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Community

We as the Breathe Community foster an environment filled with belonging, compassion and love. Through acceptance and respect for all cultural backgrounds, religions and associations, we dissolve the barriers between the seen and the un-seen revealing a community that is whole, inter-connected and free. Let us tell you about the work we're doing to advance diversity and inclusion.

Taking Steps to Help Everyone Breathe a Little Easier

As part of our mission to nurture and grow the Breathe community, we are thinking critically and taking action to:

  • Create an environment where everyone feels safe and included

  • Increase accessibility to the festival and encourage accessibility awareness in Breathers' home communities

  • Facilitate collaborative education surrounding the advancement of accessibility, inclusion, and safety

  • Hold each other gently accountable before, during, and after the festival

Baby Steps

While we acknowledge that the path ahead is long, and we won’t get this right in our first attempt, it’s crucial that we take the first step. If we’re going to succeed in increasing community at Breathe and in our world, it needs to be a collaborative effort. In addition to defining our values and implementing inclusiveness in our infrastructure, we’re also creating platforms for you to provide your feedback to help us all grow.

Here’s what’s available to you so far:

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Why it’s important for us to have a diverse and inclusive community at Breathe

1. We learn different perspectives:

 

When you speak with people from different backgrounds, you’ll get a broad range of perspectives on the common struggles, priorities and experiences that you share. When you view life through the lens of another individual, you add another layer of understanding that enriches your worldview. Sometimes, speaking to someone new can give you breakthroughs or even change your opinion about certain issues. When you have conversations with a variety of people, you’ll grow to appreciate other points of view and get a deeper understanding of what motivates others.
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2. We minimize discrimination and become more accepting:

 

As you gain intimate insights into the lives and challenges that other people face, you open the doorway for kindness and understanding. After all, discrimination is a result of ignorance, and by engaging in meaningful conversations with those who are different from us, we reduce the chances of encountering misunderstandings. Through our contact and exposure to new people, we’ll see that we have more in common with them than we thought and if there are any differences; our increasing familiarity with those differences will minimize the misconceptions and prejudices that cause discrimination. When we seek to understand and not judge, we can experience genuine feelings of compassion and empathy for our fellow humans.
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3. We unite our efforts to awaken the world:

 

When we get over the misunderstandings and the division caused by a lack of communication between different groups of people, we save lots of energy and time. We create space for beneficial alliances and mutual co-operation to take place. We can unite together to work on the common challenges that we face as members of the planet, to discover our purpose and awaken our world.

 

4. We become enriched and worldly:

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The best thing about being part of a diverse society is that it makes life so much more interesting! Imagine going to an event and meeting someone from a country that you’ve always dreamed of visiting and hearing his or her stories about what life is like there. When we befriend someone who is different from us, we gain instant access to another world with its own set of fascinating stories, histories, practices, challenges, beliefs, behaviors and mannerisms. Whether we delve into it through our conversations or direct participation, our lives become instantly enriched and it reminds us of our identity as a world citizen and our connection to the global consciousness.
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