Decolonizing Our Mind and Life

Lately, I have been sitting again with teachings from Sacred Instructions by Sherri Mitchell. Her words invite a deep and sometimes uncomfortable reflection on colonization, as a historical event and an ongoing influence shaping how we think, relate, and live.

Decolonization is often spoken about in political or cultural terms. It also lives in our beliefs about authority, safety, success, and belonging. It lives in our nervous systems, in habits of compliance, and in the ways we may have learned to look outside ourselves for permission or worth.

Colonization works most effectively when it becomes invisible. When certain values and hierarchies feel normal, inevitable, or unquestionable, they no longer need to be enforced overtly. They live on through ideas of progress, productivity, and control that covertly separate us from our own inner authority.

One of the most profound impacts of colonization is separation. Separation from land. Separation from community. Separation from the sacred. Many traditions introduced layers between people and Creator, teaching that access to the sacred must be mediated by an authority figure. This structure makes dependency feel natural. It also makes people easier to control.

Many Indigenous teachings remind us of a simple and radical truth. Our connection to Creator, Source, or Life itself is immediate. Many experience disconnection but deep down our connection with Being cannot be taken away. That connection is the source of our creative power and our capacity to live wisely in the world.

Colonization shows up through control of the essentials of life. When access to food, water, and clean air is controlled by a small number of people or corporations, dependence becomes a matter of survival. We have largely shifted from small family farms to industrial agribusiness. Clean water is bottled and sold back to us. Many live with the reality of unsafe drinking water, and the impact of air pollution remind us that the Earth is one living system.

Decolonizing invites a reversal of this value system. It asks us to place the value of life itself above profit, convenience, or endless growth. This is not an abstract idea. It shows up in daily choices, in how we relate to land, and in how we care for one another. It is a powerful unfolding of seeing through our conditioning and beliefs. 

Ritual and ceremony have long been understood as essential to communal and individual well-being. Because of this, they were deliberately targeted. Languages were outlawed. Hair was cut. Ceremonies such as the Ghost Dance and the Potlatch were banned. These acts were meant to break morale, disrupt continuity, and sever people from sources of meaning and resilience. While many rituals are no longer illegal, they are often trivialized, appropriated, or stripped of depth.

As we decolonize our minds, we look carefully at our rituals and practices. Do they support connection, healing, and shared humanity, or do they quietly replicate hierarchies and exclusion?

Our economic systems are a story of endless growth on a finite planet. Civilizations that survive are the ones most closely aligned with the rhythms of the Earth. Reconnecting with the living world is not a romantic ideal. It is a practical and necessary step toward a sustainable future.

Colonization trains individuals and societies into a kind of childlike dependence. When people are taught that solutions must come from those in power, helplessness becomes normal. Paternalistic systems justify overriding freedoms under the claim of protection or benevolence. Obedience is reinforced through institutions such as schools, governments, and religious structures.

This obedience comes at the cost of giving up our moral autonomy. When we hand over responsibility for our lives, we also hand over our capacity to change them. Decolonizing asks us to reclaim that responsibility, without shame. It invites us to grow into adulthood as individuals and as communities.

Decolonization begins with awareness. We sense what feels true in our bodies. We remember our connection to life, to land, and to our own inner knowing.

This is slow work. It is relational work. It is work that unfolds one choice, one inquiry, one moment of awareness at a time. We might pause and ask ourselves:

• In what areas have I learned to give my power away?

• What supports me in reclaiming responsibility for my own life?

• How do our nervous systems respond when we imagine living in deeper alignment with life?

These are questions to be lived with. Change begins with awareness and from there we can move into sustainable steps toward freedom.

Would you like to explore this with like minded people? Join our Sunday free community class.