“There is no better compass than compassion.”
Amanda Gorman
Sankofa Impact believes that practicing empathy and self-reflection is an essential component of everyday activism. Challenging ourselves to understand another person’s experiences, while perhaps opposite to our own, helps us confront implicit and explicit biases, and on a larger scale, confront systemic issues within our society. Turning inward to practice self-reflection is a key factor in building our own practices of empathy.
Practicing empathy is a practice that requires an open mind. We put ourselves “in someone else’s shoes” to understand their situation, as if it were our own. Rather than leading with judgment, instead we strive to be mindful about what someone has experienced and is communicating to us. When practicing this kind of compassionate empathy, we are present, focused, and leaning into the uncomfortable.
While practicing empathy, it is crucial to also be self-reflective. Taking the time to confront our emotions, experiences, reactions, and biases can help us to become better listeners and everyday activists. When we reflect on ourselves we can better understand our positionality and be humbled by the diversity within our world.
An effective place for us to begin our individual self-reflection journey is by simply thinking about our own identities and what makes us who we are. Having an understanding about ourselves helps us to make connections to others and see the joy of diversity within our society. Self-reflection can be done anywhere, anytime. It may be helpful to meditate, go out and connect with nature, or use guided (or unguided) journals.
We must be mindful to also take it easy on ourselves. There will be many difficult times where self-reflection will be painful. We are human and we make mistakes. This is a life-long experience that will challenge us to remain humble and respectful of others. Self-reflection and empathy are difficult ways to confront ourselves but they lead to growth. While the work we must do is painful, it is necessary to achieve a liberated future.
