Stepping Into Spiritual Activism

This is an invitation for any hue-man ready, able and willing to do the hard, vital and urgent inner work required to dismantle racist heteropatriarchy. I believe Spiritual Activism is the missing piece to the racial justice dilemma. An embodied, heart-centered approach to combatting oppression by diving deep within and relying on spiritually aligned, culturally informed spiritual offerings to support us as we support others so we can bring about collective transformation.

Transcript

Welcome Insight Community.

My name is Rachel Ricketts.

I am a racial justice activist,

Spiritual healer and author,

And I'm honored you're joining me for this deep dive within as we learn how to step into spiritual activism.

The collective consciousness is rising and there are so many folks out there seeking to find their role within the quest for your racial justice.

Still,

Many folks are missing the mark because the starting place truly is right here,

Right now,

With you.

Begins with you,

Especially my white and white passing loves who are joining me.

So this talk is an invitation for any and all humans who are ready,

Able and willing to do the hard,

Vital and urgent inner work required to dismantle white supremacist hetero patriarchy.

I believe spiritual activism is the missing piece to the racial justice dilemma.

An embodied heart centered approach to combating oppression by diving deep within ourselves,

First and foremost,

And relying on spiritually aligned,

Culturally informed spiritual offerings to support us as we support others so we can bring about collective transformation.

This is the beginning step,

The internal precursor to the external outward active shift needed to bring about massive collective and much needed change.

But let me be clear,

This is no cakewalk.

Learning about white supremacist hetero patriarchy and committing to the work of anti oppression is no small feat.

White supremacy is one of the greatest forms of social trauma on the planet.

Inciting grief,

Guilt,

Loss,

Pain,

Anger,

Shame,

And so much more.

It hurts everyone,

Albeit in very different ways.

And no one more than black and indigenous women of color,

Including trans gender nonconforming,

Non binary,

LGBTQIA,

Two spirit,

And other folks.

And let me break this down.

For my white and white passing friends,

Internalizing dominance and privilege results in deep disconnect.

White supremacy requires you to deny,

Dissociate,

And to defend.

It robs you of inner peace.

It robs you of the ability to fully arrive in your heart space or genuinely connect with people of color who are people of the global majority.

Learning about the ways in which you have undoubtedly caused harm and perpetuated a system of oppression is tough.

I see it every day in the work that I do.

But I assure you,

It pales in comparison to what people of color endure at the crappy end of the discrimination stick.

But that doesn't mean that this work is not without hardship for all.

When white folks start to become truthfully aware of who they are and what they've done,

Their world turns upside down.

Unpacking race,

Racism,

And its impact is triggering on a mental,

Spiritual,

Emotional,

And at times physical level.

It takes courage,

Bravery,

And resilience.

It is daily,

Lifelong work.

It is hard as all hell.

And it must be done.

For my fellow folks of color,

Including the mixed folks and especially my black and indigenous women and femmes,

Addressing our internalized oppression is where we most get stuck in the quest for racial justice.

We've endured centuries of institutionalized discrimination,

Of lesser housing,

Lesser education,

Lesser pay,

Unequal job opportunities,

Healthcare,

A lack of access to justice,

And so much more.

Not to mention slavery,

Genocide,

Dehumanization,

Intergenerational trauma,

Microaggressions,

And constant reminders that we are less than simply because we don't belong to whiteness.

It is day in and day out.

And one of the worst parts of it all is that white supremacy has worked wonders at forcing us to believe the lies it incessantly feeds us about ourselves.

So we play small,

We keep quiet,

And we code switch in order to keep white people comfortable at the expense of our own mental,

Physical,

Emotional,

And spiritual well-being.

This has got to stop.

For my folks of color,

Our anti-racist work is learning how to reclaim our voice and our power.

Our work is unapologetically unplugging from whiteness and its toxic script of who we are and who we can or should be.

Our healing is our deepest form of anti-racism.

Our healing is very much integral to the revolution.

So no matter who you are,

How you identify,

How can you get comfortable with your discomfort and set yourself up to succeed in the name of soulful social justice?

I believe it starts with compassionately connecting to your highest self and filling up your soul so you can truly do this deep,

Challenging,

And meaningful work.

A car can't drive on empty,

Am I right?

Stepping into spiritual activism is an opportunity for you to get raw and real with yourself,

To crack your chest open and see all that is there,

Be it the good,

The bad,

And the ugly,

So you can start the necessary work of standing in your truth,

Owning your impact,

And healing your heart.

Then and only then can you authentically commit to the work of anti-racism.

And make no mistake,

This work is urgent,

It is necessary,

And we need you.

I believe getting comfortable with our discomfort is the gateway to our collective salvation,

To racial and social justice in all forms.

So let's get to it.

I will be sharing with you the five primary elements needed for stepping into spiritual activism.

I suggest finding quiet time alone,

Perhaps making yourself a hot cup of tea,

You'd like to light a candle,

Perhaps play some soothing music while you listen.

And if you want to hit pause and get yourself set up right now,

That's all good.

I'll wait.

This work will undoubtedly bring up challenging emotions and it may be triggering at times for some,

If not all.

So please do take good care of yourself as you move through.

Now let's get into it.

The first element of stepping into spiritual activism is vulnerability.

Vulnerability.

Before we can commit to authentic anti-racism,

We need to be willing to embrace ourselves,

Our transgressions,

Our experience,

Our grief,

Guilt,

Shame,

All of the above.

And all of this requires us to become vulnerable.

Vulnerability is the quality or state of being susceptible to physical,

Mental,

Or emotional harm,

Degradation,

Or destruction.

As Brene Brown shares,

Vulnerability is uncertainty,

Risk,

And emotional exposure.

It is a precursor to empathy and essentially every tool required to dismantle white supremacist hetero patriarchy,

Such as compassion,

Ingenuity,

And resilience.

Embracing vulnerability means trying with the knowing that you may very well get it wrong.

In fact,

You very likely will.

It means dropping your defenses and accepting things as they truly are.

Vulnerability means sitting in your discomfort so you can learn why it's there and using that information to create deep and meaningful change.

Racial justice requires courage and to get there,

We first need to tap into the parts of ourselves we most often seek to hide.

So to embrace our vulnerability,

We need to examine our relationship to vulnerability.

We need to explore how we have understood and related to vulnerability.

So what does vulnerability look or sound like to you?

What did you learn about vulnerability growing up?

Most of us learned that vulnerability was akin to death.

Vulnerability was not a state of being that was allowed or not a state of being that was safe.

Who,

If anyone,

Modeled vulnerability for you while you were growing up?

Exploring our vulnerability requires us to ask ourselves what has prevented us from getting vulnerable?

What prevents me from getting vulnerable now?

And to begin to shift these narratives that we have grown up with,

That we are socialized to accept and endure,

We must ask ourselves,

How has my vulnerability served me in the past?

Because being vulnerable has ultimately served you,

Whether you knew it or not.

And being vulnerable will serve you in the quest for racial justice time and time again.

Step two in stepping into spiritual activism is honesty.

It is impossible to bring about social change if we're not being true to ourselves,

To each other,

And to the cause.

We are all comprised of both light and dark.

Our shadow side is part of who we are and it's how we experience the world.

It is there to help teach us.

A lot of times,

However,

Our fears are running the show when it comes to racial justice.

And many of us,

Especially women,

Again,

Inclusive of transgender,

Nonconforming,

Nonbinary,

Are deeply afraid of feeling wrong or bad.

The need to be good and right trumps any chance at meaningful change or accepting the experiences of those who are unlike us.

Well,

We need to lay down these patriarchal needs so we can create the groundwork for much needed change.

For my fellow folks of color,

Let's get honest about the harms we've caused ourselves or other folks of color by internalizing white supremacy.

For white folks,

This looks like getting honest and owning whatever harms you have undoubtedly caused against people of color intentionally or unintentionally requires getting honest about our impact as opposed to our intention.

For all non-black folks,

This requires getting honest about the ways in which we embrace,

Benefit from,

And perpetuate anti-blackness.

What's needed is a serious reality check about our fears,

Motivations,

And actions.

And as always,

These are not simple questions.

So continue to allow yourself to digest whatever comes up as we move through.

The step of honesty requires us to explore our relationship to ourselves,

Our relationship to our integrity and honesty,

As well as to our spirituality and our shadow side.

We have to get curious and ask ourselves,

Is it important for me to be seen as good and right?

For most of us,

It is.

And if so,

Where did this deep need to be seen or feel as though I'm good and right?

Where did that come from?

And how is it getting in the way of my anti-racism?

Because if we're committed to being good and right,

We cannot be committed to racial justice.

It's impossible.

We must ask ourselves and confront the ways in which we are or are not acknowledging and accepting our shadow side.

Am I acknowledging my shadow side?

If I am,

How am I doing that?

And if I'm not,

Why not?

And it requires us to ask the tough questions like,

Have I ever harmed myself or another person because of white supremacy?

How have I harmed myself or others because of white supremacy?

And how does it make me feel to recognize this truth?

And for the majority,

This is not an if,

This is a when and a how.

For all white,

White passing people,

How have I harmed another person,

Another person of color because of white supremacy?

And for folks of color,

How have I harmed myself if not others because of white supremacy?

Step three is looking at anger.

Anger is a strong feeling of displeasure,

Annoyance or hostility,

Often resulting from some way we feel we've been treated unkind or unfairly.

This emotion has really gotten a bad rap,

But we need to get more curious about that.

About why that is.

All emotions are useful,

They're informative and they show up for a reason.

Anger arrives to inform us that something is wrong,

Something needs to change and that some real important information for us and those around us to have.

It is what some choose to do with their anger that has received such negative play.

But make no mistake,

Martin Luther King Jr.

Was angry and he fueled that anger into a movement.

Just because you feel anger does not mean that it needs to lead you to violence or harm in any way,

Shape or form.

Righteous anger has and continues to be at the forefront of many,

If not most leading social justice revolutions.

So we really need to switch up our perspective on and our relationship with anger.

Most of us,

Particularly women,

Were taught that rage is wrong.

We were made to feel ashamed or guilty for expressing ourselves in this way.

This is even more true in the spiritual sense as many gurus will teach that you can't be spiritual and angry.

I could not disagree more.

If you aren't outraged at the injustices in the world,

Then you either don't care or you aren't paying attention.

Anger is a useful tool.

It is an inherent emotion.

So let's reacquaint ourselves with our good friend anger so we can learn ways to fuel it into positive,

Progressive change.

So stepping into spiritual activism requires us to get curious again with our anger.

What is my relationship to anger?

What is my relationship to anger?

How have people in my life responded to my anger and how did that make me feel?

How does it make me feel when others express their anger,

Especially people of color,

Especially black and indigenous women?

How does it make me feel when others express their anger and why?

And again,

As we transition into shifting our perspective and understanding of anger,

Let's explore how and when we have seen anger expressed in ways that have fueled change because it undoubtedly has.

Step four is integrity.

Integrity is the personal choice to hold oneself to consistent standards.

There are a lot of performative allies and activists out in the world when it comes to racial justice,

Anti-oppression and spiritual bypassing is at an all time high.

If you think love and light supremacy is going to solve the dis-ease that is racism,

You need to do your inner work.

And if you believe that your good intentions alone make you incapable of causing harm,

Guess again.

That is simply untrue and it perpetuates more harm.

It can be easy to talk the talk and many of us are learning the language,

But are we walking the walk?

Are our spiritual leaders?

Are you following,

Supporting,

Voting for,

Uplifting,

Checking in on,

Learning from and about and paying black and indigenous people of color?

And if not,

There's a disconnect between your word and your action,

Your intention and your impact.

Irrespective of intentions,

What we do and say is what has all the value.

Impact over intention all the way,

Every day.

So we're focusing on our sincerity to this deep and meaningful work by unearthing the heart of the matter.

Leaning into integrity requires us to reflect on the following.

Do my actions align with my intention to be anti-racist?

Do my actions align with my intention?

Do my words align with my intention?

Do I use spirituality as a means to defend,

Deny or ignore my shadow side?

Or do I lean into my spirituality as a means with which to embrace the full spectrum of my human emotions and others human emotions and propel my social justice efforts?

Integrity requires us to get curious about why it is we are doing this work and why now?

If we're new to this work,

We need to ask what took us so long?

What powers and privileges do I possess that allowed me to move through the world without addressing them,

Without standing up for myself and those who have been most marginalized?

Step five of getting into our spiritual activism is acceptance and action.

So authentic anti-racism requires us to act.

There's deep inner work that's required as I mentioned,

But we must have external outward action to bring about change whenever and wherever possible.

There's much about ourselves,

Our community and the world that can and is in desperate need of changing.

Time is of the essence.

Still,

It is equally important to find the level of acceptance for all that has and continues to transpire.

The actions we did not take,

The injustices we have already suffered,

Those who have harmed us and the harm we have caused others,

Especially the most depressed.

Acceptance is not agreeing with or condoning what has happened,

Nor does it mean allowing further transgressions,

Not by any means.

What it does mean is we are refusing to succumb to suffering or getting overwhelmed by the thick web of white supremacist hetero patriarchy.

It looks like practicing loving kindness towards ourselves for what we did not know and doing better.

It is a practice of accepting that we cannot fix every single issue in the world and devoting ourselves to doing the best we can to fix what we can.

Starting with ourselves so that we have gotten clear about what work we need to do to heal our own hearts because we cannot get out into the world to attempt to heal the collective if we have not gotten the first right with ourselves.

I so often see folks getting tripped up in the coulda,

Woulda,

And the thing is,

If you are practicing authentic anti-racism,

You are going to grow and evolve every day.

You are going to look back in a week and think,

Dang,

What was I thinking?

How did I not see that?

How did I behave in this way?

Feeling guilt and grief or shame is part of the process of stepping into truth,

Your truth and the truth of the collective.

But if we get stuck there,

We won't keep growing and flowing and engaging in this fight.

We'll make it about us as opposed to the most depressed.

So we need to accept what needs accepting and then we need to get the heck to work.

Accepting and acting requires us to get curious and ask questions like,

What do I need to accept about myself or my actions?

What is keeping me stuck?

What am I most seeking to deny or refuse to acknowledge about myself or my actions?

How can I practice more compassion towards myself and others,

Especially black and indigenous folks of color?

How can I practice both acceptance and action?

Lastly,

We will get to the deep and important work of reflecting.

In order to step into spiritual activism,

We need to foster and cultivate a practice of reflection.

In the words of Martin Luther King Jr.

,

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability but comes through continuous struggle.

We need each and every one of you out there on the front lines fighting for anti-racism,

For anti-oppression and full full social justice day in and day out.

Your best chance at making meaningful change and sticking up for racial justice is by continuing to commit to leading from and with spirit.

By practicing mad and wise compassion for yourself and others.

By continuously filling up your tank for the purpose of giving yourself truly and completely in the name of justice.

By being vulnerable and honest and integral in all of your actions and learning to sit in your discomfort without needing to run,

Hide or change.

So we've done this deep dive in a conversation and it's imperative that we reflect on what we've just digested.

Reflect on what you found most challenging about this talk.

What did you learn about yourself?

How did you withstand your discomfort?

Did you withstand your discomfort?

And remember these are the initial inner steps needed to bring about massive collective change.

This work begins with us but that is certainly not where it ends.

Meditating on a rock will not bring about collective transformation.

But leaning into ourselves,

Embracing our heart space,

Expanding our ability to tolerate our own discomfort,

All of that allows us to get clear with ourselves,

Our intentions and the ways in which we need to heal our own hearts to best show up and fight for collective change.

Thank you for trusting me to guide you through.

I bow in deep honour for who you are and all that you can and will do to support collective transformation.

The time to embrace your shadow and commit to collective healing for all is now.

From my heart to yours,

All my love.

Reviews

Thank you teacher! My sankalpa is to look for and do substantively more. 🙏❤️🙏❗️

So clearly, firmly, and compassionately laid out.

🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🫶🏽🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🫶🏽🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🫶🏽. Thank you from my heart to yours. Amen.

Thank you Rachel. You said many hard things with much love in this talk. Intention vs. Impact made a strong impression on me, I’ll be bringing that forward. ♥️

Thank you Rachel. I am reflecting on racial injustice every day (some days more than others, to be honest). And I’m leading with my heart. I look at and accept my dark side. But I confess, the work is there for me to throw-off the need to be ‘good’ and ‘appropriate’ as a woman. And it is my actions in this area I must really learn to take. Where can I hear more from you?
I wish you well. Ann

My love and gratitude to Rachel and those who are listening in.💕💛💚💙💜🤎🖤

Thank you so much, I travel the road striving for equality and it is treacherous but rewarding. Thank you for making me feel that it is always worthwhile. 🙏🏾

Listened to this the day after Duante Wright was murdered. Really helped me focus my anger. It felt so draining, but you had a lime about how if you're not angry you don't care or you're not paying attention. Made me realize I do care and I am paying attention, that's why I am angry. Thank you!

With deep gratitude for creating this space for understanding, reflection and ultimately action.

Thank you so very much for sharing your words of wisdom; I will be sharing this.

This is EXACTLY what I needed to hear right now. This was so powerful. I woke up with a heavy heart thinking about the impact of racism in the yoga and wellness space in Kenya - local brands being built by white saviors exploiting the "poor Africans" story and labor. I needed something to center myself as I figure out how to address this situation publicly. I have been silent for 9 years! No more! Thank you so much Rachel for speaking the language of my soul. Highest vibrations to you sis 🤎🌻🙏🏾

Really powerful and thought-provoking. Lots of reflection, acceptance and action to step into. Thank you for this, Rachel.

Superb talk, essential, and I will share it with my rainbow coalition vibe tribe. You are a light bearer. Deep bow🙏🏾

Listening for a second time. Very rich. I shall look to see what else you offer Rachel🙏🙏🙏

Wow. This is really good.

Thank you for this great guide, I’m sharing it with my Racial Justice Action Circle. Doing this work in a group has helped me be even more honest. This work is so needed as we seek to heal ourselves & county, from the destructive disease of white supremacy.

Excellent— should be required listening for all ❤️❤️

Phenomenally insightful. Thank you. 🤎

Thank you, this is beautiful 💕 🌎

Thank you for this wonderful and thought-provoking conversation, Rachel. I’m loving your teachings and online courses :)