The Wisdom of Woo

What is "woo woo"?

I would say woo woo is content that can be judged by yourself or others as off-the-wall, wacky, hippie, non-rational, not believable, naïve, or simply ridiculous.

It is obviously subjective. What is “out there” to one person is common parlance to another. No one person goes around declaring that X is woo woo and Y is not.

Although when I think of fact-checkers ….. nope – we won’t go there.

Is your "woo-threshold" low or high?

Let’s go down the rabbit hole. Take your pick. Miracles and Magic. Do you have a woo woo edge?

Maybe its hugging trees, talking to plants or speaking in tongues. Parallel timelines, activating your chakras, crystalline light bodies, long distance healing, past lives, star seeds, extra-terrestrials or lizard people ruling the world?

What is woo woo to one person is another person’s cuppa tea.

I have a friend from Law School. I love her a lot but she can’t help laughing when I talk about shamanism. The very word makes her feel uncomfortable. She is liberal, atheist and an intellectual. She is stretched by my thinking, and I respect her thinking.

I have another friend and X colleague (also a lawyer) who calls herself a legal futurist, soul coach and spiritual channel. She attracts lightworkers in the law and has just launched her online program Lawyering from the Seat of the Soul. Now that is seriously out there! But it’s working for her and proving to be a bloody brilliant niche if ever there was one.

A woman in the Alive Wire community has written a book for spiritually inclined women in business. They don’t go around chanting mantras in the office or chatting about crystals, chakras, sigils or angels but (secretly) they love all the woo woo stuff and are looking for ways to make it work in and for their careers.

But here’s the thing…

We are social creatures. We need acceptance. Being part of a group means safety in numbers. Stepping out of line can be accompanied by a slightly superior, patronizing or condescending attitude. Really? You don’t believe that rubbish do you! Surely not.

So we play the game, we play by the rules, and if the rules (culture) says “Don’t talk about woo woo”, we don’t. Or we tread very lightly around the subject. We don’t rock the boat. We may even take the piss. In the privacy of our own homes, we may be cleansing our chakras but we we’ll only talk about spring cleaning.

Are you being yourself?

Are you free to be yourself? At work? As a leader? In the office? Around the dinner table? In the bedroom? Are you playing a role? Are you hiding parts of yourself out of concern or fear for what people may think or say about you?

I also understand there times when we may need to temper or modify our woo. As a coach, I meet a client where they are at. I would not bring anything perceived as woo woo out from my tool box unless my client led with that or asked or was ready for that.

What is your "woo-radar"?

In our last Alive Wire Wisdom Circle one woman spoke about her own “woo radar”. I thought this was a brilliant word. A “woo radar” has to do with tolerance. She spoke about different approaches and attitudes to woo in business and how the corporate landscape is changing. It seems the workplace is becoming more open to what may have been seen as woo woo, unconventional or fringe a short while back.

The language is changing. It is seeping into cultures.

We are awakening

More and more people, especially the youngsters, are talking with ease about things like meaning, purpose (even soul purpose), love in action and alignment. They are curious about consciousness. Influences and leaders are modelling meditation. There’s an interest in peak states, medicine journeys and flow. Degrees of woo, right?

There is an awakening happening. More and more people see they are in the Matrix and are taking the red pill. They are starting to ask questions. They appreciate there is more to life. They are not who they thought they were. Reality is not what they thought it was. This can open up the woo-gates. But it can also open up a flow of extraordinary intelligence, solutions, compassion, creativity and joy. Peeps are looking for this.

Personally, I find this exciting. Bring on the woo, I say!

Disowning my woo

In my past I did this. I disowned my quirkiness and tried to fit in. I disowned my spirituality and therefore the essence of myself. In the process, I disowned my body, my sense of being part of nature, my sexuality, my intuition, my innocence, my connection to source, my intelligence and my sovereignty.

Owning my woo

Today is different. I am proud of all that makes me different. Fuck it! Here I am.

At the same time, I am sensitive. There may be times when we need to temper or modify our woo and I think this can be done without compromising ourselves.

I have also adopted my older son’s Bullshit Radar. There is a lot of woo woo stuff out there (get it?? “out there” he he). Not all of it good for my spiritual constitution. Not all of it true. Utlimately I am a truth seeker. I don’t need confusion. So yes, I guess recently I have been on a woo de-cluttering.

What we actually need is openess, respect and discernment.

It takes discernment

Your “woo radar” is the amount of woo you are prepared to tolerate. My woo radar used to be low. There were various reasons for this. For example, a while back, I asked my cousin to kindly discontinue mentioning unicorns and dragons on my facebook page!

Recently, I went on a gentle medicine journey with a very special friend. We were in Wales and walked through the countryside in autumn. That Welsh copper, burnished bracken is something else. We walked into a wood, and I swear, if I only had eyes to see, there were unicorns in that wood. And, WHO KNOWS maybe there were dragons too! But I still would not post such a story on Facebook!

Whether you decide to talk about your dragons is up to you. This takes discernment. Yes, there was a world-wide obsession with Daenerys Targaryen but this doesn’t mean to say that talking about your dragons to every one you know is a good idea. The wisdom of woo takes discernment.

In some situations, we need the courage to own our woo. In other situations, it may be wise, to temper or modify our woo? Only you can be the judge of that.

Twit twoo. It’s up to you!