So many times I’ve sat in retreats, ceremonies and plant medicine journeys with the intention of getting ‘empowered’. With the desire to finally feel and know my power. I perceived myself as ‘lacking’ power and I thought that I was missing some sort of secret ingredient. I didn’t know what it was and obviously had no idea how to get it, but I truly believed something was missing because I couldn’t feel my power.
In hindsight, I think I ‘imagined’ that having power or feeling powerful was something spectacular. That ‘having power’ would somehow make me feel very different. Maybe bigger or more visible or special. I find it hard to put into words what my imagination constructed around power. What I knew for sure is that I didn’t have this type of power, and that somebody, somewhere, a master or a teacher or a divine soul would give it to me. That an external force would grant me power.
I also convinced myself that something outside of me would allow me to feel my power.
This part of my story was actually true. I needed to receive something from ‘outside’, however that something wasn’t ‘power’ itself, but information.
Information about what power actually IS and what it means to BE powerful.
After many years of waiting and wishing, I finally realised in a ceremony through an experience I had, that no one was going to give me power.
All along I was waiting for a lightbulb to go off or for the ‘spirit’ of my guide to come to me and ‘give’ me power.
This never happened, because information IS power. Knowing and understanding WHAT power actually is.
Having a choice is power, choosing what to do, what to believe in, how to act. That is power.
The option to CHOOSE for yourself IS power.
And knowing your options and being able to choose the right option IS power.
Power is basically the combination of INFORMATION, knowledge and the taking the right action based upon that knowledge.
Empowerment or being empowered means using your power and the knowledge available to you.
Without ‘knowledge’ you’re simply following patterns and familial and societal conditioning. Basically you’re dependent on someone else’s knowledge. To question that inherited knowledge IS your power.
Contemplating who you are, what you want and how to get it is your power.
Gaining access to new information and choosing to LEARN and APPLY the appropriate information IS your power.
Many people suffer on a daily basis with the lives they lead.
Many of them believe that ‘this is life’. That there is no other way to live. That they need to put up with suffering (or lack of happiness at least). That they can’t create change. And by believing all of this, they give up their power.
What if you used the energy you spent ‘giving up your power’ and put it into ‘owning your power’? It’s the same energy! You choose where to put it, and how to use it!
What if you choose to learn?
What if you choose to practice what you’ve learned?
This attitude will give you that sense of ‘empowerment’ and eventually you will feel powerful.
