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
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🌱 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]