Unlearning white-capitalist culture

Why are we so disconnected from ourselves?

Why is it so hard to connect to my body?

Why can't I do what's good for me, even when I know cognitively what's good for me?

….because we are not taught to connect with our bodies.

These are questions I've reflected on continuously, as I've witnessed the patterns of white-capitalist culture within my body and my client's bodies ever since I first became a healing arts practitioner and feminine embodiment coach.

Even now, in a global pandemic with huge collective trauma and grief, there is a myth that it's abnormal to feel triggered, this stressed, this blah + we have to keep on 'business as usual’. That's not true, and your wise body will show you differently. Our hyper-masculine, white-capitalist culture keeps us in a state of separation from our bodies and disconnected from our true feelings.

Feeling is the pathway to healing.

In my 10+ years experience as a self-employed woman (hey to any freelancers & business owners!), it has been WILD in showing me just how much internalised white-capitalist culture lives in my body. The habitual patterns of somatic stress in my body, caffeine addiction, over-giving, over-riding my needs, over-working despite a need for deeper rest at menstruation (there are many more). It reminds me of exactly how I burnt out multiple times in my previous life in the finance industry, and still can today if it wasn’t for consistent, embodied practice. It's been a journey and continues to be because this programming is deeply embedded in our subconscious. It's multigenerational and ancient.

For me, they are the culmination of years of hypervigilance, fear of failure & fight to prove myself as a brown woman, seeing the harsh sacrifices of my parents as working-class Sikh immigrants, and all the messages from people & culture that reinforce scarcity, inferiority next to my white peers, and encourages self-sacrifice as a means of survival and striving for success.

As well as allowing culture to define what 'success' means for us, rather than being encouraged to decide that for ourselves. We ignore and bypass the signals our body give us - sometimes the screams - for more love and attention, more sleep, wholesome nutrition, playfulness, pleasure, more slowness and stillness.

Feeling powerful, healthy and emotionally well, pleasure-filled, and liberated is not the goal of our existing culture.

White-capitalist culture exists to keep us exactly where we are and it is up to us to take control of our wellness. We were not born to be cogs in the wheel, in endless servitude, hustle-grind mode, over-worked, over-stressed, chronically unwell. Then, to buy the 'self-help' tools to survive inside the system. Often, they have rebranded 'self-help' tools, extracted from South Asian, Black, Indigenous ancient traditions and from people of colour, and that mostly encourage being individualistic (not collectivist communities as in the East). Being individualistic, and not thinking about our community, is classic white-capitalist culture.

I'm not interested in survival, or quick-fix/"self-help"/new age-y/reality-bypassing coaching and healing.

I'm interested in how we can feel safe, embodied, and THRIVE. I'm interested in individual and collective embodied healing and liberation. For us to contact the rich wisdom that lives in our bones. For us to feel well on an ongoing basis, not temporarily.

And it has to start with you, your body-mind-soul. Trauma healing and transformation happen in your body and there is no magic pill, as trauma science confirms. It's not all in the *mind* or by only *changing your mindset* as white-capitalist culture would have us believe.

Connecting to your body results in embodied wisdom.

Our bodies are powerful beyond measure.

Our bodies are not machines to be exploited.

Our cultures are not commodities to be traded.

Our ancestral wisdom is not valuable only when white-capitalists can profit from it.

How does white-capitalist programming show up in your life and behaviour?

Do you recognise the signs of it in your body?

If your seeking support in restoring your body-connection, body-wisdom, and discover your truest Self in the world we live in, let’s chat.

Remember: Your body is your greatest healer.

May we embody liberating ways of living and being that support, nourish, sustain and nurture our bodies.

Sharandeep x