Setting intentions for trust and safety
Breaking bias can be difficult and scary, but shared agreements can support us in setting our intentions toward kindness for one another—and ourselves
With 2025 now upon us, I’ve been reflecting on the power of intentions for breaking bias with mindfulness (you can catch up on the posts below if you haven’t read them yet). Before there are resolutions, there are intentions, and while we often fail to follow through on resolutions, setting intentions with mindfulness can support us in directing our energy to more closely align with our values and commitments.
At the same time, it can feel challenging—even downright scary—to undertake this work because of the shame, guilt, and fear that we associate with confronting our own biases. If this is how you feel when you think about taking the next step in your breaking bias journey, you’re not alone!
Happy New Year!
Wishing a Happy New Year to you, my Beloved Community! I hope this first day of 2025 finds you and your communities safe, happy, and well. We often start the new year by setting resolutions, but over 75% of them won’t make it to the end of January. That’s why, instead of making resolutions, I think it’s important to set intentions. Intentions and resolutions couldn’t be more different. Before thoughts, there are intentions, and our intentions are a key part of any mindfulness practice. Our intentions guide where our life’s energy goes. As I never get tired of saying: “
Understanding the causes and solutions for bias
This is such an important message that I’m sharing it a second time. Where the mind goes, energy flows. Or, in the words of the American author and activist Grace Lee Boggs, “We must change ourselves in order to change the world.” With so many things competing for our attention, I hope that this week, you’ve been able to notice where your attention and energy are going. Are your attention and energy going where you want them to go? If not—you can change it!
My book, Breaking Bias, is your guide in this work. Breaking Bias is filled with lists—16 in total. All of them are rooted in Buddhist Mind-Science, which has been proven to measurably reduce bias when you put them into regular practice. You can learn more about what’s inside by taking a deeper dive into the contents here, and keep reading below for a sneak preview of what’s waiting for you when you get your copy.
The power of words in shaping our world
Words are a powerful tool for our training in bias, but words are also crucial for breaking bias. This insight was at the heart of my conversation with Pádraig Ó Tuama as part of my Breaking Bias Masterclass, “Language Shapes Reality: The Power of Words in Shaping Our World.” In our conversation, we explored how language influences our perceptions, relationships, and the realities we create. Through poetry, storytelling, and dialogue, we explore words’ transformative potential and how mindful communication can lead to deeper understanding and connection.
The holiday season might be behind us, but as we enter into the new year, you can still share resources to support your own, or others’, breaking bias journeys. As you set your intentions this month, get your copy of Breaking Bias if you haven’t yet, and consider gifting Breaking Bias to yourself, family, coworkers, and friends.
If you’re ready to take the next step in your learning, I have classes that meet you wherever you are right now, from an intro to breaking bias to a deep dive into a Masterclass. Learn more and register here!
Attend My Upcoming Book Events
Breaking Bias will be featured at SXSW 2025 in Austin, TX! Join me from March 3–6, 2025 as I share about “Building A World Where Belonging Replaces Bias” at next year’s SXSW EDU. The full schedule will be available soon, but you can get your tickets today and have conversations about Breaking Bias with me all week.
Join my talk on Dharma and Justice with the Union Theological Seminary on April 9 from 7–8:30 pm EST in New York. I’ll be joined in conversation by Kosen Gregory Snyder to discuss how we can use a Buddhist lens to examine, recognize, and uproot bias. Register today.
Some Terms from the Breaking Bias Glossary
Unconscious Bias: learned habits of thoughts about a secondary identity that distort how humans perceive, reason, remember, and make decisions toward themselves and others.
Mindfulness: the practice of noticing and becoming aware or conscious of what is happening in one’s experience—body, heart, and mind—in the present moment; it’s the M in my PRISM Toolkit.
Vedana: one of the five attributes of the human primary identity that refers to the bare affect or feeling tone beneath every sensory experience, on the spectrum of pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant.
Resources and Reflection
Ready to jumpstart your Breaking Bias journey? Check out my courses! Whether you hope to build foundational skills, dig deeper, or dive into a Breaking Bias Masterclass, my self-led courses are here for you. They also make a great New Year gift for a family member or loved one! Learn more here.
Come join me at the Power of Meditation Summit from January 21–30. I’ll be speaking as part of this beautiful exploration of dharma teachings and practices to help you heal anxiety and access enduring peace. It’s your opportunity to learn from a group of brilliant and renowned healers, psychotherapists, yogis, meditation teachers, and activists. Discover how meditation, dharma, and psychotherapy can help you source change from the wisdom of the true self.
Building trust and safety for breaking bias
I wrote my best-selling book after decades of research revealed that breaking bias is the key to unlocking the multiple crises in our world—from racism, sexism, classism, and other -isms to burnout, loneliness, and climate change. In Breaking Bias, I don’t just talk about what bias is, where it comes from, and how it unconsciously shapes our habits of thinking and acting in the world. I also share my PRISM Toolkit, a set of science-backed, somatically informed contemplative tools you can use to begin breaking bias right now.
That’s the promise of Breaking Bias, but how does my book deliver on this promise? And more importantly, how does my book ensure that you can engage in this work in ways that are free from shame, blame, guilt, and other afflictive emotions? If you haven’t already, I hope you’ll become a paid subscriber to learn more about my tools for building trust and safety for breaking bias with mindfulness.
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