Talking across difference

We are living in a time where there are polarizing views on so many topics.  Perhaps you have become skilled in avoiding conversations with people who have very different opinions from you. Perhaps the social media algorithm keeps you from seeing opposing views.  Perhaps you find yourself activated into fight, flight, freeze, fawn/submit/collapse when you get triggered.

Let's take a mindful moment and see/feel all the different ways we process information.  What arises for you when you are in a conflictual conversation.

I was invited to talk about antiracism in an interview. I didn't do any prep for the conversation so had no idea I was meeting with a Black, cis male, heterosexual, Christian, ultra conservative individual.  Check out the video. Notice what comes up for you.  While it was a challenging interview I appreciate that people who wouldn't normally hear me got to hear a more nuanced conversation about racism, queerness, and antiracism.  Many years of regulating my nervous system, meditation, digesting content around antiracism and finding ways to turn towards compassion helped me through this conversation. What helps you turn towards the difficult, disrupt systems of oppression, call people in in a non shaming way?

My Antiracism Revolution membership community is about how do we embody both fierceness and love. Fierceness is about feeling, learning history and how racism is embedded in our present day institutions and culture, and not being silent. Love is about how do we heal and move around in the world disrupting racism and the centrality of whiteness.

Check out the video below and see what arises for you. Pay attention to the six intelligences (sensations, images, feelings, thoughts, vibrations, and behaviors/action urges/movement).

Want to build the capacity to have conversations across difference?   Join Antiracism Revolution.  Learn more here.