Stepping into Power
Let’s talk about power. A controversial word connected to power games, power play and misuse of power. Most times, what comes to mind when we mention the word power is the interpersonal power, the power between individuals, states and sexes. But what about personal power?
In April, we explore personal power as a phenomenon. What it is, where we find it, how we give it away or leak it, and how we take it back.
Why is it important? Because dear one, your personal power is the key to open the door to your very own treasury. The room to everything you have ever wanted.
What is the definition of power?
For a long time, accumulation of wealth and posession has long been a part of the measuring stick, when it comes to power. A viewpoint that with time has come to deeply influence the way we dream and set intentions and have made us look in the directions of gain and control to feel powerful -regardless of the personal costs.
From a spiritual view, however, power comes directly from spirit through your essence, your soul and imagination. It is fed and supported by the elements and energies more powerful than you: nature, the earth, the sun, the moon and the stars.
Success from a spiritual point of view also means different things. Successfully navigating a challenging set of personality traits or successfully handling a challenging situation is a good example of what builds power through a spiritual lens.
In the spirit world, the human idea of power being related to accomplishments that can be measured: Influence, money, degrees, notoriety, fame and attention is nothing but an illusion, and when life throws us curveballs, we do get to feel our own perception of reality come to a checkpoint.
In the shamanic tradition, and that of many other spiritual traditions, your true power is not connected to anything you can lose. You can lose your money, things, homes, reputation, relationships, physical body parts, even your health.
But you can never lose the parts of yourself that are part of the essence of who you are: your experiences, wisdom, talents, and dreams. These are yours and yours alone, and they form your personal power base.
“You can never lose anything outside yourself, but only witness the fade of what was never you to begin with.”
The power of responsibility
This also ultimately means, that another person can never truly give or take away your power, as you power is uniquely linked to your own qualities. Other people can only serve as a mirror of, how we show up for ourselves and your own power, or where you leak it. And often times, the only way to learn about finding our power is through painful experiences, as many times, the lessons will come after having neglected our intuition for too long. It can be a painful experience to lose relationships, jobs, health or see friends or family fading from our lives, when we need them the most. It can leave us with a feeling of betrayal and loss of faith in humanity that will last with us for a long time.
However the same situation holds the possibility to reframe the pain into a life lesson, that gives us valuable insights into the power balances in our lives. Maybe the same situation is an indication of the things or relationships in your life, it is time to let go of and reminder to allow yourself to release whatever is out of balance.
Some times, the hardest balance to find is through taking responsibility for our own beautiful, soulful selves. It is when when we take responsibility for the fact, that we might treat ourselves worse that we would any family member, friend or colleague that we take responsibility for our power leaks, and course correct for a better power balance in our future lives.
After all, when you take away the nostalgia of the experiences that established the relationship bond, ask yourself is it truly worthy of your one and precious life to be in imbalanced situations or relationships?
You are the key to open the door
Ultimately, this also means, that acceptance or attention from others does not build power. The key to access the power within you, is to not look for it on the outside. You will only be disappointed over and over again living in the illusion that it should come from outside sources.
It also means, we can welcome hardships in our lives as profound teachings of power. When things arrive outside of our experience, loss, betrayal, hurt and pain, we can choose to take the lessons of power, that come with them, regardless of the feeling of not having chosen the actual event itself.
When we have the courage to show up for the teaching, we are at the same time being given a tremendous opportunity to open to power and access the amazing landscape of grace, love and beauty that comes with it.
Power as balance
Nature always seeks balance, sometimes in brutal ways. Storms, fires and tidal waves destroy and leave the land barren. Offspring are eaten the moment they enter the world.
But as human beings, we have a hard time accepting the circle of life as a part of balance in our own lives. When we experience loss, we feel the pain of letting go and the fear of change. We also feel piercing pain of our own illusion and expectations crushing. The mental house of cards we have built for the future trajectory of our lives, suddenly shatters to the ground. And for a time, it leaves us barren before we find the courage to build again. This is the time where power can come through and enter our lives.
This is the time, where we are forced to abandon the reigns of control, we normally use to navigate life and feel secure. And there in the midst of our despair, Power can find us, because we are open to let it in. We are vulnerable but at the same time in need. This is the time, where we experiment with new ways, find new habits, open to new rituals and look for new ways. Maybe we go back to something we left behind, a forgotten talent, a favourite outdoor activity or book that changed our lives. Or we find a new appetite for things we never tired before or always dreamed of doing.
Cultivating our personal power is a life long practice, especially in modern western societies that praise power as money, fame and prestige. And in this case, the work is of even more importance.
When we see through the spiritual lens of power, where no person cannot truly give or take away your power, as it is related to your personal power base, we can ask ourselves new questions in relation to the power balances in our lives. We can take new measures and steps toward balance in ourselves, our relationships and our lives.
I will tell you this: Life is strong. Life is power. And the fact, that your are here, that you are alive and breathing in this very moment is proof of the being of power, that you are.
In times of loss, despair and in times of feeling powerless, go back to build your power base. Go back to the essence of who you are: your experiences, your wisdom, your talents, your dreams and intentions. This is your medicine to welcome Power back into your life.
April Blessings,
4 ways to cultivate personal power.
Cultivating our personal power back is a life long practice, especially in modern western societies that praise power as money, fame and prestige. And in this case, the work is of even more importance.
When we see through the lens of power the shamanic or spiritual way, where no person cannot truly give or take away your power, as it is related to your spirit, experiences, wisdom, medicine, talents, dreams and intentions, we can ask ourselves new questions in relation to the power balances in our lives. We can take new measures and steps toward balance in ourselves, our relationships and our lives. Here is some inspiration to get you started:
Balance your scales
When consider a power balance between people or worldly things, always consider, what is the trade? That friend you always show up for, you always listen to her complaints, but she or he cannot show up for you. Is it really worth your time and energy? That job, that gives you money and esteem, but taxes your health and steals you passion. Is it really worthy of your precious life energy? When we take aside the notion of worth being something related to money but rather to your power base, we can see that some times the price we pay is too high in regards to the exchange given.Forgive
Forgiveness is not about accepting things, that have harmed you or impacted your life in a hurtful way. The power of forgiveness is leaving new space for better things to arrive where the pain is. When your forgive yourself and others for anything, you are still holding on to, you let go of the burden that weighs you down. The debt carried by not doing so is a big power leak and will keep you from moving forward and reclaiming the power that is trapped in your reactions. As long as you are holding yourself or anyone else hostage and in debt for old wounds and past behaviors, you are not available for the expansion of power that holds the potential to manifest miracles and magic out of the very same experiences as well. It is not an easy task, it can take a year, a minute or a life time. But sometimes the pain is like an old friend, we cannot say goodbye to because it has been there for so long, and we don’t know who we are without it. Grieve and cry, but let life in again.You owe it to yourself.Nourish your soul
Your soul is your unique DNA strand, the golden thread, that you should treat with utmost care. When we speak harshly to ourselves or in any way do not honour the preciousness of who were are, we automatically injure our soul. Taking time to nourish your soul is not a luxury for the few, but a birthright for everybody. Slowing down, practicing mindfulness, reading poetry, playing or engaging in a creative process are all ways to connect to the wisdom and power of the soul. If you need some inspiration to get you started, take a look at the soul vitamins section and draw a card for the inspiration of the day.Play and practice your own power frequency.
Think of yourself as a unique golden string in the instrument of life. If the whole creation of life is a beautiful symphony, your individual life is a unique string, that vibrates in its own way. You have your own tone, your own drum, your own strum. When we experience power loss, often times, we have strayed too far away from our own string of life. And we need to take the necessary steps to come back. In other ways, practice you. Do things that come from you, not from others. Use your words, your colours, your expressions, your ways to describe what the world needs. Institutions teach us to imitate and reproduce each other. Personal power teaches us to play with life and create something. Come back to your divine humanity. You are not a machine. Practicing you is your very birthright, and the biggest gift, you can give to the world.