Mindfulness
Maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings [without judgment], bodily sensations, and surrounding environment
Implicit Bias
If you have a brain you are bias. Awareness alone cannot solve the problem of bias behavior. We need to be mindful and practice creating new associations in our brains to consciously practice inclusion.
Mindfulness
Many biases arise from our automatic responses to difference, our need for safety, and expediency, and our experience and perspectives.
There is empirical evidence that mindfulness can be used as an emotional regulation tool, lending itself to the possibility of mitigating those automatic responses.
Building Skill
Mindfulness is a practice. Like anything else it takes commitment to master a practice.
The strong correlation between mindfulness and emotional regulation, supports mindfulness as a strategy for calming the brains natural reaction to differences and the discrimination that arises from implicit bias
Competency
Developing ones observing ego is theorized as a cornerstone in the development of a level of self-awareness where one can witness oneself in the world. “It is as if a second person, a rational one, were there to guide us when we are not rational ourselves,” writes American psychologist Louis Ormont.
Self-awareness is a competency for this work. Developing the skill to notice an emotion, feel it from a non-judgmental state, diffuse the feeling and choose a behavior aligned with inclusion is also a life skill.