Understanding and Using your Personal Power

“Understanding and Using

your Personal Power”

The first thing you need to understand about personal power is that there is no such thing as personal power. The idea itself is ludicrous as you will soon see. There is, however, Universal, Infinite, Impersonal power that is individually and personally expressed.

Have you ever thought of the air that you breathe as ‘your personal air’ as if it were an isolated volume of air that only you had access to? No, of course not. Air, as you know, is universal, belonging to no one and available to all.

I’m sure if people could, they would try and construct boundaries around air and call them ‘cloud countries’ or something and apply all sorts of restrictions and conditions upon them in order to prevent certain people from entering it and to ensure that those who are already within them behave in a way that keeps the majority reasonably safe and happy.

Come to think of it, we already do this as part of the international airspace boundaries that we claim! But I am talking about the more individual level at which we claim ownership such as ‘my house’ and ‘my land’ and ‘my car’ and ‘my child’. We are so obsessed with POSSESSING, WITH OWNING.

But the reason why we don’t do that with air is that we cannot see it. It’s not physically visible to us. If it were physically visible to us, I have no doubt that some people at least will want to claim ownership over it and make it exclusive. It’s what we do with virtually every physical thing.

The White Nile, for instance, which is part of the longest river on this planet, the Nile, is visible and flows through Africa. It flows through several countries and for a long time, Egypt has had monopoly over it as a result of some agreement granted by the British in the previous century. But other countries like Sudan need the water from the Nile and so they’ve been helping themselves while Egypt watches them like hawks, trying to decide how best to deal with this. It’s a tense situation.

It’s our problem when we need or want something and it happens to be visible. If it weren’t visible, we would find it too hard, if not impossible, to try and claim it as our own. But it doesn’t stop us from trying.

It’s what we do with love. We want love but it is invisible. Yet, we’re so desperate for it that we are willing to pretend that it comes in certain packages – the male form or the female form or the child form or the pet form. Sometimes, we can extend that sense of form to other things such as projects we undertake. You get what I mean?

We want something and if we can see and touch and feel it, then we want to possess it. And when we can’t see and touch and feel it, then we either substitute something else for it as we do with love or we don’t even think about it as we do with air.

So, this is what we do with power. We can’t see it or touch it or feel it, not in a physical sense anyway, but we believe that we have to possess it.

So it’s useful to ask: What is it that we feel and that we believe we must have and that we believe we can lose, that someone or something can take away from us?

What is this thing that we believe we sometimes have and we sometimes don’t? What exactly is this thing that we feel we must protect and guard jealously so that no one can take it from us? What is this thing that we call PERSONAL POWER?

Does it really exist or is this just some abstract psychological construct that we’ve all been duped into believing? That’s not so far fetched really. We did believe in the feminist movement, didn’t we, until we realized it was taking away some aspects of femininity and womanhood that we really didn’t want to give up, like looking ravishing and showing off the female body. A bit like throwing the baby out with the bath water.

And we did believe in free sex and so-called ‘free love’, at least those of us who may have been influenced by the hippy culture did. And then we found we really had too much jealousy and too little self-esteem to really live the ‘free sex and love’ construct.

So now we have this thing called PERSONAL POWER. Well, what on earth is it?

Power is like air. It is everywhere but you cannot see it. Power is the fuel of the universe. It belongs to no one but is available to everyone. It is there, it is here. If it were visible, you’d see it surging through you, around you. The nature of energy is power. POWER IS POTENTIAL – THE POTENTIAL TO DO WHATEVER WE CHOOSE TO DO WITH IT.

And when you penetrate the physicality of your body, you find energy. Right? And that energy is felt in so many different ways, depending on how its power, its potential is used. It can be used to create music or to make movies or to climb mountains or surf in the ocean or win tennis grand slams.

So what business have we got to talk about personal power? I mean, do you think that there is one kind of power for Lucy and another kind of power for Andrea and another for John? Where would these different powers have come from?

There are no different powers. We are dipping into the same source just as we are breathing air from the same universal atmosphere. There is only one power and it has only one source and that’s the first thing we need to understand about personal power. There isn’t any.

But here is what happens. That same power that we are all dipping into, including I might add, that the sun and the oceans and the animals and the mountains are all dipping into, is able to be used and expressed differently. But just because it can be used and expressed differently, doesn’t make the power mine or yours. Like the air, it belongs to no one. It is there for everyone, it is part of everyone and everything. It makes up everything and everyone.

Now, why is it so important to understand this? Why is it so critical that we understand that the power that we individually express belongs to no one? This is the reason:

When you understand that that power belongs to no one, you will understand why it cannot be given away or taken away or lost or gained. You can dip into that power at anytime. Actually, I should say, you can BECOME AWARE of that power at any time.

It is not as if that power is something you need to go and collect from time to time to top yourself up. That power is always present, everywhere. What you need to do is to BECOME AWARE OF IT.

Wow! Isn’t that a whole different way of seeing things. Can anyone take away your air or you take away theirs? No, because to start with, there is no such thing as your air. Besides, the air is always there, always. You just have to breathe. True?

Likewise, power is what propels the entire universe and everything in it. You cannot own it. But you can and you must become aware of it and when you do, then you can choose to express it in any way you like.

Nobody can take away your power because you don’t HAVE any to start with. But you yourself are an expression of power, a receptacle of power if you like. The power does not belong to you, no more than you could logically claim that the air in your lungs belongs to you and will always belong to you. That’s absurd. That air has passed through so many other people and animals and plants. That air is there in a universal, open container, if you like, for everyone and everything to use.

Imagine one of those beautiful retro glass jugs, burnt orange, if you like. Beautifully shaped and formed. Imagine it sitting in the sunlight, allowing the sunlight through. See how its colour and shape and form are so beautifully expressed by the sunlight? And see how the jug makes you aware of the sunlight too?

So it is with you and power. You are like the jug. If you too sit in the sunlight, in other words, if you are aware of the Infinite power and if you allow it through, then it will allow you to express your unique form, your particular beauty, your unique purpose. At the same time, by allowing it, you make others aware of it. They sense this Infinite, Universal and Impersonal power in you.

But I know it can be a little disconcerting at first, to think that there is no such thing as PERSONAL POWER. But when you think about it carefully, you’ll realize how EMPOWERING that really is.

No one can take your power away from you, no more than you can take theirs away. Just recognizing that can put an end to all the battles that we fight in our lives – battles over power.

I am your parent, so I have power over you.

She is my mother and she has power over me.

I have less money than you, therefore I have less power than you.

The bank has greater power than me.

She is famous and so she has much greater power than me.

He is the boss, so he has the power to hire or fire me.

I have cancer and I am in a battle with it. It seems to have more power over me at this stage.

None of the above is about power. All of it is about FEAR. And what us FEAR? It is a state of unawareness. Unawareness of Infinite, Universal Power.

All of the above expresses a false belief in something that does not exist – PERSONAL POWER. It is only through such a belief and such lack of awareness that we experience the fears that we have of one another.

You know, it is really interesting to consider what Jesus says to Pilate when Pilate asks him in frustration: Will you not answer me? Do you not see that I have the power to free you or to sentence you to death? To which Jesus says:

“You have no power other than the power that comes from my father”

Wow! Do you realize the import of that statement? Firstly Jesus says outright – You have no personal power. Can you see that that is what he means?

Next, he says – The only power you have comes from a Universal Source – the father, my father.

And finally, the fact that the power comes from a Universal source means that it is impersonal, infinite and equally available to all.

In saying that, Jesus is effectively saying – The Power that you claim to have is not yours but is of the one, universal, infinite and impersonal source.

Once you get over this belief in personal power that can be taken or given, lost or found, bought or sold, you can get on with the REAL and INFINITELY MORE EXCITING business of becoming aware of the power that surges through all of life and of CHOOSING how you use that power, how you express it.

Will you express it in angry outbursts? In self-defeating thoughts? In frustrations? Or will you remain unaware of it and to that extent, rely on someone else to give you power or to prop you up, to make you feel good and worthwhile?

You have to understand this: the best anyone can do, including the most well-intentioned person you may know, is to make you aware of this universal power. Nobody can give you power, no more than anyone can give you air.

So the real question for us today is not about how we can use our personal power but how we can best express the infinite, universal power that WE are all made of! And, in case you have forgotten, in most religious and spiritual traditions, that infinite, universal power is called LOVE.

So, the real question for us today is how do we best express LOVE? Doesn’t that change things around a bit? Doesn’t it shake it up a bit?

How can you express love in your work? In your relationships? In your society? How can you express it now? The best answer that I can give you is something that the wonderful Sufi poet, Rumi, said: It is not your business to find love. It is your business to seek and remove all the obstacles you have built in its path.

Oh wow. The universal power of love is always present, everywhere. If you do not feel it, it is because you have consciously, and mostly unconsciously, built walls of defenses against it.

The greatest and strongest walls we have built have been built with our BELIEFS! What beliefs are standing in the way of the POWER OF LOVE that would naturally and effortlessly express itself through you, as you?

Let me help you out here with some examples of beliefs that block the flow of the POWER OF LOVE.

I need you. I need this. I need that. No matter how real that need might feel, a belief in it obstructs the POWER OF LOVE within you. You were not born to feel needy. That would be the most ANTI-LOVE reason for your being here, wouldn’t you say? But you need food, you need shelter, you need money, right? How can you possibly be in power, in your true power when you make your happiness or wellbeing contingent upon some thing or someone else?

I cannot do this. I am no good at this. I am just not wired that way. That’s just how I am. That’s not who I am. How can we possibly be powerful when we let the past determine forever our future because that is what we are doing here. We are allowing past experiences, past beliefs, past conclusions, past self-images to continue to dictate how we will be in the future. How can we possibly be powerful when we do that? How are we allowing the limitless, infinite power of life to flow through us and express itself through us when we stop its flow with such limiting beliefs about ourself?

He/she really gets my goat. I just hate her behavior. He really knows how to push my buttons. Again, how are we being powerful when we let someone else’s behavior or personality determine our happiness or otherwise? How are we allowing the power of love that flows freely and indiscriminately to flow when we stand in its way with our limiting judgments and conclusions about others?

AND FINALLY – THE ALTERNATIVE I.E. LIVING POWERFULLY

There are no two ways about it. BECOME AWARE OF YOUR TRUE POWER, not with some concocted motivational, self-affirmation self-talk that you don’t believe. How can that possibly help you feel and express your power?

The key word here is BELIEVE. If anything, it makes you doubt even more the truth about your own power. No, become aware of it by tuning in to it and experiencing it. I can think of no better way than through meditation.

There are no BELIEFS needed to practice meditation. Just do it and experience whatever happens. There’s undeniable truth for you.

Some people use hypnosis and that can help but even that has its limitations if you are not clear about what limiting beliefs are blocking your access to INFINITE, UNIVERSAL POWER.

Some people use NLP and again that too has its limits, the limits being your BELIEFS.

At best, hypnosis and NLP can help introduce you to new beliefs and can help to change cognitive patterns. Personally, they are most helpful when used with meditation practice which gives you a chance to directly experience true POWER.

Meditation practice does not require you to believe anything. All you need to do is sit and allow yourself to fall naturally into your truth. Observe and experience it for yourself.

When you experience the truth of POWER, UNIVERSAL, INFINITE AND IMPERSONAL, you will have no trouble remaining powerful and living life from this place of power.

Love always,

Lucy

Mentoring for Self-Empowerment