Vision
We cannot truly love anyone, including ourselves, at a distance.
The mission of Empathy Uprise ® to shift humanity from “me” to “we” has been cultivated through a lifetime of mental and physical wanderings.
These wanderings have led us to the heart of humanity.
Through ardent curiosity and active conversation with strangers who have since become friends, we have learned that, as humans, our similarities far outweigh our differences regardless of race, color, religion, sex, age, or national origin.
Since there is no time like the present for dynamic social change, join us, and be part of a movement that prioritizes love over hate.
- Alicia Kae Miller, Empathy Activist + Founder
Visionary
Audacious one.
A nomad by nature, I am a native of Washington State, have lived in New York, California, and am currently a resident of Austin, Texas.
Given this, it should be no surprise that I also love to travel.
Especially travel to places that are dissimilar from where I have previously been. A wandering star, “I am just a bauble on the bangle of life,” is a mantra I created as a child that resonates with me today.
A balance of street smart, two-plus decades in corporate America, academic rigor, and travel to over twenty countries afford me many gemstones through heartfelt conversations with my fellow human beings.
With infinite curiosity and a treasure trove of diverse experiences, what brings this nomad home, is an immersion into personal truths that are relatable yet markedly unlike those of my own.
Grounding.
A desire to help and put others before myself comes naturally.
As I have reached goals in my adult life, I have countered my successes with active involvement in humanitarian causes such as the American Red Cross, Salvation Army, and Operation Turkey.
My first act of humanitarianism was when I was seven years old when I learned that my schoolmate had lost his family home to a fire.
While the fire in and of itself was unsettling to me, the concern that Jeff would not be warm compelled me to insist that my mom break open my piggy bank so that I could buy a winter coat because if I had a warm jacket, “he should have one too.”
This act of empathy began a lifelong quest to be of service to humanity and has been my true north ever since.
Empathy is a state of mind.
For most of my life, the vision of a fully understood and connected humanity has been the driving force behind what motivates empathy activism in me today.
This lifelong motivation came as an epiphany when the universe clearly whispered “the empathy gap” in my right ear during the early hours of late February 2020.
Not long after my whisper wake-up call, I resolved to start a social movement galvanizing humanity toward greater compassion and less hate; a battle cry to shift humanity from “me” to “we.”
In 1964 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. asserted “people are often led to causes and often become committed to great ideas through persons who personify those ideas. They have to find the embodiment of the idea in the flesh and blood in order to commit themselves to it.”
Similar to the mission of other social activists, empathy activism comes to me not as a choice, but rather a calling.
stands on these foundational beliefs:
Be defined by
your truth.
Fairness is not subjective.
Show your good, bad, and ugly.
Doing the right thing is never inconvenient.
We all bleed red.
Stay powered in your unique self.
Live uncontained.
Be your judge and jury.
Always talk it out.
Drop anchor in every conversation.
About you.
Consider a defining moment when you either demonstrated or were on the receiving end of empathy. Clarify a moment (or moments) in your life when you felt truly seen and heard.
Now recall what you felt in that moment. Was it relief? Gratitude? Hope? Anger? A mash-up of emotions? There is no right or wrong answer here.
The point is to elicit feelings that come to us when we truly meet one another in a place of empathy, the moment of impact if you will, when we realize our misunderstanding.
In this moment, the perceived distance between what we think and how we feel is replaced with love.
As we raise our consciousness, reconciliation with our past gives way to C.S. Lewis’ maxim “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”
This ending results in a new beginning that closes the empathy gap by turning the theory of love into action.
Curiosity matters.
Fact = the whole of humanity bleeds red.
Through release of our comfortable conversation trappings and wandering into deeper emotional connection, we liberate ourselves from ambivalence.
With the unfiltered spirit of a child, cultivate holy curiosity.
Remember when your questions prompted further questions?
Go there. That is the empathy sweet spot.
“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou
When we listen to learn, a crack in our belief system shows light. This light radiates to reflect the beauty of our collective contrast.
Through LOVE in Action, love at a distance, is no longer a valid theory.
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