Push away the negativity to regain your power

 

These days it seems that it isn't only the stock market and real estate market that has taken a nosedive.  It seems people - here and everywhere - are feeling a heavy weight dragging them down, dampening, even diluting their power - their power to find joy in the simple things and their power to achieve necessary and urgent things.  


If there was one thing I would wish for us this new year, it is that we would all - every single one of the 6.8 billion of us - to find joy and tap into that beautiful divine power within us.  So, how do we do it?  Yes, invite God into our hearts and lives, but maybe we have to do some spiritual detoxing at the same time to open the channel.  We have to remove the blocks of negativity we've internalized so we can tap into His greatness intended and waiting for us.


Every negative, critical, judgmental thought or word  puts a hole in your power bucket, creating a leak in your personal power fuselage.  

While many of us as children endured the heavy criticism and even severe discipline of overbearing parents, teachers or pastors, we found later in life that their criticism was not helpful in our quest for personal success.  When we were kids, many of us grew up under the heavy hand of perfectionist, success-oriented adults.  Maybe some of us learned something useful from that treatment, but others of us, in fact many of us, found their criticism and judgment oppressive and unhelpful.  We buckled under the burden of the criticism, we floundered spiritually, many of us were squashed and carried heavy burdens of guilt, a domineering sense of obligation to do things that we might never have wanted to do in the first place, and an inner sense of self condemnation throughout our lives.  

The psycho language for this may be that we silenced our inner child, or imprisoned our true self, and assumed the masks "they" wanted us to wear. We conformed because we were conquered.  Now, we must reach for freedom, autonomy and personal power. 

Obviously that set the stage for a complete loss of personal power.  But have we lost the way back to who we were always meant to be?  

I think not.  I think we can find our way back, but we have to be vigilant over the self-talk we engage in, what we hear every day coming at us from the television, radio, and other media.  We have to listen to the conversations we find ourselves engaged in.  We have to be very intentional about what we think about, say and do.  If someone is gossiping about someone, we must simply stop them and step away.  We have to surround ourselves with an awareness of intentional positivity in everything we say, do and think.

As we begin to realize that we are incredibly powerful divine beings (having a human experience) and all that deeply buried criticism has built blocks to our power, we need to be intentional and responsible for the spiritual clean-up in order to return to our original selves.  If we want to access our inner God-given birthright, our divine power, we need to choose to be conscious of our thoughts and words.  We need to think before we speak and even think before we think. 

That original emotional/spiritual/psychological injury all that criticism has left us with is an inability to tap our own power.  Many of us were even taught that God would judge us, that God would condemn us, that we had to follow the rules or we would be punished by God.  Today, we know that's the dark side of control and manipulation and is anything but divinely sent.  

We may only know that intellectually and may not have learned it well enough to know that we should not judge ourselves or others. All of us struggle against an inner voice that nags us to conform, to fit in, to be more successful, to please the boss or the loudest voice in our lives. We ALL have that inner voice.  Only the angels and gurus don't. I wonder if we could cancel it and replace it with a gentle loving voice that encourages us, gives us the wit and the fire to face our fears and surmount any adversarial challenges. 

We all struggle with some sense of disempowerment.  But, I bet if we had access to all our own innate, God-given power, we would be able to move mountains, heal the sick, raise the dead, maybe even tap our own amazing genius to find a cure for AIDS or alternatives to fossil fuel energy or have the wonderful wisdom to arrange for an end to the war in Afghanistan.  

It is really endless what we could do if we had access to all our innate power.  Sometimes power is associated with manipulation and the wrong use of power, but real power is creative, ingenius, loving, healing and relational.  Real power is expansive, generous and reaches out.  Dark power contracts, is selfish and robs. Dark power - the power of principalities and egotistical tyrannical despots - is actually rooted in a very weak and insecure person.  The braggart has to brag to convince himself and others that he's great.  A truly great person doesn't have that need. He is secure and is centered on a deep sense of personal value and loveability. 

So, for most of the world - those who struggle just to make ends meet - we wonder, "how could our lives be different?"  We all seem to share this sense that "things" are getting worse, the economy is sucking us all down and we feel as if we're falling fitfully in midair without parachutes.  

I don't know how you are coping with things, but it seems that by focusing completely on God, depending completely on God, and intentionally choosing to stay away from anything negative - which obviously means no television, no gossip, no to those who whine and complain is the best way to begin to seal up our power leaks and to regain a sense of personal autonomy over our lives.  Regaining our personal power might just begin right there in that decision to do that.  And then, as we choose to steer away from power-draining negativity, we can equally choose to draw closer to what is lovely, good, encouraging, creative and beautiful. Exercising the choice itself is the beginning of empowerment.

I have learned to really hear that little voice that sneaks up on me from time to time to criticize or judge me, to drag me down.  I have taught myself to be very watchful for it and to steer my consciousness away from it.  I refocus my thoughts, reclaim my right as a child of God to center on and in God's great love. I choose to recall God's unconditional, all powerful, all creative, passionate love for me - and for YOU!!!  

In that moment of recollection, I choose heaven over whatever is tempting me to fall down into the pit of powerlessness.  It is a choice.  We are always making it, but the point here is to make it intentionally and consciously rather than default into powerlessness because we weren't paying attention.

If we can keep our minds focused on God's unconditional, always forgiving, always accepting love, and take a deep breath and draw into our minds and hearts that awareness and that love, we will begin to experience a change.  We will stand a little taller, we will be more intentional about what we say, do and think.  We will smile a lot more, take a little more time to love others, maybe even volunteer in the community in a way that taps (and supports and reinforces) your skills (and your self-esteem). 

I think what will happen, maybe slowly at first, is we will experience a gradual process of empowerment.  We will begin to seal up the leaks in our personal power fuselage. Since it is filled by God, as we invite God to fill us with His love and power, we will grow stronger, more powerful, more creative, more ingenius, more loving and more successful at reaching our goals.  Then, with a little bit more gas in our tanks, what we focus on will receive a stronger dose of our now heightened, more powerful conscious intent.  Then, we will see change, we will feel more alive and the successful accomplishment of our goals, hopes and dreams.

As New Year's draws closer, this is high on my list of new resolutions - to stay focused more intentionally on what I am thinking, saying and doing and to surrender more and more in all the big and little ways, my moments and my days to God's awesome power and love.