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The healing of ourselves and our communities means exploring other vantage points, life experiences and world views. This tool invites you to practice deep listening as a way to grow in empathetic understanding for all… including those with whom you may disagree. Deep and meaningful listening builds our capacity for patience, empathy, diplomacy, and well-informed actions. It can dimensionalize our minds beyond a single reference point.

That’s a virtual superpower that will serve you throughout life… very worth the investment! Begin building this superpower by meeting the moment with a new kind of awareness: go into research versus react mode.

Here are some steps brought to you by , Theater and Dance Associate Professor and Crown Institute faculty fellow, to practice research mode:

1. Pause to observe your own breathing pattern while listening. By extending your exhalation, you can help your body’s nervous system build a calm alertness. This aids your ability to track and recall what is being said.
2. Notice any assumptions and tendencies to draw conclusions prematurely. This is a way to render visible what implicit biases may be operating in your own mind.
3. Ask questions. You can check for receptivity to questions by saying “I’d really like to understand more. May I ask a question about something that is new or confusing to me?”
4. Take time to request confirmation of your own comprehension and understanding of what is being offered if possible: “I invite you to correct me if my summary is inaccurate?”
5. If participating in a difficult conversation, remember that you can pause and not fill each space with words. Allow yourself moments to be thoughtful before responding, and to let images and emotional impressions arise to inform your next steps.

Remember that each listening and communication choice you make has the potential to plant seeds of understanding, even if resolution seems unlikely in the moment. However, if you perceive you are in physical danger, it is your human right to leave the situation or defend yourself and the lives of others.

As Dr. Carroll, Associate Professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies says, “For Indigenous communities, elders are keepers of knowledge, language, and lived wisdom whom we look to for guidance and who pass their teachings to our future generations.”

Brutality, profiling, racism, and discrimination persist. If you are building your understanding of how our national legacy of colonialism, genocide, and slavery continue to impact our lives, keep learning. We are the generation to end these distortions to our humanity. We stand on the shoulders of so many scholars, elders, artists, and activists who have given us a wealth of resources. Learn from them. Here are some resources that will help you learn more.

Direct your attention to learning how to combat anti-Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander hatred:

Please take time to learn from this powerful CNN article written by our tremendous CU Boulder faculty member, Dr. Jennifer Ho:

TO LEARN MORE:

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