How to harness your power now
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Today I am thinking about power, and about feeling powerless.
We have enormous personal power — even if it is not unlimited.
I strive to connect to my personal power each day, and I support my clients to embrace and step into their power.
That may be the the most fundamental way we live big.
What does personal power look like?
We claim our power when we show up fully and authentically. We are able to be vulnerable. We show the world who we are, without fear of judgment.
We claim our power when we identify, and then commit to living our values.
We connect to our truth by slowing down and going deep into our hearts. We then speak our truth without second-guessing ourselves.
We live with love as the driver, letting love inform all of our decisions, actions, and interactions.
We take bold action — even when we do so quietly.
We create the best next step to take all day, every day — even when our options are limited or look bleak.
In all of these ways, we exercise personal power.
Our personal power can be put to the test
The Supreme Court decision last week has taken away the right to abortion for millions of people in our country. We knew it was coming. And yet when the news of the ruling arrived, and as we have started to closely look at the way it was written, many of us feel shock and fear.
This is unjust, and contrary to the way the majority of Americans feel about this crucial right.
Add to that the prospect of losing other rights that we have had for years and decades, stripping us of liberty and choice. This compounds the emotions of anger, dread, fear and powerlessness that many of us are processing.
We are being robbed of personal power to make life-changing decisions about our bodies and our futures.
Many are struggling to know what to do.
What can we do when we feel powerless?
Start with creating a foundation that will support you.
1. Feel the emotions
Strong emotions can feel frightening. Whether the fear or anger are so intense you are concerned they may explode, or you are inclined to push the emotions away because they are so big, I invite you to sit with what you feel. Do some writing. Walk out tension in nature. Draw the feelings you feel, or dance the emotions out to music that will move them through you.
Some way of “exercising” your emotions will help you to make your best decisions about what to do next.
2. Speak with like-minded people
This is not the time to isolate yourself. When you engage with others new ideas and possibilities come more quickly. As well, the possibilities of positive action are greater when we collaborate with others.
3. Learn all you can
It is important to be fully informed about the impact of the ruling and related issues — the real toll, the real risks, to real lives.
Next, marshal all of the power at your disposal.
Specific ways we can use our power now
If you share my views in this moment, I invite you to consider these ways to use your power now.
We each have the power to support candidates for office whose values align with your own. That support can include financial donations, phone banks, postcard campaigns, and more.
We each have the power to identify candidates who stand for the liberties we believe are the right of every citizen.
We each have the power to help elect such candidates to local, state and national offices.
In addition to our power to vote, we have the power to help like-minded people everywhere get mobilized to vote, and help to get them to the polls on election days — in our towns, cities and states, and in locations across the country.
We each have the power to use our voices, in one-on-one conversations, at rallies, and on many platforms where we connect to others. (This inspiring article shows what one artist created to help people do that in great numbers.)
We each have the power to support organizations that are focused on helping women to safely access abortion care — especially if they must travel to get that care.
We can all take action and create change
Our collective power has proven to be formidable in the past, and can be now.
We must take action on many fronts.
None of us has to do it all, and we certainly are stronger together than when we act alone.
We can prepare ourselves emotionally, commit to playing our part, and find people and organizations with whom to partner. Together our action will lead to solutions.
As we look ahead to the holiday weekend when we will celebrate the birth of our nation and the liberty it promised, we are aware that liberty was not declared for all when the Declaration of Independence was drafted. As a result of dedicated effort, some gaps were filled over time.
A most important liberty has now been taken away, and this decision is cruelly aimed at women.
We are being called to use our power and stand for personal liberty for all.
Let’s stand together.
