This morning at the beginning of my stand I was overwhelmed by a feeling of powerlessness. It's a familiar feeling and one i don't acknowledge very often. I spend much of my day driven by this power, and driven by the reflex to avoid it.
It is this feeling of powerlessness that convinces me that an extra ten pounds is an insurmountable barrier that I will never overcome. It is this feeling of powerlessness that convinces me that I am destined for poverty and keeps me underemployed. It is this feeling of powerlessness that undermines the efforts that I make to contribute to the world. It is this feeling of powerlessness that blocks me from using my talents to help other people live better lives.
The first step towards disempowering it is to accept it.
What does that mean? I can accept it for today. Don't try and change it with all kinds of plans for bringing power into my life. Not today. This feeling of powerlessness has been my companion all my life, it's not going to disappear overnight, if it disappears at all. It's like a member of my family. And it's not necessarily a bad member. There are things we are powerless over in life. Death, aging, etc. Accepting powerlessness can be liberating. There must be something about it I enjoy or I wouldn't be so attached to it.
But there is power in accepting powerlessness. This morning I felt it. I stayed with it and then of course, inevitably I began to feel the power building in me, the flow of chi and energy and strength. The feeling of powerlessness cannot be sustained once accpeted, because it is also part of reality that we have great and abundant power to change the life we have while we are alive and the lives of others.
Too often we don't see that because we're so busy fighting our powerless over the things we can't change.
