition” actually moral, Bregman makes clear: moral ambition is striving for the biggest impact possible, without awareness or wokeness that slow down or even hinder change. The further you get into the book, the more it feels like the permission slip targets one group in particular: white men. Almost all examples he provides tell the story of men from Europe or the US. The leading story being that of Thomas Clarkson, a British abolitionist that helped achieve passage of the Slave Trade Act 1807, which ended British trade in slaves. It becomes clear that the aim of moral ambition is not to uproot systemic injustice and transform systems. The story is not about the people that were enslaved and achieved their liberation through their own agency. It is about the people that believe to have fixed it for them. Moral ambition thereby becomes something that those that benefit from the existing system do in order to fix issues that weigh heavy on their minds during Sunday church service without forcing them to give up part of their privileges. It is a way to uphold the status quo by making it more morally acceptable – to them.

Moral ambition, in Bregman’s sense, therefore seems to be led by cause and effect rather than systemic analysis. Millions of people die from Malaria each year? Let’s hand out mosquito nets! While on paper this seems like an effective impact, as less people die from Malaria for each dollar you spend, it does not consider that people may still end up dying from the effect free-of-cost malaria nets have had on the local economy (see Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo). What about addressing the root causes, namely, lack of access to affordable healthcare? Now, this would make things messier and more complicated. Achieving impact might take longer, be less economically efficient, and the outcome more uncertain. But, it would ultimately be more sustainable and offer a holistic solution not only for Malaria. If we are truly ambitious, why shy away from this complexity?

As Bregman says, the multitude of pressing issues that we are facing, require the most driven and ambitious young people to take action. However, this should mean not only being ambitious about the impact we create, but also about the way we do it and the solutions that we propose. Empathy is a powerful initiator for change, like Bregman also states. It makes us deeply resonate with a cause and leads us to take action. However, it should not stop there. Through empathy we can actually see the issue we are trying to address and connect to the people enduring its impacts, identify the knowledge that is there, and support solutions and engage in dialogue led and developed by communities. It can also invite us to practice self-compassion. Because, more often than not, ‘change’ work will make us feel uneasy rather than good about ourselves. As we constantly reassess our positioning and actions, this might be where true moral ambition grows.

So let us strive for this other kind of moral ambition. The one ambitious enough not to fix but to transform systems. The one that acknowledges that truth sometimes lies beyond what can be expressed in data points, that is rooted in lived experience and different ways of knowing. A moral ambition driven by collective action and care – for each other, our communities and our earth. Rooted in empathy.

Stay tuned as Network of Empathy explores alternative systems in its coming issues.

💧 Watering the Mind

In this section we share updates from the noe team and concrete offers that allow you to build emotional intelligence and resilience skills.

“Active hope is something we do, not something we have.” - Joanna Macy

Reigniting hope in the face of systemic collapse

If you’ve been working for change - or even just paying attention to the state of the world - you might feel it in your bones: the exhaustion, the frustration, the quiet hopelessness that creeps in. The thought that things might not change - the climate crisis not properly addressed, violence not stopped, systemic injustices, like the patriarchy, persist. It’s a lot to carry, especially when you’re pouring energy into trying to make a difference.

Hope isn’t something we “have” in endless supply. Rather, it is a practice that we turn to, when things get difficult. Our upcoming season of noe circles, inspired by Joanna Macy’s work on Active Hope, is therefore about developing a practice of hope. We do so by reconnecting with our values, the causes we are passionate about and by grounding ourselves in community. All based on the understanding that long-term change only happens when we care for ourselves and each other along the way.

Across a series of 4 noe circles, every first Saturday of a month at 11am CET, embedded in a fellowship option, we explore Active Hope as a practice:

• Circle 1: Facing reality with honesty (4.10.2025, 11am CET)

• Circle 2: Reconnecting to what we value and long for (1.11.2025, 11am CET)

• Circle 3: Taking meaningful steps forward (6.12.2025, 11am CET)

• Circle 4: Rooting ourselves in community (03.1.2025, 11am CET)

Ways to join:

This season we offer you two different ways of joining - by introducing, for the very first time, the noe fellowship!

noe circle Fellowship

You want to become part of a community of care that supports you in the long-term and develop your own practice of hope? For those wanting deeper engagement, we have created a noe circle fellowship programme, with additional workshops and community check-ins during which we will dive deeper into the topics explored during the noe circles. Among others, we will develop your value compass, build your personal resources to sustain long-term change-work, and foster a community of care.

The programme includes:

• Priority access to all 4 circles in the season

• 5 additional community check-ins and workshops between sessions

• A reflection workbook to deepen your learning

• A small, supportive peer network for ongoing exchange

• Opportunities to collaborate and stay connected after the season ends

Why join:

• Feel less alone in your struggles as a changemaker

• Rediscover hope and clarity in uncertain times

• Connect with a diverse network of peers who “get it”

• Gain tools, perspectives, and inner resources to sustain your work long-term

Sign up now

Individual Circles

Drop in for the sessions that interest you most. In each circle, you’ll hear from inspiring guest speakers—activists, artists, and changemakers—who will share their own stories of resilience and transformation, followed by space for reflection, dialogue, and connection. Get inspired, share, and connect with peers from across the world.

Why join:

• Experience meaningful connection without the pressure of a bigger commitment

• Recharge on energy, hope, and calm your nervous system

• Get inspired by changemakers who share their challenges and resilience

• Feel connected in a space where people truly relate to the struggles you are going through

Sign up now

*All our offers are accessible free of charge. However, we ask you for a small donation to cover our operational cost. The recommended donation for participating in a circle is therefore 5 EUR and for participating in the fellowship it is 50 EUR.

If you would want to join our community or support us, don’t hesitate to get in touch at contact@networkofempathy.org.

🪴 Vines of Community

In this space we foster connection and inspiration by sharing stories, poems, and thoughts of community members.

In the face of the widespread attention crisis we are all experiencing, from the heart of our team, this August we present to you, app recommendations and reviews that help support your focus by gamifying attention. We hope you enjoy!

Gentle Tech: Two Apps That Honor Your Humanity

A suggestion for those seeking compassionate ways to support daily wellbeing

Finch: Your Pocket Companion for Small Victories

I’ve been using Finch with friends for over two months now, and it’s become a quiet marvel in my daily routine. This app transforms mundane tasks into moments of connection through the care of a virtual bird companion—think tamagotchi meets mindful productivity.

What makes Finch special isn’t the task tracking itself, but how it reframes our relationship with daily functioning. Simple actions like “drink water” or “open curtains” become small celebrations rather than obligations. For those of us navigating depression, anxiety, or simply the weight of feeling “unproductive,” these micro-achievements offer gentle dopamine rewards that whisper: “Hey, you’re doing something meaningful. Go you!”

A thoughtful note: If you tend toward obsessive patterns, approach with awareness—the reward system could become compulsive rather than supportive.

Focus Apps: Reclaiming Presence in a Distracted World

The second app I’m exploring uses similar companion-based motivation to help with focused work. By blocking distractions and gamifying concentration, it offers a bridge back to sustained attention.

In our age of endless notifications and fractured focus, tools like this aren’t about becoming more productive machines—they’re about returning to ourselves as human beings who can be present with what matters.

The Deeper Invitation

These apps work because they understand something profound: we thrive with gentle accountability, celebration of small steps, and companions (even digital ones) who witness our efforts. They remind us that productivity culture doesn’t have to mean self-punishment—it can mean self-care.

Perhaps the real innovation here isn’t the technology, but the compassion embedded in how we relate to our daily lives.

What gentle tools or practices help you honor your humanity while navigating daily tasks?

If you would want to join our community or share your work (art, photography, writing, or thoughts—any form of self-expression!), don’t hesitate to get in touch at contact@networkofempathy.org.

In this edition of our newsletter you’ll find:

🌱 Why and how collective care is an essential feminist practice for our collective liberation?

💧 From Bonn and Brussels to our upcoming noe circle today at 2 pm CET/7 pm Jakarta, Reconnecting to Empathy: How Indonesian Youth are Strengthening Democracy through Dialogue. We have been cooking!

🪴 A couple of great suggestions for you from our noe team.

Enjoy!

Your noe team

Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up to get your own copy of the noe newsletter to your inbox with inspiration, empathy knowledge, and community building.

Subscribe now

Contribute! You would like to contribute to our community column, be featured by our noe stories, or join our next noe circle? Shoot us an email: contact@networkofempathy.org

🌱 Planting Seeds

In this section we share thoughts and concepts around empathy that have inspired us and made us think.

What if Care Wasn’t “Nice” but Radical? Feminist reflections by Mareike Peschau and Nada Elbohi

The Trap of “Wellbeing” Under Capitalism

For the past five years, I (Nada) have personally struggled with the concept of self-care. I believe is central to healing and wellbeing, however, this perception was distorted by the influence of social media and the wellness fad. For the past few years, I realize now, that I have idealized and thrived for those viral wellness routines. I felt bad, comparing my messy attempts at self-care and healing to the well-structured routines of influencers. I wondered, if they could do it, why couldn’t I? So my goals included waking up at 6 am, journaling, meditating, and doing yoga every day. In reality, care in all its forms are organic, non-linear, and imperfect processes and cycles that don’t happen in a vacuum and don’t require a rigid schedule or a long list of monthly consumables.

Growing up with the influence of individualistic culture in a larger background of collectivism, only with age did I begin to appreciate and value collectivism, community, and collective care. The balance between self and collective care is crucial. Self-care enables collective care, and each reinforces the other.

Why Collective Care?
The current neoliberal capitalist system thrives under isolation—a necessary weapon of consumerism, division, and disenchantment. In isolation, it is more difficult to recognize the interconnectedness of our struggles. We are left to believe our issues are individual, not systemic and structural. Under this system, care and wellbeing have been reduced to consumable commodities as well as a hyper-individualistic process. However, isolation constricts our ability to imagine other possibilities, alternatives—and we are resigned to the limits of the status quo and lose hope in possibility and change.

Under a patriarchal system that has been intentionally designed to extract, exploit, and commodify, community and care are the antidote. Collective care is a survival strategy and a political foundation for our collective liberation. We must recognize that our wellbeing is intrinsically linked to the wellbeing of others.
Care is not an add-on; it is the infrastructure that sustains life—physical, social, structural, and systemic. Care can no longer be undervalued and exploited.

Care is Not “Nice”—It’s Radical
Society frames care as soft, emotional, and secondary—especially when done by women, gender-diverse persons, and marginalized people. Feminist thinkers reclaim care as radical political action:

Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation – and that is an act of political warfare. — Audre Lorde

Love and care are central to building just, transformative communities. — Bell Hooks

Care is “everything we do to maintain, continue, and repair our world so that we can live in it as well as possible.” — Joan Tronto

Collective Care as Feminist and Decolonial Strategy
Collective care is a counter-practice to self-exploitation and isolation. It sustains social movements by resisting burnout and valuing rest, support, and slowness. Care is not auxiliary—it is protection, resistance, and survival. Collective care provides the opportunity to build another world: a world that sustains life, the environment, and our wellbeing.
Feminist and decolonial care practices center:

• Justice, not productivity

• Community, not individual competition

• Support, especially for those most abandoned by dominant systems

Acts of Care, An Everyday Practice
Collective care is both political and practical. Acts of care can look like:

• Mutual aid

• Checking in on friends

• Redistributing resources

• Making space for grief, rest, and joy

Care is a strategy. It is how we organize, resist, and imagine new worlds.

Stay tuned as Network of Empathy explores alternative systems in its coming issues.

💧 Watering the Mind

In this section we share updates from the noe team and concrete offers that allow you to build emotional intelligence and resilience skills.

Join our noe Circle online today, Saturday July 26, 2pm CET/7 pm Jakarta—a community discussion for radical empathy, open-hearted dialogue, and realignment for our collective liberation.

We're exploring how Indonesian youth are creating safe spaces to talk about politics, gender, and conflict - even when it feels risky to speak up.

Featuring Fanny, a social activist who runs weekly dialogue sessions with young people in Indonesia. The big question: how do we protect empathy when misinformation and hate speech are everywhere? Could be really relevant for anyone dealing with:

• Difficult conversations at work/home

• Youth engagement/education

• Cross-cultural communication

• Just wanting to connect with people doing meaningful work globally

Register here on this link!

A Workshop on Collective Care at Bonn Climate Camp

A green meadow by the river Rhine - slowly turning brown in the summer heat. Behind it, the UN tower is glaring in the sun creating a stark contrast to the deep blue sky. Somewhere in the distance, campers have set up their RVs enjoying their summer break. Not far from them, a series of tents has been set up with signs like “workshop tent 1” or “kitchen tent” standing in front of them.

On the outside everything seems calm, really, it’s too hot to be outside on the grass. From time to time people that are dressed far too formal to be enjoying the sun pass by. As soon as you poke your head into one of the tents, you can overhear heated discussions on climate justice.

Welcome to Bonn Climate Camp. A space for civil society to reunite, just outside of the UNFCCC climate negotiations. It is here that in the end of June we hosted a noe workshop on collective care. These conferences can be an intense experience, from the overwhelming experience - from being in a new space, maybe a different country, together with thousands of other people to having to fight for your rights, stand up to injustice and face existential questions.

That’s why we offered a space for processing and sharing. Where community can be felt, in a space that often feels isolating. In a small group we shared the grief, the anger, the fear - and all the other heavy emotions that we carried - and developed strategies for how we can make each other feel supported going forward.

The key insight: sometimes it just takes a sincere “how are you holding up?” or offering a cup of coffee to build connection and make each other feel cared for.

noe Strategy Meeting in Brussels

Since September 2020, our team of three, Mareike, Nada, and I (Rimma), had gotten pretty good at the whole remote work thing. We were spread across the Eastern hemisphere, juggling time zones and living our professional lives through video calls. Like everyone else in the post-COVID world, we'd adapted.

But then came June 2024 and the noe Experience in Brandenburg. While some of us had met in person before, this was the first time all three of us were finally in the same place together. And honestly? It was just better. There's something about being able to grab a coffee together or step outside for a quick break that you can't replicate over Zoom. The conversations flowed differently, ideas bounced around more naturally, and we actually had fun working together.

That experience made us realize we'd been missing out. So we decided to prioritize meeting in person whenever we could make it work.

Which brings us to late June this year. Veronica, who joined our team in April, invited us to her place in Brussels for a proper strategy session. Over two focused days, our now-team-of-four hammered out our direction for 2025-2026.

It wasn't just about the work, though that was productive. Veronica cooked us incredible Indonesian food, and we found ourselves practicing communal care with one another in ways that felt so good and natural. There's something about actually feeling each other's presence in the same space: we could sense when someone needed a break, offer support without having to ask, just be there for each other. Even though some of us didn't know each other that well yet, we genuinely cared for one another. We shared meals, dreamed up plans for the future with genuine excitement, and remembered why we enjoy this work together.

What came out of it? A programme that actually has us excited to get to work. We're still fleshing out the details, but you can feel the difference – this isn't something we cobbled together over video calls. It has weight to it.

Please stay tuned for what's coming next.

Sometimes the simplest things – like being in the same physical space – make all the difference.

If you are working in an activist space or wish for more collective care in your community or team, do not hesitate to reach out to us: contact@networkofempathy.org

If you would want to join our community or support us, don’t hesitate to get in touch at contact@networkofempathy.org.

🪴 Vines of Community

In this space we foster connection and inspiration by sharing stories, poems, and thoughts of community members.

For July, we have a great show recommendation and review for you from our Co-Founder, Rimma!

First and foremost, I’ve watched a Canadian series called Empathie, which came out this April. When I came across this series, I was obviously drawn to it by its name, but what made it truly stand out was how deeply human it is. The series follows criminologist-turned-psychiatrist Suzanne who starts to work at the Institut Psychiatrique Mont-Royal. It is a tale both heartwrenching and heartwarming, as Suzanne navigates the tough work of a mental health professional in a hospital wing dedicated to criminals while herself working through her own grief.

What sets Empathie apart is its commitment to seeing the human behind both the good and the bad—the trauma people have been through and the trauma they've caused others. It's about being patient with healing and recognizing the humanity in ourselves and others, no matter how difficult that recognition might be.

The series handles the intersection of criminology and mental health in the most wonderful way, refusing to turn mentally ill criminals into one-dimensional monster-like figures. Instead, it takes the time to explain and show how and why these individuals ended up where they are. By humanizing them, the show allows us to empathize with people we might otherwise dismiss or fear. It is important to note that the show isn’t trying to find excuses for harmful behavior, but rather creates an opportunity for understanding the complex web of circumstances, trauma, and illness that shapes human actions.

Suzanne's own journey mirrors this theme beautifully. The main character is only able to deal with her personal struggles once she realizes and recognizes that she needs help from others and for that she needs to be open and vulnerable about what she is going through. Her professional expertise can’t shield her from the universal human challenge of asking for help and allowing others to fully see us for where we are and care for us nevertheless.

The series reminds us that healing (whether for ourselves or others) requires patience, compassion, and the courage to remain open to the full complexity of human experience.

If you would want to join our community or share your work (art, photography, writing, or thoughts—any form of self-expression!), don’t hesitate to get in touch at contact@networkofempathy.org.

In this edition of our newsletter you’ll find:

🌱 Reflections from Rabat: Feminist Solidarity at the Crossroads by Nada Elbohi

💧 Find out what the noe team has been up to!

🪴 Food for thought from MENA feminists and recommendations on exploring alternative systems.

Enjoy!

Your noe team

Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up to get your own copy of the noe newsletter to your inbox with inspiration, empathy knowledge, and community building.

Subscribe now

Contribute! You would like to contribute to our community column, be featured by our noe stories, or join our next noe circle? Shoot us an email: contact@networkofempathy.org

🌱 Planting Seeds

In this section we share thoughts and concepts around empathy that have inspired us and made us think.

Reflections from Rabat: Feminist Solidarity at the Crossroads by Nada Elbohi

Last week, Network of Empathy’s Nada Elbohi spent two days in Rabat, Morocco, unpacking, strategizing, and contemplating what a new world—a just world—means to feminists from across the Middle East and North Africa, and beyond.

This crucial two-day meeting served as a safe space for critical, nuanced reflections, pressing questions, and necessary confrontations. We are at a turning point—a crossroads: the façade is disintegrating. The systems created to support democracy, human rights, justice, and equity are the same systems giving rise to the far-right and anti-rights movements. We are not surprised.

After hours of discussions, we asked ourselves: Who is in the room? And for what purpose?

International institutions have shown that they serve not to promote collaboration, peace, and equality, but to act as tools to discipline the Global South, weapons of imperial capitalism. Obey, or else. Liberalize your markets, or else. Freedom and life for us—and not for you. Human rights and justice matter, depending on who you are. Stand up to the exploitation, and you will be targeted and replaced.

What we see in Gaza is the rehearsal of the future.

— Gustavo Petro, Columbian President

We are left to ask ourselves not if we are next, but when? If Israel can burn and plunder for years on end without barely a slap on the wrist, whose do these systems serve?

What does justice —climate or otherwise— mean with innocent blood on our lands? What does “development” even mean under colonization and imperialism?

The Violence Beneath Neoliberalism

Reflecting on the MENA region, as an Egyptian woman, we are reminded of the war and violence at the heart of the neoliberal, capitalist model. Neutrality and impartiality are façades of enablement and perpetuation. Human rights are inherently political. Feminism is political. Extractive militarism and economic violence are the tools of neoliberalism and capitalism, and its institutions are its instruments.

Neoliberalism and capitalism are now facing the consequences of their own creation, as the far-right and anti-rights movement rise. As we reckon with this moment, we must ask not only how to move forward—but what divides us now and how can we unite.

Looking at the history of development “cooperation”, the export and spread of this neoliberal concept through foreign policy began after World War II. Development became a global concern, a security concern. Once again, poor states are reduced to dangerous places suffering from problems the world says they brought on themselves, framing these countries as “problems” to be managed, controlled, saved. When development becomes a matter of security, what does this view allow and support? Domination, intentional disablement, and exploitation behind the mask of white supremacy and white saviorism. In the guise of the pursuit of peace and liberty, formal colonialism gave way to imperial capitalism.

Why reform systems built to subjugate and exploit? It’s time to throw them out the damn window.

The MENA region is at the heart of the imperial project.

— Emilia Reyes, Equidad De Género

Who Defines Development?

A new world needs a new system and reinvigorated values. This requires dismantling power structures and unbalanced power relations. Power at the core of the imperial project and global hegemony, I reflect, comes in two primary forms: wealth and epistemology. The wealth and knowledge accumulated in the Global North were built off the labor, time, and bodies of the Global South—from the slave trade to oil and critical mineral extraction.

The conception of development solely through economics is part of this epistemological hegemony, or dominion over knowledge. However, there are many alternatives—such as the capabilities approach to development, degrowth, solidarity economies, and more.

We must get to the root of the issue, the ideas and beliefs that have spread through culture, values, and norms. Beliefs in endless economic growth, on both personal and national levels, are at the foundation of the capitalist, neoliberal model. These ideas have been used to undermine and replace traditional values, including collective values found across the MENA region and the Global South.

Who Benefits from Knowledge?

While knowledge may not be the first thing that comes to mind when we think of power, the truth is: wealth means nothing without technical skill, knowledge, and innovation. At the moment, the Global North holds a strong monopoly over how knowledge is produced and shared. The neoliberal model, capitalism, and the dominant understanding of “development” come from the Global North—particularly from institutions with perceived authority. The research that informs and shapes policy more often than not comes from the Global North. The data used for decisions is collected by organizations such as the OECD and the UN. This is part and parcel of a system that perpetuates biased knowledge, produced by those who benefit from structures that reproduce injustice, inequality, and dependency.

Inequality extends beyond the tangible and material; it also includes perception, ideas, and narratives. When knowledge from the Global South is perceived as inferior or illegitimate, then our voices, perspectives, and experiences are pushed aside and intentionally ignored.

Looking Ahead: Dismantling and Reimagining

The foundation must be values that center justice, equity, decoloniality, individual and collective wellbeing, and community.

The questions lull in our minds: What comes next? What do we do? How can we materialize this solidarity?

While the world tells us there are no other options, it’s up to us to create an alternative that serves us—our wellbeing. It is not about giving up, but about hiking up our boots, linking arms, asking the difficult questions, and taking the necessary steps.

Stay tuned as Network of Empathy explores alternative systems in its coming issues.

💧 Watering the Mind

In this section we share updates from the noe team and concrete offers that allow you to build emotional intelligence and resilience skills.

What has the Network of Empathy team been up to?

Veronica, our Comms Wiz... and Chef!

One of my personal hobbies is cooking. These months and days, I have been exploring the Indonesian side of my heritage, cooking favorite dishes from my childhood. Indonesian cuisine is very complex, usually requiring lots of spices and elaborate cooking methods. Since living in Europe however, I tried to come up with ways of recreating Indonesian dishes that are more simplified and use ingredients that can be found outside of Indonesia but still reflect the authentic flavor of the country. As a result, I wrote my very first recipe book and you can get a copy here.

Mareike, our Master of Order... and Exploration!

I went on my first mission outside of N’Djamena! Seeing the landscape change from the white sands of the Sahel to the rich red earth of Sub-Saharan Africa was incredible. I also witnessed transhumance communities on the move - like this girl on the photo. I only just worked with a project on peaceful transhumance learning about the challenges of modern day nomads and their host communities around the lake Chad basin which made this encounter even more special.

Rimma, our Creative Doula... and Culture Connoisseur!

I recently went to a concert featuring two bands — the main act was The Vernon Spring (pictured) , but to my surprise, it was Loa, a two-person band, whose performance resonated with me on a much deeper, more visceral level. Both bands spoke about being grateful for the privilege of creating and performing at a time when horrendous crimes against humanity are taking place — specifically referencing the genocides happening in Gaza and Congo. What struck me most was how the overwhelming feeling of helplessness and sorrow in the face of global atrocities was transformed into something beautiful through music. One song I would recommend to everyone is “Hold On” by Loa, with lyrics like: “Hold on, you’re not lost, you’re just not the same, so everything else feels strange”, “I dove down deep, I got lost down there, forgot how to breathe”, and “you hold the ground you plan to seed”. These lines spoke directly to that sense of disorientation and quiet perseverance. Their five-track album felt like a balm applied directly to an ache I didn’t know how to name — it moved me to tears more than once.

If you would want to join our community or support us, don’t hesitate to get in touch at contact@networkofempathy.org.

🪴 Vines of Community

In this space we foster connection and inspiration by sharing stories, poems, and thoughts of community members.

For May, we are sharing resources and avenues to explore alternative systems and some thoughts from Amena Sharaf on the feminist solidarity and community.

On development: Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum

On system change for people and planet: WEDO’s Feminist Action Nexus for Economic and Climate Justice

On the Rabat convening, with recommended readings: rabat.wedo.org

Food for thought: Amena Sharaf from MENAFEM Movement on Feminist Solidarity and Community

Reflecting on Rabat

The saying "If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together" is often a guiding principle in our work to alleviate the struggles of our people and build a more just world. The global feminist convening provided a space to explore not only the possibilities and power of moving forward together but also the challenges that come with the long journey toward justice. We are no longer limited to gathering only when given permission or opportunity, we now create those opportunities ourselves. Yet, even as we raise concerns about shrinking civic space in multilateral processes, we risk losing sight of the true essence of multilateralism, the essence I believe was revived in the convening: community.

If you would want to join our community or share your work (art, photography, writing, or thoughts—any form of self-expression!), don’t hesitate to get in touch at contact@networkofempathy.org.

In this edition of our newsletter you’ll find:

🌱 A letter on hope, unity, and imagination in the resistance against the far right and anti-rights movements.

💧 Join our noe circle Navigating Expectations, Failures, and Relationships on April 26 at 12 pm CET. Also, meet our new Communications Manager, Veronica!

🪴 Recommendations on how to keep hope, stand in unity, and resist during these challenging times.

Enjoy!

Your noe team

Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up to get your own copy of the noe newsletter to your inbox with inspiration, empathy knowledge, and community building.

Subscribe now

Contribute! You would like to contribute to our community column, be featured by our noe stories, or join our next noe circle? Shoot us an email: contact@networkofempathy.org

🌱 Planting Seeds

In this section we share thoughts and concepts around empathy that have inspired us and made us think.

Hope, Unity, and Imagination to Shape Our New World: Facing the Rise of the Far-Right and Anti-Rights Movements

“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”

— Arundhati Roy

Across the globe, we are witnessing a strategic, emboldened surge in anti-rights movements and the far-right. These are not isolated waves—they are globally coordinated attacks designed to silence dissent, weaken communities, and roll back decades of justice work. This rise is not merely political—it is deeply personal. It is felt in our day-to-day lives, our bodies, our homes, our memories, our dreams.

We see the defunding of rights-based work—be it gender, environmental, economic, or demilitarization. Recent cuts by USAID and others, including in countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, and even Switzerland, are sending shockwaves through justice movements and the communities they serve.

These calculated efforts have cultivated a culture of fear, division, and competition. Politics and politicians are attempting to divide us, to instill fear, to fracture movements. But we must not give in. We are living in a moment of possibility—and it is a critical time for unity and action. For solidarity. For remembering that we are not alone in this fight.

We know another way is possible. We must reimagine a world built for us—for our healing, our dignity, our collective well-being. If our human rights systems and structures are so easily dismantled, then perhaps this is our wake-up call. We are being asked to respond. But perhaps more urgently, we are being called to reimagine. To reconfigure. To rebuild. To take action.

It’s time we rethink not just how we resist, but how we strategize, organize, and build power. To rethink how we sustain and fund justice beyond reliance on the whim of white, wealthy men. We must ask ourselves: How can we use this painful, pivotal moment to imagine and shape a feminist, just future?

Our current value systems, shaped by capitalism, neoliberalism, patriarchy, and militarism, need transformation. Values rooted in care and community—like compassion, hope, love, solidarity, and unity—have long been disregarded and intentionally marginalized. These values threaten the very foundation of exploitative systems. The dominant neoliberal, capitalist model thrives on disconnection, fear, and competition. Care and unity are its undoing.

This means challenging broken systems—capitalism, patriarchy, militarism, neoliberalism—and replacing them with values we know can sustain us.

“Solidarity is not a matter of altruism. Solidarity comes from the recognition that we are all deeply connected.” — Angela Davis

We are all deeply connected. Our struggles are intertwined. Different movements are confronting the same violent systems—different names, same oppression. That is why we must forge bigger, bolder coalitions. This shared recognition becomes the foundation on which we build power.

Yes, this moment is exhausting. But we are not powerless. We are the powerful, the builders. We will move forward—with courage, with care, with unity. Only together can we dismantle what is broken and create what is just.

💧 Watering the Mind

In this section we share updates from the noe team and concrete offers that allow you to build emotional intelligence and resilience skills.

Our upcoming noe circle on April 26 at 12 pm CET

What do you do when things don’t go as planned? 

This circle will explore “Managing Expectations & Reframing Failure” - how we navigate disappointment, adapt strategies, as well as stay connected to ourselves and others when things don’t go as planned.

We are honored to welcome our guest storyteller Ana Tavadze – an activist, organizational development professional, and community builder. Ana will share her journey of resilience and redirection, drawing from her experiences in civil society activism in Georgia. Her story is a powerful reminder that transformation often begins when we reframe what we thought was failure.

Sign up now to join the noe circle!

Sign up now

Meet our new Communications Manager Veronica!

We are very excited to be welcoming a new empath to our team! As communications manager, Veronica will be responsible for creating visibility around our work and strengthening our community interactions.

To get to know her a bit better, we asked her 3 questions:

1. Why is empathy important to you?

   Empathy has become important to me, especially as someone who's lived in eight different countries. Each place has taught me how vastly different people's lived experiences and cultural frameworks can be. Navigating life as a foreigner again and again, I’ve seen how misunderstandings, unconscious bias, or even racism can arise — not necessarily from ill intent, but from a lack of perspective. Empathy is the bridge that allows us to cross those differences. It helps me stay patient, not just with others, but with myself too. At the end of the day, no matter where we're from or what we believe, we're all human.

2. Where are you currently trying to be more empathic with yourself?

   The world we live in can feel incredibly competitive and fast-paced, especially for women. I no longer believe I need to run at anyone else's speed. My growth, my path — they unfold in their own time, and I’m learning to be at peace with that.

3. What is the impact that you would like to create with noe?

   For me, empathy shouldn’t stop at human relationships; it should extend to all living beings and the environment we share. Through noe, I hope to help create a space where people feel safe enough to be vulnerable, where they can learn from one another with curiosity and compassion. Noe is already doing a beautiful job of fostering that kind of community, and I’d love to see more people find their way into it and join our circles — because the more we connect through empathy, the more we can grow, together.

   So if you do have a story to share, get in touch with me. You might not always think so, but your story can resonate with someone else and bring them clarity, peace, and understanding.

If you would want to join our community or support us, don’t hesitate to get in touch at contact@networkofempathy.org.

🪴 Vines of Community

In this space we foster connection and inspiration by sharing stories, poems, and thoughts of community members.

This month we have an extract from Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit and a TV show recommendation from Mareike.

Dramatic Comedy | Going through realignment - as a modern Inuk woman

Netflix just dropped an Inuit-led dramatic comedy, “North of North”. The show tells the story of Siaja as she realizes that the life that she built for herself no longer suits her. As she navigates leaving her marriage and the generational trauma of her community and family, she discovers her talent as a community builder who manages to bridge generational divides.

The show offers light entertainment, following the style of its genre, while not shying away from discussing the crimes that were committed against Inuit communities by the Canadian government and the continued racialistion that Inuit people experience.

Dear fellow empath,

In this edition of our newsletter you’ll find:

🌱 Liberation Through Healing: Dr. Abu-Sittah’s Work in Conflict Zones

💧 The upcoming noe circle - Reflecting on Communities of Care

🪴 Inspiration for 2025 from the noe team

Enjoy!

Your noe team

Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up to receive your own copy of the noe newsletter full of inspiration, empathy knowledge, and connection.

Subscribe now

Contribute! You would like to contribute to our community column, be featured by our noe stories, or join our next noe circle? Shoot us an email: contact@networkofempathy.org

🌱 Planting Seeds

In this section we share thoughts and concepts around empathy that have inspired us and made us think.

The moment we cease to hold each other, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out. - James Baldwin

What if we lived in a world where care wasn't just an individual act, but a collective practice?

Audre Lorde, who coined the term 'self-care,' originally meant it as a radical act of survival for marginalized communities—before it was appropriated by the dominant cultural discourse. Her vision reminds us that true care is deeply intertwined with collective liberation and justice.

At Network of Empathy, we believe that thriving communities start with intentional care – for ourselves, for each other, and for the world around us. Whether it's supporting a friend in crisis, advocating for systemic change, or simply listening deeply, every act of empathy strengthens the web of human connection.

A Doctor’s Role in Liberation

Similarly to self-care health care can also be linked to collective survival. Liberation medicine is a movement dedicated to decolonizing medical practices by creating autonomous health ecosystems that serve marginalized communities. It emphasizes culturally competent care, self-determination, and dismantling oppressive structures within healthcare systems.

The story of Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah is a prominent example of what liberation medicine can look like. He is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon based in London who has dedicated his career to providing medical care in conflict zones, particularly in Gaza.

Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah's journey into liberation medicine was deeply personal. Growing up witnessing and living the struggles of displaced and war-affected communities, he felt a profound responsibility to use his medical skills as a form of resistance and healing. His commitment to serving in conflict zones stems from a belief that healthcare is not just about treating wounds but about restoring dignity and challenging the structures that perpetuate suffering. His work embodies the intersection of medicine and justice, demonstrating that care itself can be an act of defiance against oppression. More than stubbornly resisting violence by surviving, his work is highlighting the value that is inherent to each individual life. Every life is worth saving.

Dr. Abu-Sittah practices liberation medicine through his work providing surgical care in conflict zones, including Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Gaza. His expertise in reconstructive surgery has helped countless individuals affected by war and displacement.

Beyond his medical practice, Dr. Abu-Sittah is an academic leader, serving as an Honorary Senior Lecturer at Imperial College London and a Visiting Senior Lecturer at King’s College London. His research and advocacy shed light on how conflict systematically dismantles healthcare infrastructures.

Dr. Abu-Sittah's journey underscores the importance of empathy and collective care in building resilient communities. His work serves as a powerful reminder of the role each of us can play in fostering a culture of compassion and support.

To read more about Dr. Abu-Sittah's experiences and insights, check out his interview here.

💧 Watering the Mind

In this section we share updates from the noe team and concrete offers that allow you to build emotional intelligence and resilience skills.

Over the past month, one of NOE’s co-founders, Rimma, has spent time at home in Almaty, Kazakhstan, surrounded by her close ones. During this time, she realized just how much community care can nurture a weary heart.

(Note from the author: A special shout-out to Tomer, Ramilya, and Aissulu—your presence, your deep understanding, and the way you held space for me reminded me of the depth of care we are capable of offering one another. In those moments, I felt seen, understood, and supported with everything I had to bring.)

noe circle - Reflecting on Relationships and Communities of Care

As we step into 2025, let’s shift our focus from individualistic goals and dreams to something greater—thriving together as a community. We can only flourish if our communities do. Join our next noe circle where we will explore the importance of care as a collective practice. This gathering will be a space for deep listening, sharing experiences, and learning practical ways to strengthen our networks of support. Together, we can foster more resilient communities that prioritize empathy, justice, and collective healing.

If you want to join us for the next circle on January 25, sign up now through the link below!

Sign up now

If you would want to join our community or support us, don’t hesitate to get in touch at contact@networkofempathy.org.

🪴 Vines of Community

In this space we foster connection and inspiration by sharing stories, poems, and thoughts of community members.

1. Orbital by Samantha Harvey (2023)

The novel, told over the course of 24 hours, follows six astronauts and cosmonauts from Japan, the United States, Britain, Italy, and Russia, four men and two women, aboard the International Space Station as they orbit Earth. In no more than 100 pages this book manages to touch upon the big questions of humanity while describing the beauty of our shared home, planet earth. And while the author doesn’t shy away from addressing existential questions and highlighting the irreversible effect that humans have had on our planet, she nonetheless manages to instill a sense of awe and optimism.

“Before they came here there used to be a sense of the other side of the world, a far-away-and-out-of-reach. Now they see how the continents run into each other like overgrown gardens - that Asia and Australasia are not separate at all but are made continuous by the islands that trail between. […] Continents and countries come one after the other and the earth feels - not small, but almost endlessly connected, an epic poem of flowing verses. It holds no possibility of opposition.”

2. Picnic by Kim Yong-gyun (2023)

his heartfelt 2023 South Korean family drama, directed by Yong-gyun Kim, tells the story of Eun-sim, an 80-year-old woman who returns to her hometown after more than six decades. As she reconnects with old friends, she embarks on a deeply moving journey of reminiscence and rediscovery, reminding us of the power of community, friendship, and shared history.

Through its tender storytelling and emotionally rich narrative, Picnic captures the essence of aging, memory, and the enduring impact of human relationships. It beautifully illustrates how returning to one’s roots can be both healing and transformative, shedding light on the importance of connection and the nostalgia of places and people once left behind. The film's quiet yet profound moments encourage us to reflect on the relationships that have shaped our lives and the significance of holding onto our shared past.

More than just a film about one woman’s journey, Picnic serves as a universal reminder that community is essential for people of all ages. It offers a poignant exploration of how relationships nurture us, provide comfort in times of change, and create a sense of belonging that transcends generations. Eun-sim’s story is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the irreplaceable bonds that sustain us throughout our lives.

3. A Practice in Self-Compassion

The Inner Smile Meditation is a simple yet powerful practice rooted in Taoist tradition that invites us to turn inward and cultivate warmth, gratitude, and self-compassion. By directing a gentle smile toward different parts of the body, we acknowledge our own presence and extend kindness to ourselves. This practice helps release tension, improve emotional well-being, and foster a sense of inner peace.

Taking a moment each day to connect with yourself through an inner smile can be a transformative act of self-care. It reminds us that healing begins within and that our well-being is deeply connected to how we treat ourselves. As we strengthen our inner resilience, we become more capable of showing up for our communities with empathy and care.

Dear fellow empath,

in this edition of our newsletter you’ll find:

🌱 The year in review through the eyes of the noe team.

💧 What is to come in 2025? A look behind the scenes.

🪴 Closing the year with Ocean Vuong’s Essay on Craft.

Enjoy!

Your noe team

Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up to receive your own copy of the noe newsletter full of inspiration, empathy knowledge, and connection.

Subscribe now

Contribute! You would like to contribute to our community column, be featured by our noe stories, or join our next noe circle? Shoot us an email: contact@networkofempathy.org

🌱 Planting Seeds

In this section we share thoughts and concepts around empathy that have inspired us and made us think.

The noe year in review

As 2024 comes to a close, we’re taking a moment to reflect on an incredible year filled with connection, growth, and meaningful moments. This year has been a whirlwind of activity and progress for noe, and we’re so proud of what we’ve achieved together. To celebrate, we’ve picked five key highlights that capture the essence of our journey this year. From inspiring events to new beginnings, here’s what stood out in 2024!

1. Design Sprint with Alex (@realutopia)

We kicked off the year with a design sprint, guided by our friend—and now noe board member—Alex. Together, we worked to develop a solution to support our peers during periods of burnout. Out of this collaboration, the noe Experience was born—a resource designed to bring relief, understanding, and connection to those navigating challenging times.

2. Launching our monthly newsletter

Since launching our newsletter in March, we’ve stayed consistent, never missing an issue! It’s been such a rewarding way to stay connected with our community, especially for those times when participating in events feels like too much.

Our newsletter has become more than just updates—it’s a space to explore and develop our thinking about community action. September was our best month yet, with 150 reads, and we’re excited to keep building this platform.

3. Hosting our first noe Experience

This year, we took a bold step with the noe Experience—a weekend retreat with around 15 participants in Brandenburg. It was a complete experiment, and what an experience it was!

The retreat challenged us to develop and refine our noe methodology while holding space for a group of people, many of whom we were meeting for the first time. It was a weekend full of learning, connection, and shared growth—a true milestone in our journey as a community.

4. Bringing back noe Circles

This year, we relaunched NOE Circles, creating spaces to experience community and connection in meaningful ways. These circles have been a chance to come together, share, and just be present with one another.

In our latest circle, we were thrilled to be joined by the wonderful Jean Baptiste MacLucky, who brought fresh insights and energy to our gathering. It’s been amazing to see these spaces grow, and we can’t wait to keep the momentum going into the new year.

5. Growing as a team

This year has been a big one for us as a team. We’ve grown, especially, in how we work together. After 5 years it was also our first in-person meeting, with all team members being in the same place, with Nada flying in from Cairo and Rimma from Paris. Spending time together face-to-face connected us more deeply and gave us the chance to strengthen our shared vision for noe.

💧 Watering the Mind

In this section we share updates from the noe team and concrete offers that allow you to build emotional intelligence and resilience skills.

What is there to come in 2025 for noe?

As we wrap up 2024 and look forward to the year ahead, we’re excited to share what’s in store for NOE in 2025! The development we’ve started this year will continue to unfold, bringing some exciting changes while keeping the heart of our activities the same.

We are registering and growing into an organisation

After almost 5 years of working as an initiative, we will finally have a legal statute and will be registered in Germany as an association (e.V.). This will allow us to develop from a an informal structure into an actual organisation.

Moreover, members of our network will be able to sign up for official membership and benefit from our offers while also contributing to the development of the organisation.

Being legally registered will also enable us to apply for funding, develop sustainable ways of working, and expand both our activities and our team. Our ultimate goal is to create a flagship project that embodies our mission—building a community of care to support changemakers drive meaningful impact.

We are continuing our noe Circles

The season of circles we started back in September will continue into the next year. After launching this new season, we’ve already had two amazing circles with both new and old faces.

noe Circles are open spaces for connection and dialogue where anyone is welcome to join. Every time we come together, it’s such a source of energy—being part of a community, feeling that sense of togetherness, and sharing some of the heaviness that’s out there in the world.

If you want to join us for the next circle on January 25, sign up now through the link below!

Sign up now

If you would want to join our community or support us, don’t hesitate to get in touch at contact@networkofempathy.org.

🪴 Vines of Community

In this space we foster connection and inspiration by sharing stories, poems, and thoughts of community members.

As we close out the year, we are sharing Ocean Vuong’s Essay on Craft. It is a reminder of our humanness that is always there but is so easy to lose out of sight. It requires rest and self-care. Staying soft in the face of the world is hard work.

No matter how you are spending the last days of this year, we hope that you are able to take some time for yourself. Next year we go again.

Essay on Craft

BY OCEAN VUONG

Because the butterfly’s yellow wing

flickering in black mud

was a word

stranded by its language.

Because no one else

was coming — & I ran

out of reasons.

So I gathered fistfuls

of  ash, dark as ink,

hammered them

into marrow, into

a skull thick

enough to keep

the gentle curse

of  dreams. Yes, I aimed

for mercy — 

but came only close

as building a cage

around the heart. Shutters

over the eyes. Yes,

I gave it hands

despite knowing

that to stretch that clay slab

into five blades of light,

I would go

too far. Because I, too,

needed a place

to hold me. So I dipped

my fingers back

into the fire, pried open

the lower face

until the wound widened

into a throat,

until every leaf shook silver

with that god

-awful scream

& I was done.

& it was human.

Dear fellow empath,

in this edition of our newsletter you’ll find:

🌱 What is climate justice? Collective rights, demilitarization, and decolonialization for system change are not optional.

💧 How do you go through a crisis of meaning? Join us for our next noe circle with integrative life coach Jean-Baptiste MacLuckie on November 30 at 3 pm CET.

🪴 Where to find community spaces this month and reading recommendations on climate justice.

Enjoy!

Your noe team

Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up to get your own copy of the noe newsletter to your inbox with inspiration, empathy knowledge, and community building.

Subscribe now

Contribute! You would like to contribute to our community column, be featured by our noe stories, or join our next noe circle? Shoot us an email: contact@networkofempathy.org

🌱 Planting Seeds

In this section we share thoughts and concepts around empathy that have inspired us and made us think.

No Climate Justice without Human Rights

“The People’s Plenary at COP29 is a powerful reminder that the true power in the climate crisis lies not with the diplomats in their VIP rooms, but with the people. While governments continue to stall and manipulate, it is the voices of communities on the frontlines, grassroots activists, and youth leaders that are driving the conversation. This plenary is a declaration that people have always held the power to change the course of history.”

Tasneem Essop, Climate Action Network International

Climate change is inherently a justice issue. Together North America and Europe have historically contributed to around 62% of the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions since the beginning of the industrial age (OurWorldinData.org). While regions, countries, and communities that have the least emissions such as Africa (a historical total of 3% of emissions), they bear the brunt of the climate crisis. In particular, marginalized communities such as women, girls, people with diverse sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics (SOGIESC), people with disability, migrants, refugees, and displaced persons are the most affected. This is due to intersecting forms of discrimination and oppression based on gender, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status that effectively marginalize and put these populations in vulnerable situations.

Despite the facts, science, and historical responsibility, the Global North continues to shirk its responsibilities in climate action and climate finance. The wealth and power of the North has been and continues to be built on the backs, bodies, blood, and land of the Global South. So, more accurately, climate finance is not charity, but a redistribution of stolen wealth and resources. It is a responsibility and legal obligation as outlined in the United Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) of the countries that have and continue to drive the climate crisis. It is a matter of justice and equity. The South is owed reparations and the North must pay its climate debt for the destruction its industrialization, extractivism, and consumption has caused.

COP29 has once again conveyed the depth of lack of political will and heartlessness of the Global North as they sit idly by not only watching the world burn, but actively and intentionally disempowering and disenabling local communities in the Global South. The current trajectory of GHG emissions is setting us on a track of a global 3 degree Celsius temperature increase. Climate catastrophe is imminent. Instead of financing climate action and ambitiously reducing GHG emission reductions, they fund genocide, occupation, and war and the proliferation and subsidization of fossil fuel extraction, production, and consumption. While the Global North claims there is not enough public funds to finance climate action, in 2023 alone, they have spent 2.4 trillion USD on war and genocide.

The UNFCCC’s Standing Committee on Finance published the second needs determination report (NDR), a compilation of developing countries’ costed needs for adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage. It was determined that $5.012-6.852 trillion will be required cumulatively until 2030, a number that already underrepresents the entire costs required for climate action. Yet, at COP29, the North has proposed and shoved an abysmal goal for climate finance down the South’s throats: 300 billion USD per year until 2035. The decision on the climate finance, the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), in reality is much less when taking into account inflation. In addition, according to the Convention and principles of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDR-RC), equity, and justice, climate finance should be provided and mobilized by the Global North. However, the North has abdicated its historical responsibility by broadening the pool of contributors, looking for private sector financing (whose priorities are for their own profit -one of the root causes of the climate crisis, injustice, and exploitation and abuse) and asking affected people in developing countries to pay for the climate damage they have not caused.

In addition, without the exclusion of carbon markets, market-based loans, and export credit, climate finance will not address climate impacts, but continue business as usual. By using multilateral development banks (MDBs) as key vehicles for climate finance delivery, it will perpetuate the status quo -where loans, privatization, and policy conditionalities such as austerity measures exacerbate gender inequality and violate human rights.

We need system change, not climate change

The climate crisis is a direct result of a system of interconnected injustices and inequalities that create targeted and intentional barriers and disenablers for marginalized communities and the Global South more generally. Patriarchy, colonialism, capitalism, and militarism reproduce and thrive on disparities, systemically hoarding power and wealth in the Global North, including through corporate capture.

Centering and investing in gender equality and gender responsiveness is a matter of survival for women and girls and people with diverse SOGIESC. Climate change disproportionately impacts women, girls, and marginalized communities, exacerbating existing disparities. Due to existing structural barriers and gendered norms and responsibilities, women, girls, and gender diverse individuals are made vulnerable to climate change. Coupled with intersecting climate impacts such as food and water insecurity, extreme weather events, and droughts, women and girls in all their diversity carry heavier burdens. For example, during droughts or following disasters, household can and have married of their children through child, early, and forced marriages to alleviate financial pressure (read more on climate impacts on SRHR). Water collection and management in households are often a gendered responsibility of women and girls. With a rise in the frequency and severity of droughts, women and girls are having to walk longer distances to fetch water. This makes them more exposed to gender-based violence (GBV), exploitation, physically demanding stress, as well as increases the time spent of water collection which can be used in other opportunities such as education. Lack of access to credit, capital, and land tenure make food and water insecurity difficult to adapt to and mitigate -without money or control over land, they have less options to cope with these impacts such as buying food.

Patriarchy, capitalism, extractivisim, colonialism, genocide, war, and occupation have created systemic barriers that intentionally target, abuse, and disempower women, girls, people with diverse SOGIESC, and marginalized communities. As leaders at the forefront of the climate crisis, we don’t need empowerment, we don’t need solutions, we need system change that enables us to effectively adapt and address losses and damages.

The systems of injustice referred to above are interconnected, reproducing and perpetuating violence and inequity. This is clearly conveyed in the fossil fuel industry that not only profits from the climate crisis, but also from exploitation, human rights abuse, and genocide and occupation. War requires energy and the trade regime exporting and transporting fuel to Israel enables and benefits from the destruction of the environment and the eradication and suffering of Palestinians, Lebanese, Sudanese, Syrians, Yemenis, and too many more from around the world such as the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Dangerous narratives

The emphasis on “building adaptive capacity and resilience” to climate impacts places the burden on us to accept and deal with the status quo as the Global North continues its rampant emissions and extractivism instead of committing to a pathway to maintain a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Contraception and family planning have also often been positioned as mitigation measures to control population growth. However, this narrative places an unjust burden of climate mitigation on the people and communities least responsible and distracts from the true drivers of the climate crisis.

Climate mitigation requires tackling the unsustainable and damaging production and consumption patterns of wealthy countries. Redirecting attention away from the perpetrators of climate change to controlling people’s bodies, especially those already place in vulnerable situations, will not solve the climate crisis, but perpetuate it.

💧 Watering the Mind

In this section we share updates from the noe team and concrete offers that allow you to build emotional intelligence and resilience skills.

What does it mean to find your purpose in life?

Join us for our next noe circle this Saturday, 30th of November at 3 pm CET. We are excited to be joined by guest storyteller Jean-Baptiste MacLuckie (@iamjbmacluckie). Jean-Baptiste is an integrative life coach and self-described radical dreamer whose mission it is to empower creatives to break free from inner resistance, so they are free to dream, express their art and inspire the world. Based on his own experience of navigating a crisis of meaning and guiding others in creating a meaningful life, we will deconstruct what it mens to find a life purpose.

Are you interested in joining our circle?

Sign up through the link below!

Sign up now

If you would want to join our community or support us, don’t hesitate to get in touch at contact@networkofempathy.org.

🪴 Vines of Community

In this space we foster connection and inspiration by sharing stories, poems, and thoughts of community members.

Events

Berlin/ Day Retreat of Care and Community (Dec. 1, 2024)
More infos and registration here

Resources on climate justice

• Women & Gender Constituency Demands for COP29

• On false solutions for climate change

• The dangers of market-based solutions

• A brief glimpse into climate finance, gender and climate finance, and decolonial finance

• Understanding loss and damage

• Reproductive justice: Why family planning and contraception are not climate solutions

• Effective climate solutions are gender-just

• Towards Climate Justice: Redistributing Military Spending to Climate Finance

Dear fellow empath,

in this edition of our newsletter you’ll find:

🌱 Do you feel it too? Our call to action against the empathy deficit.

💧 Recap of our last noe circle Circling Back (also, sign up now for our next circle in November!).

🪴 Rimma’s book recommendations that make us reconnect with our empathy this fall.

Enjoy!

Your noe team

Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up to get your own copy of the noe newsletter to your inbox with inspiration, empathy knowledge, and community building.

Subscribe now

Contribute! You would like to contribute to our community column, be featured by our noe stories, or join our next noe circle? Shoot us an email: contact@networkofempathy.org

🌱 Planting Seeds

In this section we share thoughts and concepts around empathy that have inspired us and made us think.

The Empathy Deficit - A Call to Action

Do you feel it too? This general sense that the world currently lacks empathy? It feels like the unwritten rule to find common ground around our shared humanity has been lifted. Thinking, saying and doing things that push us further apart receive increasingly more applause than reaffirming the “we”. The “us” and the “them” grow taller, sometimes without us noticing - while nobody actually knows who “they” are. But still, these words drive conflict and genocide in ways that make resolution an impossible feat and peace a distant dream. And while we wait for somebody to jump up, to raise their hand and scream “What the hell are we doing here?”, our hearts slowly hollow out. However, at some point we come to realize that nobody will jump up, if not us. So what can we do?

What is the empathy deficit?

Empathy, the ability to perceive and share another person’s feelings, is the basis for social connection. However, as we are confronted with more suffering around us, especially in the form of escalatory violent conflict and genocide, we are increasingly seeing what can be described as an "empathy deficit". In a piece by Jennifer Rubin published in the Washington Post in February 2023, this deficit is defined as

“a collective inability (or refusal) to see the world from others’ perspectives, to understand people’s fears and hopes and our shared humanity”

This deficit reflects a societal shift where people are less able to step into others' shoes, and more inclined to focus on their own goals, emotions, and well-being. What has been known as a psychological pathology, namely "Empathy Deficit Disorder" (EDD), has extend beyond the individual, thereby becoming a collective phenomenon: We struggle to form meaningful emotional connections and respond to others with compassion.

From avoiding the news to withdrawing from others

Within our day to day the empathy deficit plays out in all arenas of life. On the larger political playing field, it seems to fuel violent conflict and genocide beyond the recognition of the value of human life, beyond the limits of rationality. As we bear witness to these events, we collectively grow our tolerance for violence and suffering. In the confines of our homes this might lead us to switch off the news, too exhausted from confronting ourselves with unimaginable suffering every day. And, if we continue to follow the news cycle, the constant exposure to distressing headlines numbs us. The disconnect worsens as some people retreat into ideological bubbles, polarizing further instead of attempting to understand the perspectives of others.

Whenever a colleague, friend or family member shares their personal struggles with us, that might as well just push us over the edge of what we can carry. We may feel a fleeting sense of pity or even sympathy. But actually, being there with them becomes steadily less possible. The chores of daily life in late-stage capitalism already leave us feeling drained and overwhelmed, less energy to spare for personal interactions. At the same time, we painfully experience this empathy gap as feelings of isolation and distance. Face-to-face interactions, reduced to a funny video that you send to a friend on TikTok. We unconsciously retreat into our bubbles of comfort until an insightful post on Instagram finally helps us self-diagnose why we feel so alone - depending on your algorithm it might be ADHD or the current star constellation.

For those of us who identify as empaths—highly sensitive individuals attuned to the emotions of others—the empathy deficit poses its own set of challenges. Living in a world that often feels emotionally detached can lead to compassion fatigue, where empathizing with others becomes overwhelming and exhausting.

What can empaths do to cope?

So how can we escape the numbness and return to action? To cope, empaths can focus on setting healthy emotional boundaries. While it’s vital to care for others, it’s equally important to practice self-care to avoid burnout. Mindfulness and self-reflection are essential tools that can help us manage our emotional load. By being more intentional about how and when we engage with the world’s suffering, we can strike a balance between empathy and self-preservation​. Additionally, engaging in small acts of kindness and fostering deeper connections within our immediate community, such as during our noe circles, can provide meaningful outlets for empathy, without the need to bear the weight of global issues single-handedly​.

In conclusion, while the empathy deficit reflects a concerning shift in human connection, individuals—especially empaths—can combat this trend by fostering deeper, more mindful interactions and amplifying marginalized stories and voices. Coming together as a community, as we do as Network of Empathy, thereby allows us to replenish and combine our resources. Doing so can gradually rebuild trust, understanding, and compassion in a disconnected world.

💧 Watering the Mind

In this section we share updates from the noe team and concrete offers that allow you to build emotional intelligence and resilience skills.

We launched a new season of noe circles!

On September 28, we reconnected with members of our community around the theme “Circling Back”, thereby launching a new season of noe circles. Following our ritual of the circles, we started with introductions and a short meditation before diving into a deeper and wholesome exchange. With participants from Europe, Centra Asia, the MENA region and Africa joining, we exchanged on what we are currently feeling in our lives and for the world. After 1.5h we left, somehow feeling more grounded and connected again, having tapped into the replenishing source of communal sharing.

For our next noe circle in November we will be diving further into the aspect of “the Self” of our noe methodology. To do so we will be joined by a special guest that we will announce shortly. Make sure to join!

Are you interested in joining our November circle?

Sign up here through the link below!

Sign up now

If you would want to join our community or support us, don’t hesitate to get in touch at contact@networkofempathy.org.

🪴 Vines of Community

In this space we foster connection and inspiration by sharing stories, poems, and thoughts of community members.

This month Rimma is sharing reading recommendations that allow us to connect with our empathy. These books allow us to tap into the pain of the world while highlighting not only the pain but also the beauty that it is often accompanied by.

Books

The second novel by Pulitzer-nominated author Tommy Orange, “Wandering Stars”, tells a story of the intergenerational trauma left behind by the Sand Creek Massacre among Native American communities.

Read reviews here (The Guardian) and here (The NY Times).

The therapy memoire turned international memoire “I want to die but I want to eat tteokbokki” now has a sequel (I want to die but I still want to eat tteokbokki (2024)). The South Korean author Baek Sehee shared recordings of her sessions with her psychiatrist as well as her personal reflections upon her mental health journey.

“PSYCHIATRIST: So how can I help you?

ME: I don't know, I'm – what's the word – depressed? Do I have to go into detail?”

in this edition of our newsletter you’ll find:

🌱 Exploring the rest in resistance and the resistance in rest.

💧 Catch our next noe circle Circling Back on September 28 at 3 pm CET. Save the date!

🪴 Recommendations on rest and resistance from our noe community, including an event in Berlin.

Enjoy!

Your noe team

Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up to get your own copy of the noe newsletter to your inbox with inspiration, empathy knowledge, and community building.

Subscribe now

Contribute! You would like to contribute to our community column, be featured by our noe stories, or join our next noe circle? Shoot us an email: contact@networkofempathy.org

🌱 Planting Seeds

In this section we share thoughts and concepts around empathy that have inspired us and made us think.

The Rest in Resistance & the Resistance in Rest

“Rest, in its simplest form, becomes an act of resistance and a reclaiming of power because it asserts our most basic humanity. We are enough.”

Tricia Hersey, author of “Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto”

Have you ever taken an afternoon off and felt extremely guilty? Was your mind swarmed with repeated echoes of “You should be doing something!" or “Stop being lazy!”. Whatever that unknown something is! Have these judgmental thoughts around “productivity” haunted your mind? If so, you are not alone. Since the rise of industrialism, we have been socialized and hard-wired into believing that being productive is tied to our self worth and value. However, this reverence given to hyper-productivity originates from capitalist values endorsed and promoted by capitalist employers. While this originated as a tactic to control and govern labor workers for the sake of maximizing efficiency and productivity regardless of the human wellbeing, it has become an internalized and damaging principle. Therefore, unsurprisingly we, humans, have developed a troubled relationship with rest. From the minuscule daily activity to our life achievements, our benchmark of satisfaction is based on our productivity -on what output we can produce.

Cara New Daggett offers an interesting perspective on productivity. In her book The Birth of Fossil Fuels, Thermodynamics, Energy, & the Politics of Work, she explores the history and development of labor and industrialization. She asserts that the industrial age of energy and machinery introduced a new kind of competition to human labor. Energy allowed the use of new tactics for labor governance, all focused on the maximization of efficiency and productivity. For the first time, work had become measurable in terms of both quality and quantity, and time became the preferred method to ensure labor discipline. By the nineteenth century, wage labor (being paid by time worked) overtook the former tradition of taken-work, where one was paid by the task. With work being controlled by time, the waged worker now had to match the speed of its new colleagues: machines. This was a shift to completely new ways of dividing and organizing work and leisure. Nonindustrial work was not as rigid in this separation between leisure and labor, and most notably, each individual was in control over their own working life.

Pro-industrialists and akin reformers disapproved of taken-work as it would result in too little to sell and left workers with too much control over their time. They believed if left idle, the public would resort to vices and immoral leisure such as drinking, prostitution, and crime. Work became a moral concern. Waged labor was also not only a means to standardize workers’ time, but to instill the notion that “time equals money”. This meant that the time that was not put to good use, or to productivity, was time wasted. Subsequently, leisure became an isolated activity, bound to short moments in the week rather than interspersed throughout the day at an individual’s will.

Daggett further elaborates that by the end of the nineteenth century, social reformers behind the industrial movement became preoccupied with the scientific evaluation of work. With that, work additionally became a physiological problem. This science came with “a modernist politics, the politics of a state devoted to maximizing the economy of the body” and to “a new kind of productivism”. The new science of ergonomics, or efficient movement, did not emerge to discuss time and space, but energy as it pertains to human labor power. Now, an employer no longer measured output or time worked alone, but would need to take into account the energy flows into the labor system. In pursuit of moral and physical optimization, the work-life balance phenomenon emerged as a new tactic of governance. Thus, issues of overwork and underwork were approached as a problem of imbalance that was curable through adjusting inputs and outputs -and energy was the best unit for optimal balancing.

Following these socio-economic developments in labor and labor governance, the emergence of social Darwinism, and the invention of the new “Rational Self of Man”, the human has become primarily an economic subject. The European colonizer no longer defined themselves by virtue of religion, and, therefore, no longer defined the “other” by their religious heresy, but by their “political condemnation”, which included those who were occupied, colonized, oppressed, and enslaved. The determining characteristics of “otherness” further evolved to be based on economic activity, productivity, and wealth. The elite have become the Breadwinners and Investors and the other are the economically damned: the jobless, homeless, the Poor, and the “undeveloped”.

This brief discussion on productivity and rest highlights a few key issues on the former notion. First, it is a manufactured concept designed to control worker’s time that has evolved into an internalized social value. However, it originates from values of materialism, capitalism, and maximizing efficiency and productivity. Second, humans are viewed as economic subjects and they, including their activities, are valued based on their material output and the efficiency and management of their energy flow. Third, it is an imperialist, colonial concept used as a signifier of differentiation between the colonizers and the colonized.

Therefore, resting is indeed resisting the current capitalist, neo-liberal, and colonial system that seeks to control workers’ and their lives, time, and autonomy. When we think of resistance, we often think of big actions - perhaps a protest or demonstration. However, it is the small acts of individual ownership, of taking back control over your time and your experience of it, that can be strong acts of resistance. Each individual together can bring about a social movement to take back our agency. Connecting to your body, respecting your needs, prioritizing your and your community’s wellbeing is a collective fight against a system that is built and thrives on human exploitation.

We can take a few lessons to learn from Kaitlin B. Curtice. In her book, Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day, Curtice discusses four realms of resistance: the personal, the communal, the ancestral, and the integral. She emphasizes the importance of daily resistance against the interconnected systems of oppression that have promoted disconnection from each other and indigenous or local traditions, individualism, and a hyperfixation on productivity. Curtice shares a few examples of such as “practicing embodied ways of belonging and connection to ourselves and others in our daily lives such as getting in touch with our bodies, resting, and remembering our ancestors”.

We can see that the movement, rest is resistance, fits within the larger struggle and strive for collective liberation and system change.

💧 Watering the Mind

In this section we share updates from the noe team and concrete offers that allow you to build emotional intelligence and resilience skills.

Our upcoming noe circle this September 28 at 3 pm CET

None of us exist in isolation; we are all interconnected, like the roots of a great tree.

Our lives are deeply woven into the fabric of those around us, but for many of us passionate about contributing to societal and systemic change, overwhelm and burnout can sever that connection. Rooting ourselves in community, empathy, and self-care practices helps us reconnect with ourselves, others, and our purpose. This grounding provides the strength to navigate uncertainty, foster resilience, and reignite passion for the change we seek. All upcoming NOE Circles are designed to help you find that connection, exploring themes of interconnectedness and rooting in order to restore balance and wellbeing.

The three main themes we’ll focus on are: relationship to self, interpersonal connections, and change, following the NOE Experience methodology. Through these lenses, we will deepen our understanding of how to cultivate inner stability while driving impactful, sustainable transformation in the world around us.

Our upcoming circle, taking place September 28 at 3pm CET via zoom, is an opportunity to re-connect with ourselves and our noe community. Following the theme “Circling Back” we’ll hold space to check in with each other and root ourselves in community.

Are you interested in joining our September circle?

Sign up now

If you would want to join our community or support us, don’t hesitate to get in touch at contact@networkofempathy.org.

🪴 Vines of Community

In this space we foster connection and inspiration by sharing stories, poems, and thoughts of community members.

For September, members of our noe community have shared some community events and book and music recommendations on rest and resistance and to help you rest in resistance.

Community Event (online)

Eszter is offering an Autumn Equinox Reflection Hour on September 23 at 6pm CET via Zoom and for our noe community members participation is **free**. The event offers an opportunity to take stock of your inner ressources and set goals for the rest of the year.

Register here

Books

The Birth of Fossil Fuels, Thermodynamics, Energy, & the Politics of Work by Cara New Daggett.

Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day by Kaitlin B. Curtice.

“Resistance is for every human who longs to see their neighbors' holistic flourishing. We each have a role to play in the world right where we are, and our everyday acts of resistance hold us all together.”

Froom Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day

Music

For some self-care and love:

Crushin’ by Meghan Trainor (ft. Lawrence)

To inspire you to get some well-deserved rest:

Put Your Records On by Corinne Bailey Rae

Do You Wanna Do Nothing with Me? by Lawrence

in this edition of our newsletter you’ll find:

🌱 What is Collective Liberation? ~ How can we come together to dismantle interconnected systems of oppression?

💧 What’s happening at noe?

🪴 A selected poem from our community: My Crime, !جريمتي by Khalil Sima’an

Enjoy!

Your noe team

Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up to get your own copy of the noe newsletter to your inbox with inspiration, empathy knowledge, and community building.

Subscribe now

Contribute! You would like to contribute to our community column, be featured by our noe stories, or join our next noe circle? Shoot us an email: contact@networkofempathy.org

🌱 Planting Seeds

In this section we share thoughts and concepts around empathy that have inspired us and made us think.

Collective Liberation - Empathy and Solidarity

“Creating a world where all life on earth is able to exist freely, in symbiosis with a healthy environment, without the threat of violence, and with all the resources needed to thrive.”

On Collective Liberation, Slow Factory

Collective Liberation means freedom for all groups and all people; living in harmony with a healthy and safe environment. It recognizes that systems of oppression are intersectional and that all our oppressions are connected, and emphasizes the need to work together in solidarity to achieve Collective Liberation. Solidarity recognizes intersectional nature of oppression and builds community from across the shared experiences of oppression.

Collective Liberation is more than just an ideal; it's a grassroots, inclusive movement that brings communities together to dismantle systemic inequities. Empathy is at the heart of it as it fosters deep understanding and solidarity across diverse communities. In addition, genuine solidarity involves not just supporting but deeply connecting with each others' struggles. It requires environments that appreciate and actively integrate diverse perspectives and address historical injustices. Empathy helps create such inclusive spaces where everyone’s experiences are valued and addressed. By practicing empathy, we can more effectively create systemic change and achieve Collective Liberation.

If we take a look at the Palestinian movement, where thousands have and continue to gather across the world to protest against the Gaza genocide and Israeli occupation, we can see a shared sense of solidarity and the strive for Collective Liberation. News channels have reported anti-occupation and anti-genocide protestors from around the world. You may have heard the rallying cry “In their thousands, in their millions, we are all Palestinians” -a powerful chant, echoing across all continents. A united voice that understands the struggles of oppression, occupation, and colonization, driven by a compassion to fight against all systems of oppression for Collective Liberation.

Solidarity, and at its core, empathy, is key to Collective Liberation. It involves learning from one another’s experiences, acknowledging how we might have contributed to or benefited from each other’s oppression, and committing to share power and hold each other accountable. This is essential for transforming systems and institutions and achieving Collective Liberation.

💧 Watering the Mind

In this section we share updates from the noe team and concrete offers that allow you to build emotional intelligence and resilience skills.

noe is reflecting… and cooking

Still reeling from the noe experience, we are taking this summer to reflect on how far we’ve come, the lessons learned, and to look forward to the future of noe. With the success of the noe experience, we are eager to further expand and build our community and offer more noe circles, exchanges, and experiences. We are even more dedicated to our mission to strengthen emotional skills and cultivate empathy and compassion to enable personal growth, community-building, and social and systemic change.

Did you miss noe circles?

Worry not! They are coming back very soon. Follow us on social media and stay updated as we share more on our upcoming noe circles and more.

Instagram

Exciting things ahead!

If you would want to join our community or support us, don’t hesitate to get in touch at contact@networkofempathy.org.

🪴 Vines of Community

In this space we foster connection and inspiration by sharing stories, poems, and thoughts of community members.

This month, Nada chose the poem My crime, !‎جريمتي by Palestinian writer Khalil Sima’an.

I am a thistle

in the throat of a cannon

a blood clot

in the veins of invaders

a scribble on the margins

of a decrepit promise

an afterthought on discarded maps.

My crime is that I live

and keep on living, like

a resounding love song

filled with hope

in the hollow halls

of criminal factories

for weapons of mass murder.

!‎جريمتي

أنا شوكة مزهرة

‎في حلق مدفع

‎جلطة دموية

‎في عروق الغزاة

‎خربشة على هامش

وعد رث

‎فكرة لاحقة

.‎على خرائط مهملة

‎

جريمتي أنني أعيش

‎وأنني أستمر بالعيش

‎كأغنية حب مدوية

‎مفعمة بالأمل

‎في قاعات جوفاء

‎لمصانع إجرامية

.‎لأسلحة الإبادة الجماعية

Source: Fikra magazine

A Palestinian literary magazine.

*18,800 Souls commemorates 18,800 Palestinians who perished in Gaza in the 2023 genocide (March 21, 2024).

Welcome,

in this edition of our newsletter you’ll find:

🌱 Coming Together - Or why we should refocus on community this summer

💧 It’s a wrap! Recapping our first noe experience

🪴 Feeling like reconnecting? Here are a couple of community events to join this month

Enjoy!

Your noe team

Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up to get your own copy of the noe newsletter to your inbox with inspiration, empathy knowledge, and community building.

Contribute! You would like to contribute to our community column, be featured by our noe stories, or join our next noe circle? Shoot us an email: contact@networkofempathy.org

🌱 Planting Seeds

Coming Together - An Ode to Community

“I mostly want to remind her of the recipes of healing, and give her my own made-on-the spot remedy for the easing of her pain. I tell her, “Get a pen. Stop crying so you can write this down and start working on it tonight.” My remedy is long. But the last item on the list says: “When you wake up and find yourself living someplace where there is nobody you love and trust, no community, it is time to leave town – to pack up and go (you can even go tonight). And where you need to go is any place where there are arms that can hold you, that will not let you go.”

bell hooks, Sisters of the Yam: Black Women and Self-Recovery

In today's fast-paced world, it's easy to feel disconnected. From yourself, from others, from the world around. Busy building our own worlds as adults, swept up by the lure of capitalism and the need for self-actualization, we all, sooner or later, feel profoundly lost.

But, when we come together as a community, something magical happens. We share our stories, our struggles, and our triumphs, creating a sense of belonging that’s deeply comforting.

Being part of a community means we’re not alone. We find people who listen, support, and accept us as we are. This feeling of being held by others is incredibly powerful—it allows us to be our true selves without fear of judgment.

One of the best parts of community is the diversity of experiences and perspectives. Everyone brings something unique to the table, and through sharing, we learn and grow. We become more empathetic and understanding, enriching our own lives and those around us.

Facing life's challenges is easier when we have a community to lean on. Collective strength and solidarity make our burdens lighter and our hearts braver. And it’s not just about the tough times—celebrating successes together makes those moments even sweeter.

Ultimately, coming together and feeling held by a community reminds us of our shared humanity. It’s about being seen, heard, and valued. In a world that can sometimes feel isolating, let’s prioritize these connections. They make life richer and more meaningful.

💧 Watering the Mind

It’s a wrap! Recapping our first noe experience!

When was the last time you were in community? Maybe you felt the warm feeling of connection or the calm and ease of simply being allowed to be yourself?

We experienced all of these feelings a couple of weeks ago when piloting our first ever noe experience. As one participant poignantly summarized it: “a two-day hug”.

The result of a 6-month design sprint, we, with the help of our wonderful coach Alex Wolf, designed the noe experience to be a 2-day weekend retreat that allows burnt out young professionals to experience community and acquire a toolkit to ensure their personal wellbeing by practicing self-compassion, to foster meaningful connections through empathy, and to create change by extending that empathy to a sense of care for people and planet.

But, the noe experience turned out to be so much more:

• An acknowledgement of our pain for the world 

• A sharing of experiences and a sense of being heard

• A gathering around a fire for stories, old and new, that made us who we are

• A space for healing and connection, with ourselves and nature

• A network of relationships that holds and sustains us

We came together as activists, storytellers, and conscious entrepreneurs having lost our sense of impact and agency and left with a renewed sense of purpose.

All of that of course wouldn’t have been possible without the people that believed in us - more than we sometimes did ourselves - and that became our community in organizing the experience.

• Julian for offering a space

• Alex for believing in us

• Thomas for capturing the many moments of connection

• Anna for bringing us back into our bodies

• And everybody else who became a part of it

We are now looking forward to developing this offer further. If you’d like to support us in any way, feel free to reach out: contact@networkofempathy.org

🪴 Vines of Community

Community Events to join this Month

Berlin

• Berliner Sommer Community Picnic by Sharing our Loneliness (aka Monika Jiang)
  Sunday, July 21, 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM [Sing-up]

Paris

• Restore and Recalibrate by Refugia

  Wednesday, July 17, 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM [Sign-up]

Sinai

• Artist Retreat by Cocoon Cultural Centre
  Weekend, July 25-27 [More info]

Welcome,

in this edition of our newsletter you’ll find:

🌱 Commemorating Loneliness Awareness Week with random acts of connection

💧 Preparing for our first noe experience (It’s not too late to join the waitlist!)

🪴 Wisdom from Rupi Kaur

Enjoy!

Your noe team

Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up to get your own copy of the noe newsletter to your inbox with inspiration, empathy knowledge, and community building.

Contribute! You would like to contribute to our community column, be featured by our noe stories, or join our next noe circle? Shoot us an email: contact@networkofempathy.org

🌱 Planting Seeds

In this section we share thoughts and concepts around empathy that have inspired us and made us think.

Loneliness - Random Acts of Connection

In commemoration of Loneliness Awareness Week 2024, which is taking place Monday 10th June – Sunday 16th June, we are dedicating this issue of our newsletter to the topic of loneliness and this year’s theme “Random Acts of Connection”.

Loneliness is real. It can hit you while sitting on the train during your morning commute, at a party surrounded by family and friends, or while cooking dinner at home. It might suddenly hit you or slowly creep up on you. The sense that you’re out there by yourself, removed from the world around you.

According to a Meta-Gallup survey published in October last year, nearly 1 in 4 adults across the world have reported feeling very or fairly lonely. The survey, taken across 142 countries, found 24% of people age 15 and older self-reported feeling very or fairly lonely in response to the question, “How lonely do you feel?”. Among young adults ages 19 to 29 loneliness was even more prevalent with the number going up to 27%, thereby reporting higher rates of loneliness than people aged 65 and above.

But, loneliness does not only have an effect on our mental, it also severely impacts our physical health. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, social isolation and loneliness can increase a person's risk for heart disease and stroke, type 2 diabetes, depression and anxiety, suicidality and self-harm, dementia and earlier death. In other words, loneliness is harmful and based on the reported figures it can rightly be considered an epidemic.

So what can we do to counter loneliness? It all starts with random acts of connection. Acts of kindness that aim to establish and build connection. Such as making another person feel seen, by making eye contact, greeting each other and being there to listen. Maybe it is picking up the phone and randomly calling a friend today, sharing a funny video with a friend on instagram or TikTok, or writing a letter to your grandma. If you need more inspiration, here is a whole list.

If you take us up on this invitation, we’d love to know: what is a random act of connection that you’ll do today?

💧 Watering the Mind

In this section we share updates from the noe team and concrete offers that allow you to build emotional intelligence and resilience skills.

Getting ready for our first noe experience!

We are getting ready for our first noe experience, taking place June 28-30 in Brandenburg, Germany!

It is the first time we will be testing the noe methodology that we have been developing over the past months, utilizing empathy as a tool to access inner resources in order to ensure personal wellbeing as well as to initiate sustainable social change.

If you weren’t able to sign up until now, feel free to do so now. You’ll be placed on our waitlist and if a space opens up, you’ll be the first one to be offered a spot.

Sign up for waitlist

Don’t hesitate to get in touch with any questions by emailing us at contact@networkofempathy.org

🪴 Vines of Community

In this space we foster connection and inspiration by sharing stories, poems, and thoughts of community members.

Like with most big feelings, Rupi Kaur has been able to capture our longing for connection in a few lines of text, published in her book “home body” (2020):

our souls
will not be soothed
by what we achieve
how we look
or all the hard work we do
even if we managed to
make all the money in the world
we’d be left feeling empty for something
our souls ache for community
our deepest being craves one another
we need to be connected
to feel alive

Welcome,

in this edition of our newsletter you’ll find:

🌱 Welcome to the Great Exhaustion or why we are living in a burnt out world

💧 Join us for the first ever noe experience, June 28-30 in Brandenburg, Germany

🪴 Poetry by Mary Oliver

Enjoy!

Your noe team

Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up to get your own copy of the noe newsletter to your inbox with inspiration, empathy knowledge, and community building.

Contribute! You would like to contribute to our community column, be featured by our noe stories, or join our next noe circle? Shoot us an email: networkofempathy@gmail.com

🌱 Planting Seeds

In this section we share thoughts and concepts around empathy that have inspired us and made us think.

The Great Exhaustion - Navigating a burnt out world

How are you doing?Like, how are you really?

If you’re anything like us you’re mostly tired and somewhat exhausted. It feels like our battery is perpetually in low power mode and even now that the winter is finally over it is never fully charged. Literally, like a 3 year old iPhone.

According to McKinsey nearly half of employees report symptoms of burnout. Office workers seem to have retreated into a pervasive atmosphere of fatigue. At this stage, we’re in a post quiet-quitting world. Welcome to the great exhaustion.

Coined by writer and computer science professor Cal Newport, the great exhaustion can be explained by a general increase in digital communication specifically driven by the pandemic. A never ending flood of emails, zooms, teams and slack messages prevent us from ever switching off or having uninterrupted focus time. While always being on, our batteries get drained.

In our day to day we experience constant interaction with colleagues and friends, without ever really connecting. In the stream of information, we are too distracted to pause and listen, to empathize and show up for each other.

In short, this is your sign to turn on flight mode more often and to take the time to connect with people - maybe even in person.

💧 Watering the Mind

In this section we share updates from the noe team and concrete offers that allow you to build emotional intelligence and resilience skills.

Sign-up now for the first ever noe experience!

Picture early morning yoga sessions, interactive workshops, communal cooking, creative interventions and late night storytelling. All centered around a community of young adults who are motivated by driving change but can’t see how to anymore.

Having talked to many young professionals, possibly including you, over the past months, our key insights are:

1. Our peers are currently either burnt out or at risk of experiencing burnout as they lack time and space to self-regulate and find balance.

2. Young professionals like us are frustrated by their jobs that are often not sustainable, offer no support structures or opportunities for growth.

3. While pursuing a career and financial stability, young adults sacrifice impact, causing an estrangement from their purpose and a lack of direction.

To sum it up: We all feel pretty demotivated and lack energy to change things.

This is why we have created the noe experience - a weekend retreat that allows you to reset, connect with yourself and a community of like-minded individuals, as well as to rediscover the inner resources that allow you to drive systemic change.

Guided by our newly developed noe methodology the aims of the noe experience are to:

1. Foster a community of care that offers a longterm source of support for individual wellbeing and development.

2. Tune in to yourself, learn to practice self-compassion in order to identify your personal needs and discover your purpose.

3. Practice communicating your needs, learn how to foster effective communication with others and navigate conflict.

4. Connect your inner resources to your impact on the larger world and learn how to build communities for change.

In short: What can you expect?

• A weekend in community, June 28-30 2024

• A tribe of 10 participants from around the world

• Co-living in Brandenburg, just outside of Berlin

• Workshops around our noe methodology, connecting individual and communal resources to social change

All you need to do is apply until May 26!

Apply now!

Out of the applicants we’ll put together a cohort of 10 people that will join us for this first noe experience. After the selection we will provide you with further information on the location and logistics. Rest assured that you’ll have a lovely place to sleep, great food, and inspiring company!

Don’t hesitate to get in touch with any questions by emailing us at contact@networkofempathy.org

🪴 Vines of Community

In this space we foster connection and inspiration by sharing stories, poems, and thoughts of community members.

This month, Mareike chose the poem Wild Geese from Mary Oliver:

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

Welcome,

in this edition of our newsletter you’ll find:

🌱 Exploring the role fear plays in creating personal and social divisions

💧 Establishing a daily mindfulness practice with Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield’s 40-day introductory course that is completely **free**

🪴 Food for thought on communalism by bell hooks

Enjoy!

Your noe team

Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up to get your own copy of the noe newsletter to your inbox with inspiration, empathy knowledge, and community building.

Contribute! You would like to contribute to our community column, be featured by our noe stories, or join our next noe circle? Shoot us an email: networkofempathy@gmail.com

🌱 Planting Seeds

In this section we share thoughts and concepts around empathy that have inspired us and made us think.

The Security Dilemma - Connecting Through the Fear that Divides Us

The security dilemma is a classic theory of international relations and politics. The term was first coined in 1950 by John Herz and further developed and analyzed in the academia of international relations. It stipulates that when one state or country takes measures to increase its security (for example, through building armaments or forming new alliances), it leads other states to feel more afraid for their own security. In response, other states increase their own military strength to protect themselves.

At the core of the security dilemma lie a few assumptions:

1. Survival and self-preservation are core needs for states.

2. Without a ‘world government’, each state prioritizes self-protect and maximizes its security.

3. There is a distrust between states, meaning that when one state arms itself, other states feel insecure because they do not know whether the former state’s armament is for offense or defense.

This dilemma is founded on feelings of fear and insecurity that drive states to build defenses and military protection. While striving for peace, the security dilemma results in states investing more in military than cooperation. We have seen this in the real world very often, and most recently, in Russia’s purported reasoning for its invasion of Ukraine. On the one hand, Russia claimed that NATO’s eastern expansion threatened it, prompting its attack. On the other hand, NATO asserts that it is a purely defensive alliance.

While the security dilemma shapes international relations, it is also applicable to our own interpersonal relations. If we zoom in on one-to-one relationships, we find that human defense mechanisms are rooted in fear and insecurity and can often result in conflict and division. They stem from feelings of threat, anxiety, or guilt. While defense mechanisms, first described by Freud and now integral to psychology, are developed to protect the conscious mind and ego, many of them are unconstructive and can harm interpersonal relationships.

Examples of harmful defense mechanisms include denial, projection (placing your own difficult feelings or qualities onto others), displacement (taking feelings out on others), and suppression (intentionally keeping unpleasant information from your conscious mind). How can such mechanisms impact relationships? They derail from honest, open, and vulnerable communication that helps foster understanding and connection. This is also because defense mechanisms prevent the individual from experiencing their own feelings. So, often times feelings of hurt or sadness can be misconstrued and conveyed as anger. Nevertheless, there are constructive defense mechanisms such as sublimation where one converts unacceptable impulses into healthy outlets.

Taking into consideration inter-group relations, we see the security dilemma similarly influencing community dynamics. For instance, in the book ‘No Bad Parts’ by Richard C. Schwartz on the internal family systems model states “Your protectors only see the protectors of others”. This further affirms the security dilemma’s applicability on personal and inter-group levels. It emphasizes that a group’s perceived security is impacted by other groups’ defense measures, and highlights that survival and a sense of security affect relationships on a micro-level.

Whether on a national and international, community, or personal scale, fear and insecurity play a large role in shaping interactions. Through active listening and empathy, we can learn to move beyond fear and connect through open communication and vulnerability.

As the Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran wrote:

“Between what is said and not meant, and what is meant, and not said, most of love is lost.”

💧 Watering the Mind

In this section we share updates from the noe team and concrete offers that allow you to build emotional intelligence and resilience skills.

Mindfulness Daily - A 40-day introduction for free!

Practicing emotional intelligence requires that we are aware of our own thoughts and feelings. How can I respond to another person’s feelings, if I am not even sure what I am going through? Mindfulness allows us to become aware of the states we experience - the thoughts in our heads and the feelings in our body.

Psychologist Tara Brach and meditation teacher Jack Kornfield have compiled a 40-day introductory course to mindfulness that you can access for free. Each session takes around 10 minutes and offers valuable insights into the practice as well as a guided meditation, allowing you to establish the daily habit of practicing.

🪴 Vines of Community

In this space we foster connection and inspiration by sharing stories, poems, and thoughts of community members.

This month, Rimma chose the following quote from bell hooks, All About Love: New Visions (1999):

While communism has suffered political defeat globally, the politics of communalism continue to matter. We can all resist the temptation of greed. We can work to change public policy, electing leaders who are honest and progressive. We can turn off the television set. We can show respect for love. To save our planet we can stop thoughtless waste. We can recycle and support ecologically advanced survival strategies. We can celebrate and honor communalism and interdependency by sharing resources. All these gestures show a respect and a gratitude for life. When we value the delaying of gratification and take responsibility for our actions, we simplify our emotional universe. Living simply makes loving simple. The choice to live simply necessarily enhances our capacity to love. It is the way we learn to practice compassion, daily affirming our connection to a world community.

Welcome,

in this edition of our newsletter you’ll find:

🌱 Understanding our day to day interactions as system building and changing through emergent strategy

💧 Our recent noe story featuring Sarah Cameron and her research on Asharshylyq, the Kazakh famine of the 1930s

🪴 Motivation by Rumi

Enjoy!

Your noe team

Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up to get your own copy of the noe newsletter to your inbox with inspiration, empathy knowledge, and community building.

Contribute! You would like to contribute to our community column, be featured by our noe stories, or join our next noe circle? Shoot us an email: networkofempathy@gmail.com

🌱 Planting Seeds

In this section we share thoughts and concepts around empathy that have inspired us and made us think.

Emergent Strategy - How to create change through small interactions

There is this feeling of desperate frustration that creeps in whenever there’s a reminder that we won’t properly address the climate crisis, close the gender gap - or in fact initiate any actual systemic change. It usually ends in the quiet recognition that no matter your effort, you won’t actually be able to change anything. But what if you actually were?

Adrienne Maree Brown (2017) developed the concept of emergent strategy which highlights the power of small interactions for social change. In developing the concept, Brown linked the work of Black science fiction writer Octavia Butler, who describes an adaptive and relational leadership model, to Nick Obolensky’s (2014) definition of emergence as “the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions.” Emergent strategy, thus, proposes that new worlds don’t arise from linear, top-down transformations but from the iterative interactions and relationships that make up more complex ecosystems.

Whereas individualistic linear organizing follows a singular strategy, emergent strategy emphasizes the power of collective-intelligence for justice and liberation. It builds on the believe that responding to injustice and crises through adaptation and evolution requires critical, deep, and authentic connections that can serve as a source of support and resilience. Just like trees whose roots are intertwined and create a system of strength and resilience, it is a system that works as well on a sunny day as it does during a storm. Once these connections are established, between humans and the planet, adapting to a changing world and practicing the future together becomes possible.

But how do we build these authentic connections and step into collaboration? According to Brown, emergent strategy requires being present, listening and responding. Starting with oneself, we need to learn to listen with all the senses of the body and the mind, using our own humanity and the natural world around us as our teachers. Moreover, we need to learn to trust each other and to be vulnerable in order to get to what we collectively long for and that moves us towards action.

In a quickly changing world, community can be our support system that keeps us afloat and helps us navigate through the floods. Brown’s emergent strategy, thus, empowers us to seek out authentic connections which can give rise to shared visions of the future.

How to Emergent Strategy

In her book, Brown illustrates the spells and practices that she uses for emergent strategy. One of them is this authenticity chant. Just imagine yourself as your personal cheerleader, pompoms and all, and chant it to yourself: 

Let me not posture
Let me not front
Let me not say yes to
Lives I don’t want
Let me not use words that don’t mean a thing
Let me be fly
as I am, no trying
Let me [be] good
For my heart, not my rep
Let me be still
When I can’t take a step
Don’t let me get too caught
Creating my face
Let me just love me
All over the place

💧 Watering the Mind

In this section we share updates from the noe team and concrete offers that allow you to build emotional intelligence and resilience skills.

Lessons on dealing with communal trauma

Here are Rimma’s thoughts on our latest noe story with Sarah Cameron:

”Asharshylyq - the Kazakh famine of the 1930s was a man-made tragedy driven by Soviet colonization that struck the Steppes of my homeland. As a result, almost 1.5 million people (with an estimated 38 to 42 percent of all Kazakhs) perished. While this could arguably be considered a genocide, outside specialist circles and conversations at home, we never hear about this horrendous historical event that has collective marked us as a people to this day.

Yet, chance is an unpredictable and wonderful thing. Last September, on the plane to Almaty, I met Sarah Cameron - an American historian who's dedicated her career to the study of my region's history and has written a seminal book about Asharshylyq. She generously accepted to share her motivation to study the topic and write the book over an interview.

In an effort to honour the spirts of our ancestors who passed on due to the tyrannic and dehumaizing policies of the Soviets, and support healing in our communities, I would like to raise awareness through this video. It is the most personal piece I've worked on in the last decade.“

Watch now

Reviving our noe circles

If you’ve been following us for sometime, you might have noticed that we’ve recently paused our monthly noe circles. That is because we are developing a new 45-minute online format that takes place every quarter and aims at building emotional intelligence skills.

Specifically the new noe circles will help you to:

• Develop your emotional intelligence
  cultivate empathy, understand and manage emotions

• Support your self-development
  deal with high levels of stress, identify emotional triggers and motivators

• Build community
  connect with others, share experiences and build a network of support

I'm interested!

🪴 Vines of Community

In this space we foster connection and inspiration by sharing stories, poems, and thoughts of community members.

This month Nada picked the following excerpt from the poem:

“The Great Wagon” by Rumi

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other”
doesn’t make any sense.

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.

How do we navigate this crisis of meaning?

That is the question that we’ve contemplated for the past weeks. It is derived from the observation that a few years into our professional careers, we and our friends feel quite lost: We’ve worked hard to receive our degrees, gather work experience and spent time abroad but somehow the promise of a fulfilling, impactful career doesn’t seem to transpire. Instead, we wake up every morning to jobs that somehow continue to uphold what we once stood up against and notice how we are overwhelmed and stressed most of the time. We realize that we’ve stretched ourselves thin - but what for?

Based on the realization that there was no-one who prepared us for entering the workforce, we want to create tangible offers that help us navigate this time of uncertainty. This includes building community around the things we struggle with, finding a balance between our personal energy and impact, developing a tool kit to help us cope and thrive, and understanding how we can still contribute towards systemic change. All centered around empathy for ourselves and others.

While we are figuring out what exactly all of this will look like, we would like to share our journey with you.

What to expect from our noe newsletter

Our monthly newsletter builds community, shares empathy knowledge, and offers practical support for navigating times of uncertainty and change. We hope for it to be a little piece of calm and light in your inbox that makes you feel connected and maybe even allows you to find some guidance.

The content will be a mix of planting seeds and watering the soul in order to build a lush community garden. If there is anything specific you would be interested in reading, drop us a message at networkofempathy@gmail.com.

Subscribe now

Thank you for following us on this journey!

Rimma & Mareike