20/01/2022
The power of empowerment
I was reminded by a client today about what standing in your power really means and brings. Generating self empowerment and belief is a fairly key tenet of coaching. We talked through how he knew he was holding himself back, and how things would look and feel if he were acting in his power. By not doing so, he was denying the world of his gifts and talents to lead and to heal.
In the simplest of terms, it’s a way of being that allows us to expand, to do and be what we love (even if they scare us), to offer our real gifts and selves to the world. It’s a feeling we can generate, of strength, resilience, integrity. It creates forward momentum and frees us to tap into our potential.
Empowerment incorporates self belief, and acting on that belief - yes I am good enough to offer my paid services/go for that promotion/stand up for myself. We can tap into this if we notice we feel disempowered, knowing that each of us truly do hold inside the keys to our own power. Disempowerment feels like questioning ourselves, holding ourselves back or having numerous conditions in place before we can move forward. If you catch yourself in unhelpful thoughts, you can always choose differently, asking yourself what acting in a more empowered way would look like right now.
I am a great believer in acting “as if”. We all lack self confidence sometimes, doubt ourselves, compare to others, suffer perfectionism or imposter syndrome. Interestingly, acting “as if” you already truly believe in yourself and are empowered is as good as the real thing. Our brains don’t actually know the difference. One small step, one small win, and we begin to create new pathways for being and behaving. Our systems get rewarded when we act “as if” there is nothing stopping us, take a more powerful stance, and this helps short circuit us to repeating this behaviour. The first small step is to know what empowerment truly looks like for you, and allow it to open up the possibilities for feeling and behaving differently this generates.
These changes aren’t necessarily instant or always easy to carry out, but they can and do happen if you are willing to do the work. The rewards are vast, as vast as human possibility. Now more than ever we need creators, leaders, healers, people willing to stand up and show up. We all need greater empowerment, and while this takes courage, it also brings courage; a brilliant feedback loop that benefits us and the world we live in. If we don’t show up now, then when?
(Photo of a beautiful sunset on Brighton beach - being by the ocean helps me feel my own power as well as connect to the vastness of the universe!)