Episode #9 – How our Upbringing Influences our Work with DEI and Belonging with Haseena Patel

Haseena Patel is an author, mind-body-spirit breakthrough coach, international speaker, yoga instructor, Akashic Records reader and teacher, poet and peace-builder. She lives and grew up in South Africa and she shares her personal experience of the inequalities of Apartheid. 

Her upbringing has influenced her work with diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, and she applies her learnings to the two communities she now runs. She is co-founder of Leave No Girl Behind International, an organisation that empowers girls worldwide through leadership programs, and co-creator of the Bubbles Beyond Borders global campaign for gender equality, which focuses on holding summits to build self-worth.

In this podcast, Haseena and I talk about:

• How to build genuine relationships by discovering our commonalities and finding strength in our diversities
• Stories from her life that were sparks that led to her interest in building communities based on the DEIB principles 
• What questions to ask people to find commonalities and connect on a deeper level in any conversation
• How to find common ground and understand each other’s choices even when we disagree
• Why looking inwards and finding gratitude helps with raising the vibration of our interactions with other people
• How to learn from our diversity and approach disagreements with sensitivity to other people’s experience 
• What steps can we take to give others the space to live out their truth during interactions