In the current age of deconstructing, decolonizing, deideologizing, it’s come to be a mainstream phenomena to point out the “problematic” nature of systems of oppression and how those systems are at play around us and within us. For many of us, this era comes after several years or decades even of lamenting that no one seems to pay attention to the atrocious impacts of these power imbalances. Now that we are in this era where everything is decolonize-X and deconstruct-that, I am now lamenting even more.
I often have left groups that gather particular oppressed groups, that gather around certain -isms, etc. feeling completely powerless, like the entire world is against me.
Let’s explore why.
Groups gather to discuss white supremacy and how to deconstruct it. Groups gather to chat anti-racism. Folks discuss able-ism and neurotypical-ism and classism and anti-immigrant policy. Women gather to deconstruct anti-feminist, anti-womanist dialogue. And my experience within some of these groups is that there is outrage – understandable outrage. There is grief, understandable grief. There is a sense of urgency – absolutely needed urgency. And, there is a clear sense of division, between those who are right, or good, and those who are bad, or evil. And, indeed, if one reads the sociological literature on galvanizing people to produce collective action, all of these are necessary elements to produce collective action, to produce a group of people who are motivated enough to take action together to create change. One of the main elements that must be in place, according to some sociologists, is a clear, urgent problem. Another element is a clear person, group, or institution that is responsible and can be held accountable. A final element is motivation for action – for example, a sense of urgency. These elements can be summed up as defining the problem (and cause of the problem), and defining the motivation for action. And so, in order to effectively organize, groups gather around their grievances, have in mind targets of their grievances that they’d like to hold accountable for change, and have a motivation to engage in action right now.
Sounds wonderful, to gather with others for the purpose of sharing grievances and producing some sort of change. However, for some groups, the gathering is considered the action. The gathering of people to discuss their grievances, to discuss who is to blame, to discuss their motivation for action is considered the action. And this can be incredibly frustrating and disempowering for some group participants. It can leave people and groups feeling even more powerless than when they arrived because now their grievances and the emotions that come along with them (anger, outrage, grief, terror) have been amplified and they still have no solution to their problem and are not working towards a solution either.
In addition, this process can become profoundly disconnecting (and for good reason) and by disconnecting, I mean seeing oneself as fundamentally different from another (often superior to or inferior to). Defining the problem/grievance can disconnect the individual or group from other groups who are assumed to not experience said problem or related suffering. Defining the cause of the problem obviously can disconnect the individual/group from those causing the problem. And defining the motivation to act (for example, urgency) can disconnect us from our bodies. This is not to say that this type of disconnection is bad or undesirable. Indeed, this level of “disconnection” in the body/mind is intended to enable us to protect ourselves – for example, by leaving a dangerous situation or fighting an attacker. This is absolutely desirable when we are being attacked. But what about when we are in a safe setting, and there is a tolerable level of conflict we are dealing with between groups? How then do we gather and grieve, gather and amplify our voices – while remaining powerful? How does our action and truth-telling not reverse itself into exhaustion and powerlessness? What do we engage in, in our spaces of deep connection, to remain connected to our power?
if you’ve been reading my writing, one of the ways I think about this is that collective (movement) practice – the collective practice of moving physical energy to make deep connection possible – is for the purpose of reminding us of our power, our power to create spaces of deep connection. More generally, designing spaces where our needs are met is for the purpose of realizing our power. Drawing on the ancestral and collective lineages of collective (movement) practice and space design is for the purpose of reminding us of our power. We as human beings have the capacity to create spaces of power – or powerlessness. Drawing on the ancestral and collective lineages of collective (movement) practice and space design, we can remind ourselves that we are powerful and that we are capable of designing spaces that fully reflect our power.
And so, many of us are understanding that we have gone so much of our lives believing that there was something wrong with us – when in reality, it was our spaces that were not meeting our needs. When we enter spaces that are not a fit for our needs, spaces where our body is overwhelmed, we can call that space toxic to our body. Because systems of disconnection and conditioning pervade our society, many spaces have “by default” not met our needs and, therefore, have been toxic to us. Taking on the toxicities of all spaces we have inhabited through our lives, these toxicities “clog up” our bodies, often leading us to be “chronically overwhelmed”. This process of recounting the toxicities of our spaces is critical. Collectively and rigorously seeing the “default toxicity” within our past spaces (what I call “microsystems of disconnection”) provides us with intimate understandings of space elements that we can use to design or redesign our spaces of deep connection.
And there is so much more that we are learning we must unravel. What we often overlook in our spaces when we talk about designing spaces of deep connection where our needs are met is that which is much less obvious, the energetic space. To see all toxicities contributing to our spaces, we must be able to “see” and measure all of the energy of spaces (e.g., mental toxins created by racism, patriarchy; toxicities in our light, sound, air; patterns of disconnection that individuals bring with them). Fully seeing all toxicities, we can begin to understand where exactly our spaces (and our bodies) have been “clogged up”. Then, we can begin to experiment with moving that energy and unclogging our spaces (and our bodies).
Collective (movement) practice, which focuses on how we collectively move energy, then, is a powerful approach to designing spaces of deep connection. It is an often-hidden, ancient approach that many of us are seeking, studying, or drawn to, though we call it different things. I define collective (movement) practice as the collective practice of moving physical energy in a space to create the energetic conditions necessary for deep connection to be possible. I believe there is gold in the rigorous study of collective (movement) practice and these ancient wisdoms are here to teach us how to do our Work of designing spaces of deep connection. As we step into our full power to build spaces of deep connection that meet our needs, as we slowly uncover ancient wisdoms of collective (movement) practice, we all deserve the opportunity to learn the truth and the power of collective (movement) practice. Zooming out, we can see that, within this study of collective (movement) practice, there are thousands and thousands of years of ancient science, art, design, culture, and medicine guiding us as we build our spaces of deep connection. May we find each other, study together, learn together. May we fully step into our power as builders of spaces of deep connection. Join us at our Open House to collectively practice seeing the “default toxicity” of the microsystems of (dis)connection we’ve left behind and to co-learn, reflect, and share about how we use collective (movement) practice to design/redesign spaces of deep connection.
This writing is a part of my Conversations on Deep Connection series. If you’re also in the practice of creating grounding, deep connection, home, family and would like to get notified of new conversations, click here to get notified of new conversations.