Five Roads to Personal Power
Five Roads to Personal Power
What is personal power? It’s simply deciding who you are and who you wish to be. Once you know who you are, accept that. Then you decide who you want to be. Once you’ve decided who you want to be…show up for yourself, as her! In order to activate your personal power, you must make a conscious decision to take control of your life and actively walk in who you are aka your “power”.
How do I show up for myself you ask?
Below is a list that certainly is not all inclusive but from my experience is a great start.
1. Shadow work. Shadow work is radical self-acceptance. Shadow work is taking the time to address the parts of ourselves we are not so proud of. In short it’s getting real REAL with yourself. No one can use your flaws against you if you are aware of them and ok with them or if you are aware and are changing them. In either scenario we are speaking about parts of YOU and YOU should be a peace with YOU more than anyone. At enough peace that if someone else is NOT at peace with you, you can release them into their own destiny that may not include you. Read more on shadow work in my blog post dedicated solely to that topic.
2. Gratitude. A grateful heart draws only love and blessings to it. Try getting up each morning and thanking your higher power for the day, before you grab your phone. Try running to your kids room and kissing their faces off while thanking your higher power for them opening their eyes today. When you learn to be grateful for opening your eyes today as a basis for your day, everything shifts. You’re not owed today and certainly not tomorrow. Gratefulness changes everything. An attitude of gratitude can find the silver lining in any storm cloud. Gratefulness embeds itself into your implicit memory and helps to fight the unforeseen negativity bias we struggle with daily. I recommend being thankful as often as you can as major mental cardio!
3. Peace. Make peace with where you are now. Understand that even if you feel you’re not where you WANT to be, you are where you need to be for right now, trust the process. We often find our misery in either obsessing over the past, which is over and done (it’s never coming back) or the future (Sis the shit hasn’t happened yet) to the point of paralyzing fear in the present. Make mindfulness and living in the present your BFF.
4. STOP APOLOGIZING! A few years back I worked in a facility where I had to open the bathroom for patients. I spent my whole day asking women to stop telling me there were sorry for asking me to open the door. I literally had to make an announcement to the lodge and state you have a right to pee! Please do not say “I’m sorry can I use the bathroom” a simply can you please open the door for me would suffice. People apologize for needing to get pass on the street or off the elevator. You keep telling folks you’re sorry your ass is going to end up sorry. See how that works. Stop giving your power away. In all those examples a simple excuse me is all that was needed. Words are VERY POWERFUL! Just as you are what you eat, you are what you speak!
5. Create. We all have special talents. PERIOD. Every one of us was created for a purpose and uniquely so. Write, draw, sing, paint, dance, and build, whatever it is that is your personal joy. What calls to your heart? Don’t worry so much about whether its good or not, just express yourself freely. Notice how a child will get finger paints and splatter away with no real design intention in mind, they just go for it and when they finish they are as pleased with the result as if it was a fine piece of art hanging at the Met. Just as they should be. Model that behavior. We are born extremely liberated and free until we are taught to not be so free. I dare you to start to create something for you from you, and let your inner “free” break free.