Carolyn Myss, a brilliant medical intuitive and prolific writer, in her book called, Why people Don’t Heal, talked about how often our spirits are disconnected from our bodies.  We are doing laundry or putting in hours of work and our spirits are off feeding old traumas or ruminating about how so-and-so is not doing what we want or worrying about the future.  She says to heal we need to call our spirits back, because without our spirits we cannot be cured.

I find this idea fascinating and have begun to notice a similar thing in terms of personal power.  Sometimes I don’t feel aligned with my internal strength and the plethora of wisdom that resides within me.  My thoughts are off chasing some area of my past that hasn’t gone my way or are focused on tomorrow’s perceived worries.  Or I feel overwhelmed and cranky because my life feels like it is spiraling around me and I am not in charge.  In this state I tend toward impulsive actions like defending myself or relying on old habits of exerting my will.  The problem is these sorts of ego-based actions usually leave me feeling powerless and often feeling worse then before.

Luckily, self-awareness continues to bring me back, and I recognize the need to reconnect with my innate authority.  I have found cultivating it through physical practices is a great place to start.

Being present in my body through meditation and physical exercise directly connects me back to feeling empowered.  Whether it is sitting cross-legged or hiking up a steep hill, the sensation of energy flowing energizes me.  I notice this feeling of expansive openness and being anchored to the earth through my feet or sit bones.  I watch my mind and find a way to flow with it in a flexible way without attachment but just drifting and noticing.  In this space I feel able to do what Myss calls,”call my spirit home.”

By cultivating an awareness of the feeling empowered in my body, it helps me cultivate a state that I can later come back and access this feeling of power.  So when I am spiraling with obsessive thinking or perceiving myself powerless in certain situations, it isn’t easy always easy to recognize how I am giving my power away.  But as I continue to cultivate awareness, I notice being out of alignment and can work on returning to the inner state of empowerment I practice.  This empowered state has the potential to erode the story so I can uncover the wise powerful part of me.

It seems that empowerment feels connected to taking charge of our thoughts and feelings.  Does taking charge mean not giving them too much power? Allowing them to surface without intensely believing them?  By doing this we are able to stay nimble and open to action that aligns with compassion and grace.

The exciting thing about tapping into personal power is it allows you to become the trail boss of own reality.  This space energizes my body and there is space for creative combustion and inspiration.  This doesn’t mean I won’t encounter challenges, heartache, healing and face hard aspects of myself because this is normal life unfolding.  But being in power in the midst of the challenges gives me limitless access to strength.