Happy November, friends! This month, I’m thrilled to introduce you to three principles that underlie my personal spiritual and business practices. It is important to me to let the concepts that shape my spirituality, i.e. connection with myself and life itself, serve as the true foundation for the business I’m building.
I take the responsibility as the thought leader of BE MORE with Anu very seriously. In 2020, BE MORE America, our old organization, pivoted and re-formed into BE MORE with Anu, with the specific intention to charge me with the responsibility of stewarding and realizing our vision. At this time, we also solidified our public commitment to mission-driven values alignment by becoming a Benefit Corporation, driven to support a triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit. All of this is to say: BE MORE with Anu has our values literally written into the fabric of our company.
So, now that we successfully birthed the Breaking Bias Summit into our world, I want to take you on a journey this month to pull the curtain back on our values. My hope is that over the next three weeks, I’m able to teach you a bit about BE MORE. We’ll do this through exploring the concepts of dana, karma, and nyaya. (Not sure what these words mean? No worries - by the end of the month, you’ll practically be an expert!)
Dana means more than generosity
Let’s start with dana, as it’s the fundamental building block of everything we do. You’ll hear dana described as “generosity”, but it’s much more than that. It’s truly a practice: to engage in dana is to cultivate in oneself a spirit of giving freely. It’s to approach giving as a way of being. (If you’ve done any work around abundance mindsets, the two concepts are quite similar and share roots.)
Since the very beginning, BE MORE has approached our work with a fundamental commitment to dana. Did you know, for example, that provided scholarships to anyone who wanted to attend our Summit this fall? Similarly, when we offered our Breaking Racial Bias flagship programs to individuals, we offered scholarships to anyone that couldn’t afford it.
Teaching self-love at Soho House in NYC
Our team never finishes a new product brainstorm without asking ourselves: what happens if someone needs to access this work and can’t afford it? What room exists (or can we create) to invite folks to the table anyway? And that’s key: economic privilege should never be a barrier to accessing the work of advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion.
This is consistent with so many of our ancestors’ perspectives on economic access — which, to me, speaks to my fundamental belief that we are wired for compassion. No matter our cultural or historical backgrounds, we are wired to build connection, to help each other, to reach out our hands for each other.
If you’ve come thus far, I’d like you to reflect on what dana means to you. Where has dana showed up in your own life? Where is it showing up right now? As Dr. King once said, we are all part of an inescapable network of mutuality. And this interdependence that we share - with other humans, with other beings, and with nature itself - allows us to truly receive and be grateful for each and every one of our blessings.
Next week, I’ll share more about karma. I hope you’ll follow along!