“If spirituality is an important part of your life (as it is for me), and/or if you place a high value on positive thinking, and especially if you’re a Law of Attraction enthusiast, please read about spiritual bypassing beyond the paragraph definition.”
Indeed. I’ve often struggled with the bubblegum depth white spirituality presents me with. But since questioning light means attacking light, it’s impossible to go deeper. But we, as white folks, need to go deeper. Our daily practices inviting love and light may be unable to take us any deeper because they are already routed in oppression. When so much energy is taken to erase the experiences of people of colour, little is left to draw from for anyone (never mind if it’s authentic or not).
Photo credit: StockSnap. Description: Woman with eyes closed and shadow across face.
I want to talk about something I witnessed last week in the online world.
First, a little background. A couple of years ago, I became increasingly aware of a pervasive phenomenon in the (overwhelmingly white) women’s spirituality/ personal growth circles I move in. I noticed persistent attempts to deny and disown painful realities by insistence (overt or implied) that we create our struggles with our negative thinking or energy or low vibration or fill-in-the-blank. I do believe the way we frame things in our thinking can be important to our well being and success, up to a point. I do believe we have some authentic choice around where we place our focus, and those choices can impact our well being and success, up to a point. However, I found the blanket application and oversimplification of these ideas to…
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