Bias is defined as “cause to feel or show inclination or prejudice for or against someone or something“. We all have some bias towards what is familiar to us and what we have been encountering and getting programmed throughout our life. If we are encountered with something unfamiliar one of the part in our brain- Amygdala signals the hypothalamus to fire up hypothalamic pituitary axis which is where brain and endocrine system intersects so the adrenal glands releases cortisol in to the bloodstream. Cortisol triggers your stress response and this is the physiology of stress which happens in a matter of millisecond. it means whenever we see something not familiar to us or something against our bias, triggers our stress response and most of the time it happens at subconscious level.

Bias is present everywhere around us and there is huge impact of it on our personality we become and it is normal to have bias . we receive huge amount of information every moment which is processed in the brain and segregating in to different categories to create a bias. According to authors Pamela Fuller, Anne Chow and Mark Murphy in their book “The leaders guide to unconscious bias” mentions about Bias Traps which is “stressful or uncertain situations that trigger the primitive and emotional parts of your brain, leading to biased thinking”. Biased thinking can be negative or positive or it may have neutral effect. One thing which Bias also does is layering upon the uniqueness one has and to explore the uniqueness each layer has to be unraveled. When the layer of biasness is removed then at the core of it lies the unique you with your own set of choices. There are steps which needs to be followed to find the Purpose for which you wants to stand for as below.

Embrace your Bias – It is said that if one does not have bias means the brain may not be not functioning properly. Yes it is very normal to have bias but one thing which is very important is embrace it and be conscious about it so that person who is at receiving end is not impacted by it. Our brain is unique and has evolved to process almost every information it comes across and also filters subconsciously what is not required which means even if we are aware about our bias, it may associate women with cooking food and men with work. Embracing our bias and being mindful about it helps to understand our behavior caused by the Bias. This is the first step towards the unraveling the Bias and moving towards the uniqueness we have and the Purpose you want to go for.

Exploring the biasness – Once we accept and embrace the bias we have , the next very important step is to explore further about the root cause of it. Each and every bias is associated with some programming and information we have come across throughout our life and we need to understand those to work on it. Just getting aware will not be enough until we go deep in to it to understand and cut the root of it. It may have come from family, friends, community and country level. We need to be curious about each and every bias which questions each and every behavior we exhibit. This will help us to understand curiosity which we uniquely have and not influenced by anyone else which is extrinsic.

Envisioning and flip – After we understand our unique Curiosities, it is important to visualize each and every action we have planned to do and observe the mental image coming to our mind. Try flipping those mental image in your mind to understand the discomfort you feel. For example- Think, Pink is also liked by boys if girl is coming to your mind, Imagine Men cooking food in the kitchen if only women comes to your mind and there could be many more stereotypes. This will open new possibilities and helps hugely to act on your bias. This exercise helps us to be more intrinsic and understanding the world without any bias and helps towards purposeful journey which is uniquely yours.

Expose – This one is very very important step to and it is about real action. We need to expose ourselves more and more to real world to see the change in behavior and examine it. when we encounter anything unexpected we should have courage to go deep in to it. All the steps above are equally important but exposing is more about doing it practically and if we feel the bias is still there, follow above steps again and again. This also helps in connecting with people having common purpose.

Bias is the fact which we all have but if impacts other people and their effectiveness at highest level we need to reflect on it. More importantly if it takes you to the path not heading to your destination, it definitely needs attention. Bias comes majorly from extrinsic world and to be purposeful it is important to understand those external impact ,remove each layer consciously to go deep in to your intrinsic world, reframe it and be uniquely YOU.