Hi Friends,
The number of conversations I’ve had where someone shares something with me and then quickly qualifies it with, “Not that I’m a hippie...” or “But like, I’m not woo...” is too many to count.
To which I usually reply, “I am!”
For some people, anything described as “woo” still carries this idea of being weird, alternative, or outside the norm. And I understand why. We’re social beings. Belonging matters to us, and there can be something vulnerable about believing in, exploring, or even being curious about things that aren’t widely accepted.
The funny thing is, I wasn’t always particularly woo myself.
I went to school for medical sciences. I spent a lot of my earlier life living almost entirely in my head, with very little awareness of what was happening in my body, and very little connection to nature. A lot of what I explore now would genuinely have sounded pretty far-fetched to an earlier version of me.
Until I got curious.
And that curiosity didn’t make me stop valuing science. I still believe deeply in the value of research, evidence, critical thinking, and the scientific method. Science has helped us understand our bodies, treat disease, and explain parts of our world that once seemed completely mysterious.
But science is also, by its very nature, unfinished.
There have been plenty of moments in history where something was observed before we fully understood why it was happening. In the 1800s, Ignaz Semmelweis found that handwashing dramatically reduced deaths from childbed fever, before germ theory had become established. And in the 1920s, astronomer Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin discovered that stars were made primarily of hydrogen and helium...a finding that challenged what astronomers believed at the time and was initially met with resistance before becoming foundational to our understanding of the universe.
That doesn’t mean every idea we can’t currently explain will eventually turn out to be true. But it does remind me that “we don’t have evidence for this yet” and “this definitely isn’t real” are not always the same statement.
Along this journey, I’ve become much more comfortable living in that space of I don’t know yet. It’s opened me up to paying more attention to the wisdom held in nature, in our bodies, and in experiences that aren’t always easy to quantify.
And some of what might have once sounded a little “woo” isn’t particularly fringe anymore. We now have research looking at the ways time in nature can affect stress, mood, and well-being. I don’t need a study to tell me that I feel different after walking through the woods or sitting by the water...but I also find it interesting when research starts giving us another way of understanding something humans may have intuitively known for a very long time.
Other things I explore have much less evidence behind them. And I’m okay saying that too.
Grounding or earthing is one example. There are studies exploring possible effects on things like stress, pain, sleep, and other physiological measures, but the research is still small and nowhere near as established as the broader body of research around simply spending time in nature. That doesn’t mean I need to dismiss what I experience when I stand barefoot on the earth. It just means my experience is exactly that...my experience. I can be curious about it without needing to turn it into proof.
I think that’s where I’ve landed with a lot of the “woo” in my life. Curious, but not unquestioning. Open, but still discerning.
I can notice that something feels meaningful or supportive to me without needing to insist that everyone else experience it the same way.
And yes, that includes energy.
Quantum physics has shown us that the physical world behaves in ways that can feel pretty strange compared with our everyday experience, and there is still so much being explored about the relationship between the quantum and classical worlds. But I don’t think we need to borrow quantum physics to prove every intuitive or energetic experience we have.
When I talk about the “energy” I bring into a room, a conversation, or my work, I’m often talking about something much more grounded anyway.
Am I rushed or present? Guarded or open? Am I listening to respond, or actually listening? What is happening in my body as I enter the space? What changes in the way I speak, move, or connect depending on what I’m carrying into that moment?
I don’t need quantum physics to tell me those things matter. I can feel the difference in how I show up.
And that’s part of what embracing the woo has come to mean for me. It hasn’t required me to throw away science or critical thinking. If anything, I think discernment becomes even more important when we’re exploring things that aren’t well understood or easily measured.
It’s simply asked me to loosen my grip on the idea that something has to be completely explained before I’m allowed to be curious about it.
There are things I believe now that an earlier version of me probably would have rolled her eyes at. There are other things I’m still not sure about. And there are probably things I believe today that I’ll understand differently ten years from now.
I actually like that.
There’s room for science and mystery to exist alongside each other. I don’t need to dismiss an experience simply because I can’t yet explain it.
For now, I’m happy to stay curious. And perhaps a little woo!
With heartfelt gratitude,
Christina
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