Class Three: Facing Our Fears

Last Homework!

• Read Margaret Benefiel’s piece,  “Grounded Leadership: Staying Rooting in the Storm,” which was written during Hurricane Sandy but is surprisingly timely today.
• Journal on the questions in this Homework to prep for Week Four sheet.

Extras

In the conversation yesterday about fear, the topic of implicit bias came up. If you’d like to learn more about how our social conditioning can affect how we perceive ourselves and others, here is a free webinar I offered last summer, which gives a general introduction to the concept. Along with the video, you’ll find some other resources, as well as a link to the test you can take to become more aware of your own biases. While I don’t believe this internal awareness work is enough alone to combat racism and other isms, I believe it is an important component, especially if you also plan to listen to intuition for guidance, or if you hold a position of influence over other people’s lives (teacher, police, medical field, etc).

My favorite quote on stepping out of social norms came from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech to the American Psychological Association where he says we need to be become “creatively maladjusted” to a society that is unjust. I think this is true, even if you are not playing a rebel role, though I believe each person or group can decide for themselves what they are up for. If you want to read King’s speech, you can find the full text on their website.

The book I mentioned during class is Playing Big by Tara Mohr. Disclaimer: this is a self-empowerment book aimed at women and may not be everyone’s cup of tea. It’s not very intersectional, for example. That said, I have found many of her tools for managing fear to be helpful.