Understand that wanting yourself to be other than who you are leads to wanting others to be a certain way, causing disconnection; healing your self-disconnection is the first step to seeing others for who they truly are.
Begin the work of breaking bias by focusing on personal self-healing, as this positive change will naturally extend to improve relationships and decisions in all areas of life.
Become aware of the negative, self-limiting ideas you believe about yourself (e.g., ‘fatty,’ ‘idiot’) and recognize that these are just ideas, not your true self, to begin the process of unlearning them.
Approach bias work and diversity education by avoiding shame, blame, and guilt, as these ‘afflictive emotions’ are dangerous and counterproductive, leading to backlash and polarization.
Employ mindfulness-based tools such as loving kindness, compassion, curiosity, and mindfulness, as scientific studies show they measurably reduce both implicit and explicit bias.
Cultivate mindfulness by noticing and labeling stereotypes, ideas, or biases as they arise in your mind (e.g., ‘oh, stereotype’), creating a gap that prevents you from automatically following that thought train.
When biases arise, also make any accompanying emotions like embarrassment or shame an object of mindfulness, noticing them to eventually let go, understanding that these feelings are not personal.
Become intimately aware of bias not just as a thought or emotion, but also as a somatic experience, noticing the physical sensations (e.g., discomfort, fear) in your body.
Once you’ve mindfully noticed a stereotype, actively replace it by bringing to mind a real-life example (e.g., a known person, a public figure, or someone found via search) who defies that stereotype to weaken mental associations.
Practice individuation by cultivating curiosity, interest, and investigation to decouple group-based associations from individuals, allowing you to see each person as unique rather than through the lens of their group identity.
Actively cultivate pro-social mental and emotional states such as loving kindness, compassion, joy, and altruism, as these practices help diminish fear and negative affect associated with stereotypes.
Practice perspective taking by imagining yourself in another person’s shoes, focusing on the fullness of their experience rather than your preconceived ideas, which builds empathy and transcends bias.
Recognize that self-loathing and negative self-talk (‘kicking your own ass’) negatively impact your relationships with others, creating a ’toilet vortex’ of suffering, and address it for overall well-being.
Approach bias-breaking not just intellectually, but by engaging your full self, including your physical and emotional experiences (’neck down’), for a more holistic transformation.
Actively work to unlearn the learned mental habits of bias and false beliefs, and consciously learn and restore new, healthier ways of interacting with yourself and others.
Commit to consistent practice of bias-breaking tools, understanding that it takes as little as 18 days to build a new habit, making the process less overwhelming over time.
Practice loving kindness meditation, even for short periods (e.g., 5-20 minutes), directing well wishes towards stereotyped groups and also towards aspects of yourself that you dislike or hate, to diminish self-criticism.
Apply perspective taking to yourself by imagining being different past versions of yourself (e.g., your six-year-old self) through journaling or meditation, to foster self-empathy and compassion.
Engage in pro-social practices both ‘on the cushion’ (meditation) and ‘off the cushion’ (real-world actions), understanding that internal rewiring supports more compassionate and unbiased interactions in daily life.
Reflect on how you feel about bias in society by noticing the first word or phrase that arises, observing any attached emotions (pleasant, unpleasant, neutral), and sensing its somatic experience in your body, then letting it go without analysis.
Imagine a world without bias, where belonging replaces it, and notice the word or phrase, emotional affect, and somatic experience that arises, cradling these feelings with loving kindness and self-compassion.
When you witness bias in society and experience negative emotions, consciously replace those feelings with the positive emotions and sensations you cultivated by imagining a world without bias.
If systemic issues feel overwhelming, focus on envisioning what it would be like for yourself to be free of self-loathing and other afflictive challenges, using this personal vision as motivation for your practice.
When encountering ignorance or bigotry, re-invoke the positive emotions and felt sense of a world without bias to stay inspired and motivated in your bias-breaking work.
Document your personal definitions of identities like ‘race’ and trace where you learned these ideas (who told you, who taught you) to bring mindfulness to their origins and challenge their validity.
After tracing the origins of your identity beliefs, become mindful of the body sensations and emotions (e.g., anger) that arise, and document them, as managing these emotions is crucial before taking further action.
Bring to the surface the origins of harmful learned stories (e.g., gender roles) and consciously choose to stop practicing them in your daily life.
When encountering negative actions, view them through the lens of ‘causes and conditions’ (karma), understanding that this perspective can help avoid unhelpful hatred and foster a more effective response.
When working on societal change, adopt a long-term perspective, considering the impact over multiple lifetimes rather than just your own, to avoid attachment to immediate results and sustain effort.
Practice bias-breaking for the sake of your children, modeling and teaching these essential skills to them as they encounter biases in their own lives.
Eliminate false ideas about others based on their appearance or identity, as these biases make you ‘dumber’ and cause you to overlook valuable contributors, hindering team performance and efficiency.
Overcome biases to avoid inefficiencies in hiring and nurturing talent, ensuring you can identify and develop the best contributors based on who they are, not preconceived notions.
Advocate for diversity training that focuses on getting to the root cause of bias as a learned habit, emphasizing unlearning these habits rather than just policy changes.
When feeling negative emotions, engage mindfully with coping mechanisms (e.g., social media, news, alcohol, gossip) rather than using them to escape, ensuring you use them with purpose instead of worsening your state.
Actively correct misinformation about identity, especially in professional contexts like healthcare, to challenge learned associations that reduce empathy and lead to disparities.
For those in dominant identities, examine the unconscious stories of entitlement and superiority you believe about yourself, as these can lead to brittleness and anger when challenged.
Acknowledge the fundamental ‘is-ness’ of your being and how it connects you to all other humans and sentient beings, which can lead to feeling better and fostering empathy.
When making mistakes related to bias, acknowledge them impersonally by thinking, ‘Oh, I didn’t know that. Thanks for informing me,’ rather than getting stuck in shame, to build stronger bonds across differences.