These two words, power and struggle, are joined together in conversations every day.  In our daily lives, we constantly hear this phrase and, worse, we may oftentimes say it aloud as well.  Caution when using idioms:

Words matter.

Language is important.

Clarity is critical.

Does the coupling of the words “power”  and “struggle” serve to describe an actual situation?  Or does it, instead, perpetuate a false, and harmful, paradigm, or a perceived situation?  Placed together, in direct sequence, the nuance of the pair of words creates a conditioned distortion.  The defining modification of “struggle”, in this phrase, has trained us to view the concept of power from a defensive, and perhaps confrontational, perspective.  Let us look at power, by itself, in a different way.

Define power.  Power is considered a measure of influence.  I refer to this definition first because it quite often is the first definition humans are apt to recognize.  Ironically, this is the very paradigm that leads to the aforementioned “condition”.

Remember that power also can refer to strength.  Athletes are considered especially powerful because of their advanced physicality and their ability to create superior momentum and endurance.  Additionally, we can look at a scientific definition. In the area of physics, power is defined as a rate. This rate applies to mathematical processes and other forms of “work”.

Finally, we have a direct application of power as it relates to humans–creation.  Mentioned last, but not at all considered least.

Once defined, we ask.

• Power has a source.  What is it? Where can it be found?  Where is it generated? Was it a one time gift and once relinquished it’s gone forever?  As a spiritual person, with reverence to God, I say power is a gift which is embedded within ourselves on all levels of our being.  Spiritual power, physical strength, creative energy, and emotional guidance are all within and around us as souls with bodies.  Think about source as a channel. This attitude creates a feeling of continuous flow, output, input, repeated cycles, directional endowment, etc.  It’s all about the flow. And we arrive fully charged.

• “Take back” is quite a directive.  It confirms the notion that someone has taken something away from you in the first place. Perhaps we should not be teaching people to take back something that was never lost.  Perhaps we should not be conditioning people to believe that someone else can interrupt and undermine the benevolent flow of source, as established in item #1 above. Those who wish to help others re-empower themselves, may be the most destructive disempowering force of all.  Through use of disempowering language, and the confirmation through conditioning, some are, either consciously or unconsciously, supporting a false paradigm.

• Is one person’s power something that another can wield, to the advantage of the latter?  Or, rather, is the disempowering of another the only methodology for dominance? Thus one needs only convince another.  If one simply believes personal power has been seized by another, then one becomes, effectively, powerless.

• The belief that we give our power away now places a particular onus upon the giver.  It is unlikely that your power will be voluntarily returned to you by the one you so generously bequeathed it to.  The teaching goes–you must take it back. But, who among us when striving for strength of morality would strip another of something so important?  Thus an unwillingness to retrieve power may emerge

These musings are meant to complement Chapter 9 of Pray Without Ceasing, Essays and Godwinks.  Within that essay, we journey from practicality, to the esoteric, from psychic parasites to Buddhist Tara Let us look at power from all angles.  That particular section in Pray Without Ceasing was an introduction to self empowerment.  I concede that, within the essay entitled Empowerment, I did mention that people often unwittingly choose to give their power away.  Now, let us consider that we never really gave it away to begin with, because we now understand that it is not possible for us to do so.

Can we please stop talking about power as something we give and take, pass around, and fight over? Instead, power is a resource–all about supporting each other as each of us develops, balances, and enjoys our own power and the power of others.  Think strength, momentum, rate of process….let’s get to work!

Comment, please, and tell me your thoughts…

With great love,

Robin

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