The purpose of our community.
Within this Feely Human community, we seek to be witness to the wholeness of one another, while learning, growing, cherishing, and uplifting each other through the brave exploration of empathy, vulnerability, and emotional curiosity.
This community is about us being more of who we are as feely humans. Feely humans are a tapestry of activists, heart-leaders, big feelers, highly sensitives, creatives, meaning makers, community builders, and mental health advocates.
What’s inside the community.
As of January 2024,
the Feely Human membership community is free to join!
In our first year, 2023, we experimented with a two-tier model (free and paid), and while it was worth trying, it also didn’t quite fit Nōn’s vision of a true collective space—collectively owned and shaped by its members. We’re excited to share that it’s now a free community, and shaped by you and your big, mushy heart!
Below is just a taste of the possibility of what this community can look like for you. While Nōn is taking a step back from leading the community, he’ll still lead occasional Q&As and co-host deep conversations with amazing guests.
expert workshops.
Every so often, members will co-host, with a special guest, an expert-led workshop on topics such as mental health in the workplace, creative writing, how our emotions impact our animals, and so on.
learning watch-alongs.
Let’s watch a documentary together and reflect on what we’ve learned! Learning is an act of empathy, after all. Past documentaries include Crip Camp and 13th.
author Q&As.
Feely humans love books, because books are portals to empathy! Every month or two, we host an author Q&A with some amazing humans. Past guests include Emily Lynn Paulson and traci kato-kiriyama.
heart to heart.
Attend a Heart to Heart, an hour-long conversation about topics we feely humans love: boundaries, activism, vulnerability, regret & self-forgiveness, and more.
emotional check-ins.
An emotional check-in is a cohort group from the community that meets at your preferred cadence to go deeper, and ask one another: “how are you feeling?” Prepare yourself to get feely!
movie club.
Host a Movies That Make Us Feel movie club, a space to talk about movies that make us cry, feel our feelings, and make us feel less alone. Movies are empathy machines, as Roger Ebert said.
On our feely human collective.
🤍 Collective is about each of us, and about all of us.
🤍 Collective is togetherness.
🤍 Collective is a belonging to.
🤍 Collective is our shared humanity.
🤍 We are made brighter by being in connection to one another.
🤍 We gain perspective by being witness to our stories.
🤍 We learn, we grapple, we understand, we change, we see—as a result of our wholeness.
Our community agreements.
This is the stuff that binds us. The stuff that guides us. The stuff that matters. All members of the Feely Human Community agree to honor and cherish the following agreements.
1. Lead with empathy.
If there’s a core to what it means to be a feely human, it’s empathy. Empathy is about meeting people (and ourselves) where they are. As you step into this space, remember to lead with empathy, always. Empathy is are foundation.
2. Listen actively.
Listen with the intention of learning, reflecting, and truly connecting to one another. Try to avoid thinking about what you’re going to say next, or building your argument. Be present, engage with your fellow feely humans, and be open to having your heart and mind changed.
3. Honor privacy.
What is shared here in this space, stays here within this space. Please always respect the confidentiality and privacy of each feely human and their varied ways in which they choose to show up and share within this space.
4. Share the space.
We’re here together. Togetherness, our collective, is our strength. Remember to share the space and allow for others to participate and have a voice and identity within this space. A shared space is a reflection of our shared humanity.
5. Acknowledge intent and impact.
As humans, we have an impact on each other. And sometimes, the intent we hold may be different than the impact we have—whether that’s seen or unseen. Remember to be mindful and accountable to the nuances, and realities, of your intent and impact.
6. Embrace discomfort
A big part of what it means to be a feely human is to learn to sit in discomfort. Discomfort is an indicator that there’s room for perspective, growth, and curiosity. And we also all have different and valid capacity for discomfort. Let us ease into it, being cognizant of our own comfort levels, boundaries, and self-care.
7. Practice vulnerability.
Vulnerability is a crucial part of connection, and a foundational element of empathy. Vulnerability allows for others to see us for who we are, and to empathize with our stories. Vulnerability can open the door for insight, connection, and clarity.
8. Honor intersectionality.
We each bring with us our stories, our identities, our ideas, our histories, and our backgrounds. All of this beautiful intersectionality makes up our humanity—which deserves to be seen, heard, uplifted and loved.
9. Brave space.
A brave space is one where we acknowledge we are here to grapple with some big ideas and big feelings. It can be hard and overwhelming, which means sometimes we need some big boundaries and big naps. You are brave to be here.
10. Accept feedback.
Feedback can be difficult. If you plan on giving feedback, remember to do so with the intention of providing perspective, not to fix. If you are receiving feedback, remember that it can be a beautiful opportunity for connection, and learning. We’re on the same team.
11. Ask for help.
Asking for help is not a weakness. Asking for help is an act of courage. The answers you receive might not just help you, they might help another community member. Questions, curiosity, and critical thinking are gleefully encouraged here.
12. It’s not therapy.
The Feely Human Community—including the You, Me, Empathy podcast, our workshops and courses, offline gatherings and online hangs—is not therapy, or a substitute for therapy or mental health treatment. Nōn is a silly boy with lots of lived experience, and a feely human just like you.
what it means to be collective.
This community is collectively run, which means there is no single feely human in charge. We’re all in charge, and none of us are in charge. This means that the community itself is shaped by its members. That’s you.
What does it mean to be a collective? Collectiveness is a constant striving toward equity, which requires deep and thoughtful examinations of our own privilege, bias, assumptions, and the impact that we have on each other simply by being in the world.
Collectiveness is a recognition that we all need help, and that asking for help is a beautiful strength. Collectiveness is to understand that we wouldn’t be here without receiving a little help along the way, whether that was from a teacher, a friend, a partner, even a stranger who took a moment to listen, or a dog who softened our hearts. We don’t find our way through the dark because of us as individuals. We find our way through the dark because of us as a community, as a collective. As we always say . . .
we are made brighter by being in connection.
Collectiveness is how we see things from new perspectives. It’s how we learn to listen and reflect, like the mirrors we can be for each other. It’s how we explore the intent we start with and the impact we finish with. It’s how we accept change, and discover the joy of learning to say, “I don’t know” and “I need help.” It’s how we can hone our capacity to be witness to the whole of a person, with all that beautiful nuance in between.
Collectiveness is how we reshape ourselves, each other, our hearts, the world—one heart at a time. 💙
the community you’ve always wanted.
Now that we’ve transitioned into a fully free membership community, there’s only one way to join the community, and that is to click the button below!
join today:
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Author Q&As
highs & lows
1:1 matching
monthly learning series
workshops
and more
Ready for your feely adventure?
Let’s embrace our feely humanity, together. Arm in arm, heart to heart, one moment at a time.
Join the community today by clicking the button below!