IT’S TIME TO CHANGE THE POWER PARADIGM….
How to claim your power in 3 simple steps
I am a woman who has been working with women for many years – and I’ve been on the front lines as we moved out of our homes and into the big, wide male dominated world. Yes, much has changed. But much has stayed the same. I’m speaking particularly about power and its relationship to our sense of who we really are. I’m always amazed about the ambivalence – even fear – that we feel about it.
For most women POWER is a word loaded with negative connotations. It doesn’t belong to us. As though on some level we just don’t believe we can be powerful women and compassionate, loving wives, mothers, friends and co-workers. And even when we are actually doing just that we feel guilty – even ashamed.
All this is despite a half-century of the women’s movement! Despite the examples set by women Senators, Prime Ministers and corporate heads. Despite all the books we’ve read about the Divine Feminine, and the Great Goddess and the Woman Warrior. Yes, we’ve moved out into the world and assumed positions of power – yet at some deep, personal level we haven’t addressed our fundamental issues about it. In our heart of hearts it seems we don’t really believe that ‘power’ and ‘woman’ relate to each other, much less hang out together.
Why? What is it about power that we simply do not connect to?
I asked myself – what does power, the word itself – mean to me? And in an instant my mind was flooded by images of tanks grinding down a street somewhere in Syria.
I asked my women clients the same thing – and their answers weren’t so very different than mine. The word carries the weight of wars, aggression, power politics, guns, dominance, muscle. It’s almost wholly male. And it’s scary.
No wonder we don’t want to claim it – and feel guilty when we do.
The power paradigm is lousy! And it needs to be changed…
So, as women, let’s rethink the whole idea of Power and redefine its meaning. We owe it to ourselves – and we’d be doing the world a big favor.
Let’s suppose that power has nothing to do with weapons and aggression and muscle – nothing to do with male or female. Let’s suppose that power is something that belongs to all of us, innately – only we never realized it because it’s buried under all our assumptions about it. Let’s suppose that power has a special place inside us where we can actually, literally connect to it. That might sound delusional – but, in fact, it’s true. You can do just that.
Here’s how.
Find your Center
• Place your hands over your abdomen, below your navel, above your pubic bone. Imagine of sphere of energy behind your hands. This place, this sphere, is your center. In Eastern traditions it’s considered the storage place of psychic energy. Physiologically, it is your center of gravity.
Connect to your Power
• Gravity is the force that holds the universe together. Your center is the point at which you align with that force. Connect to your center – and you’re connected to cosmic energy – and it’ yours. How powerful is that?
Connect to yourSelf – the real You.
• You’re centered: now it’s time to meet this powerful You. Ask yourSelf who she is, really. Define her. What words come to mind? Over the years I’ve heard lots of women say lots of different things: fierce, direct, funny, intelligent, focused, grounded, loving, creative, strong, compassionate, shy – but I have never ever heard one negative connotation. Never heard any doubt this wasn’t the truth about who they really are. Never heard any fear expressed about what would happen if this newly defined sense of power was claimed and brought it out into the world.
So it turns out that when we find center, we find out what power really means. And it has nothing to do with male of female, or muscles or weapons or dominance. Power is simply who we really are. It is embedded in the center of our deepest ‘Self.’ And our deepest Selves are unbelievably powerful.
This ‘power’ is not an intellectual idea to be debated, but an experience to be shared. And if we could all live by this paradigm, sharing the experience, eventually the whole idea of power and its exercise would be transformed. And the whole world could breathe a sigh of relief.
And we would never feel guilty about being powerful again!
Amen to that…..
Jana Titus is a life coach, yogi, integrative and intuitive healer, guide and inspirer who been helping people live fuller, more energetic, pain-free, creative and happy lives for over 30 years. Jana shares her wisdom, intuition, coaching knowledge and yoga understanding in private sessions in person or by phone and in groups and through tele-seminars. She has taught seminars and workshops throughout Europe and the US. She lives and practices in New York City. For more information visit janatitus.com.
