Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Empowerment: a Drive-thru Mentality?

" Growing into one's personal power does not happen overnight. It is an evolutionary process that encompasses observation, reflection, letting go, decision making, developing commitments, accepting validation, taking action and experiencing the success of responsible choices."
~ Cheryl A Maloney, " Reinterpreting Power"

Inherent power is something we all possess and indeed, we grow into it as we become more aware of its existence and it's voice. It is a process. It's interesting to me just how many people will leap to embrace their power in an external fashion, claiming in a loud, booming voice that they have rights, when they avoid or deny the existence of the inner work needing to be done to truly claim that power within.

We are a society of instantaneous results. We want a 'pill' to make it all better, we want our food already made for us at the drive up window and we want our power to be instant. We don't want to do any work to get it- just hurry up and 'hand it to me' on a silver platter. Going at hyper speed and living in the future does not foster a sense of empowerment. It throws us into the future, always speeding to stay ahead of the quiet voice within. Think about our society of fast food joints, caffiene addictions and super highways. If you're going too fast you'll speed right by the exit and miss out on your destination.

Empowerment is a process and requires a commitment from within. Slowing down and being at one with your inner voice is a good place to start. "... experiencing the success of responsible choices..", means taking the bull by the horns and owning responsibility for our actions and choices. It also means owning our power...


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