#ChallengingDividesLive

Summary of BBC Visit/Appearances today-

#CrossingDividesLive 5th March 2020

Today I was invited to partake in a live experiment at BBC Media City with 50 people from around the UK with different viewpoints and backgrounds and take part in a series of activities and interviews (ft. 8 hours of live filming!)

It has been an extremely eye-opening experience featuring tears, laughter, anger, frustration but more importantly LISTENING!

The basis of today was focused on Deep Listening techniques and it has truly given me a different perspective in life and has been very useful.

I learned to stop interrupting people and listening to viewpoints. When speaking to people we got emotional at times and it was interesting to see how we agreed to disagree in a very respectful way, that isn’t common. This has renewed by faith in both politics and society.

In the words of Mark Easton, “It proved to be a profound and emotional process, challenging participants to engage in a way that felt almost unnatural as they stripped away layers of understanding of each other’s views. Some of the encounters ended as they had begun, but many produced a connection that was deep and personal. A few of the conversations ended in a hug, a promise to stay in touch. One resulted in tears as the pair realized aspects of their own personality that they had hidden even from themselves.”

Aspects of my participation appeared on BBC Breakfast Show and regularly on 5Live throughout the day as-well as online.

It was an honor to meet people that I would have probably never have met in my life and being able to have intense conversations and I have walked away feeling more confident and making some new friends.

I really hope viewers found this live interaction interesting and beneficial and I hope this can be expanded as my personal experiences today have shown if this is implemented it would make society a much kinder place.

Following the extensive filming I was able to have a detailed tour of the BBC services and have discussions with employees about how the BBC operates and have behind the scenes tour. This was very interesting and seeing the complex activities which are operated by a 4000 strong workforce.

Key Personal Highlights-

·Being able to share experiences of Islamophobic abuse and bullying and highlighting the fact that being a young Muslim does have challenges and getting involved in politics has brought its challenges.

·Discussing the importance of listening and following Deep listening techniques realizing the importance of actually giving 100% of my attention as well listening to the words and emotions behind each conversation- this resulted in a shoutout to one of my best friends for always being there giving me advice and showing empathy.

·Having a 20-minute discussion with Jess who had a totally different viewpoint to me and having a challenging conversation

· Taking part in the BBC 5Live drivetime show discussing how this live experiment went and the emotions behind today.

·The Empathy Echo Chamber a space designed to challenge our opinions and open our eyes, hearts and minds to another person

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be uploading segments of the filming.