“Our fear of misusing our power can block us from acknowledging that we can be powerful because we think that by using our power we hurt others. It isn’t possible for us to hurt anyone because everyone is sovereign in their own life and everyone has equal access to power. What they, and we, do with their power is a choice and everyone chooses differently.” J Hoffman
As I was driving my car last week I had a flashback to my first car, which did not have power steering. I don’t think you can buy a car without power steering today, but a few decades ago it was a fairly expensive option that was available on luxury car models. Without power steering you really had to turn the wheel, with both hands, to negotiate tight turns. But moving to power steering means you have to remember the power is there and not work so hard to steer or you will oversteer the car and create more problems. Power, by itself, is not very useful and we need to activate our power action formula to feel and be powerful in a manageable, effective, heart-ful way.
I remember the first time I drove a car with power steering, and how I would always oversteer because I was so used to having to turn the wheel so hard. This makes me think of the path we have been on and how much it has changed. We now have access to more of our power but we’re still not used to it, so we oversteer, work too hard, think too much, and create more work for ourselves. We’re powered up but not quite used to our power and yet, throughout this journey, it has been the only consistent thing we had available to us, even if we thought it was an expensive, limited and exclusive option. But by itself, power isn’t effective by itself, we need to activate our power action formula, which is the combination of power, courage, intention, and action.
I received a wonderful testimonial from someone who worked with my book, 30 Days to Everyday Miracles. The first lesson is ‘You are Powerful’ and the reader wrote ‘when I read the first lesson I cried because I have felt so powerless in my life.’ Knowing that she was powerful allowed her to change her life but with that knowledge she realized that she also had to take action, create some intentions for the energy flow, and draw on her courage to see her through the process. Accessing power requires knowledge; using power requires courage; intention provides direction and focus, and action creates movement, and they all work together.
Without courage, which is applying heart energy, power becomes a tool for domination and control. Without power, action takes the form of wishful thinking and hoping, without the means to turn dreams into reality. And without intention we’re wandering around blindly in the dark, no direction or focus for our power, courage, or action. But we can’t do any of these things when we’re afraid of our power.
So much of our fear around power comes from past lives where we may have misused our power. While that may not be where we are today, in other lifetimes we have been both the abuser and the abused, the aggressor and the victim. Our fear of misusing our power can block us from acknowledging that we can be powerful because we think that by using our power we hurt others. It isn’t possible for us to hurt anyone because everyone is sovereign in their own life and everyone has equal access to power. What they, and we, do with their power is a choice and everyone chooses differently.
We activate the potential of our power formula when we decide we want to make a change or transform some part of our life. Then we either waste our power by trying to oversteer or thinking too much about the details instead of setting intentions for the outcome we want and allowing it to guide us into channeling our energetic resources to help it manifest. Whatever we do, the power is always there for us, it is a consistent and constant presence in our energy field. When we know that, we can focus our attention on the other aspects of our power formula, courage, intention, and action, while shining our light to illuminate our path and create the best possible, powerful and empowered outcomes for ourselves.
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