I loathe hearing “woo woo.” That catchall phrase that is meant to be insulting of one’s conglomeration of usually culturally appropriated spiritual mish mash. In an intellect-obsessed culture, getting people out of their heads and into their bodies is considered “woo woo” when it is really just tried and true ancient ancestral technology of a whole, integrated and liberated life. As a facilitator, I have encountered many a disgruntled participant balking at the “woo” of deep breaths, quiet contemplation, journaling, or nearly anything that gets them in touch with their feelings and their bodies. (I used to facilitate all kinds of groups but I no longer work with people in the aforementioned description as it is clear you’re not my audience and are not ready for my medicine.)
I think people are using this blanket term when really they either want to raise a concern about cultural appropriation or as a defensive reaction to not having their own practices of connecting to self, emotion, body and lineage. Unfortunately, labeling anything outside dominant, typically masculine ways of relating as “woo woo” is a tool of white supremacy and patriarchy.
Breathing is not “woo”
C’mon now. Ok, maybe if I’m making you do some intense kundalini I’m not even trained in and you in no way are ready for. But if I’m having you take some deep breaths to simply oxygenate your blood, bring you into the present moment and clear out some old stagnant emotions--ahem, air--lurking in your lungs, how about thank me! And your precious body for this simplest and most profound technology of life.
Processing emotion is not “woo”
It is a tool of resilience and maturity and brings awareness and presence to one’s life. Being able to recognize one’s emotions and reactions to them are a building block of growing up. When facilitating groups, I find it important to have people be in touch with their emotions, triggers and reactions for several reasons. (1) Our emotions are showing us important information about our programming, unconscious patterns and wounds that need attention. (2) If we don’t at least acknowledge our emotions, we are likely to show up unconsciously and can cause undue harm by projecting that others are “making us feel” a certain way when we really need to look within and take responsibility for how we’re feeling and what pattern its related to. (3) When we get curious about our emotions, we unlock deeper knowledge about ourselves, each other and the world.
There is enough harm in the world without the messiness of immaturity and not being responsible for our emotional states. In fact, a lot of harm could be avoided and mitigated if on the micro level people dealt with their emotions and trauma triggers in a holistic and integrated way. The less experience we have in acknowledging, sitting with and getting curious about our emotions, the more they will run us. They show up all day every day whether we note them or not. In group settings, I typically provide some outlets for folks to process their emotions, memories, sensations and insights that naturally arise throughout the course of a gathering.
There are many tools for accessing one’s emotions and moving through them consciously. Nearly all involve slowing down to notice what is happening in one’s body, emotions and images that may arise. Recognizing emotion, getting curious about its message and integrating the lessons allow us to be fully present and bring the entirety of our experience to bear.
Dominant power does not want people in touch with their emotions and operating as integrated beings. We’d be too smart, too powerful, too connected. Labeling anything that connects us to our emotions as “woo” is a tool of patriarchy that dismisses one of humanity’s most potent knowledge systems.
Engaging our bodies is not “woo”
It is a part of being fully human. While somatics as a defined concept may have been published and popularized over the past several decades, the practice of being in touch with our bodies, listening, moving with them and their wisdom is ancient. It is a spiritual technology of liberation that my ancestors passed to me. It is their legacy that lives in my musculature, in the fluidity of my movement. It is how my people have survived, thrived, loved and lived on.
Labeling anything that has people getting more connected to their bodies as “woo” is a tool of oppression. Of course dominant power wants us out of touch with our bodies. According to them, our bodies are meant to serve the powerful. They are not meant to feel pleasure, dance or communicate truth. To dominant power, our bodies must be controlled, our sensations and desires suppressed. Our bodies are for labor, they are not ours to become intimate with and enjoy.
Being deeply attuned to our bodies is a practice of liberation. As a transformative facilitator, I relish the opportunity to help people come back to their bodies with a sense of safety, joy, curiosity, compassion and utter delight. There is so much in the world that wants us to separate from our own bodies, the only things we truly have. There are those who for good reason in a given moment of trigger cannot access the wisdom of their body and that is OK. Our bodies are so wise they will even disassociate to keep us safe. It is a journey. When we are in our agency, we can acknowledge and feel that. Still, I cannot in good conscience engage only the intellect and not the body. It is our site of love and liberation. It contains everything we need to know. It is not “woo.”
Ancestral acknowledgement and reverence is not “woo”
Acknowledging who came before us, who lived so we could, whose struggles and overcomings are our reason for being is not “woo.” It is a practice of time immemorial. Cultures across the globe do it differently. Acknowledging the journeys of our ancestors is a source of strength and comfort for many Black and Indigenous peoples the world over. Creating space for people to acknowledge the many beings who made them possible is an act of reverence that transcends religion or spiritual practice. It allows people’s wholeness to be present. Not all of us were raised in environments where we learned how to honor our ancestors and we’ve had to come to our own ways of completing this circle. Having been separated from my lineage in many ways, I have developed my own way of honoring and communicating with my ancestors--those of blood and bond who were so that I can be. They include my immediate relatives, though I only know a few, and also those whose legacies are an inspiration to me. I honor their legacies, seek their guidance and just generally give thanks for their lives, whatever they lived.
When people dismiss this work (and it is often work) as “woo” it often comes from a place of shame and disconnection to one’s own lineage. Dominant power does not want us connecting to our lineages to heal and learn from past harms and triumphs. It is a powerful and necessary practice for those whose ancestors enslaved people, stole land and enacted genocide to acknowledge their ancestry. It is far past time for the adage, “but my grand so-and-so didn’t own slaves…” White people just need to own up to their ancestors and how they then and today benefitted from systems of oppression. White people the world over especially need to contend with their harmful ancestors as well as those who brought healing. Whether or not someone is aware of any specific ancestor, one can acknowledge that they and their ancestors benefitted from colonization, genocide or slavery. We all must contend with those who came before, what they lived and how they made us who we are.
The truth is we all have ancestors who did some bad shit. All of our lineages contain people who caused harm. As a mixed Black woman, it is painful to sit with ALL my ancestors. To know that the blood of oppressors and oppressed flow within me. I don’t work with those divergent lineages in the same way (a topic of another post! Or not…), but ignoring the fact that they exist just leads to further fracturing and pain. Instead integrating all of those parts makes me more whole because I recognize that everything is within me.
Again, of course dominant power doesn’t want us connecting to our very real history. They want to erase it and pretend we’re all self-made or responsible for whatever circumstances we find ourselves in. Dominant power does not want us calling in the strength and wisdom of our ancestors for our own wholeness and liberation. Labeling ancestral acknowledgement and reverence as “woo” is a tool of white supremacy.
The “woo” is ungrounded, appropriative performance
When I think of the “woo woo”, I imagine those who are sharing practices outside their own lineage, who have not cultivated an emotionally-aware, embodied, ancestrally aligned practice grounded in the systemic realities of current time. It is dawning the garb of another culture, singing their songs, or taking snippets of teachings out of context and practice to look good to others. At best, it may work on the level of the physical, but it will not be truly liberating when it is not grounded.
Never before have humans had access to so many different cultural practices. (I would say never have we had access to so many knowledge systems, but I actually think our ancient ancestors were way more tapped in than we are today and we are steadily playing catchup to all they were aware of.) But just because we can access all this powerful metaphysical technology doesn’t mean we can, have the right to, or understand how to properly engage it. There are complex systems that were developed and practiced over millennia, not googled and tried out immediately. Ways of being that deserve to be revered, studied and practiced with permission.
We have enough we can tap into and utilize without cultural appropriation. We need not appropriate culture and co-opt complex lineages to access liberation. In fact, if we do, we won’t be liberating ourselves, but recreating systems of exploitation and harm.
Trying new things because the world is burning so why not see if a crystal makes me feel better might just be “woo” but I don’t care.
You may not believe in energy work or the fact that everything is energy (it is though). That’s fine. Do you. But I do believe that we are vibrating balls of energy held to a planet that is a giant vibrating ball of energy in a universe that is…well, you get it. People have always tried to figure out how to both stay inside and leave these bodies and work with the energies of the seen and unseen worlds around them. And dammit, I get to try to do that too. So, I will. Call me “woo” if you want to, but the more energy work I do the less I care what you think!
The next time you notice yourself or someone else calling or thinking of something as “woo woo” notice if it has anything to do with ancestral, deeply human practices that actually bring us more in alignment with ourselves, our healing and our power. Notice who it serves to label something as “woo woo.” And instead of blanketing all of these practices together, if what you’re really critiquing is an ungrounded, appropriative performance, then call it what it is! Or decide if it’s even worth your time to engage because who has time to label all the things these days. valid tools, practices and teachings that help us heal and grow in ourselves and hopefully transform our collective reality.
