Finding Power in Our Powerlessness
The truth is we really don’t have to be in control of everything.
Please read that sentence again and again and again because more and more and more I am witnessing so much anxiety and fear across social media.
No wonder, with the horrors of the world that we are exposed to on a daily basis. It is horrific what is happening in so many places around the world.
Which is exactly why I want you to read this sentence again, you do not have to be in control of everything.
Emphasis on the ‘everything’…because taking on the problems of the world is a very, very heavy burden for any of us to bear. Especially when we are largely powerless to stop the atrocities at hand.
This is not a nihilist statement either. Without first acknowledging our powerlessness we cannot access our real power. Powerlessness is not weakness and the greatest power we have is in our personal power.
There is tremendous power in admitting our powerlessness.
In chapter four of my book Outrunning Your Emotions I breakdown what our personal power is. I’ve also spoken about it on Instagram in this post and this post.
Too often we are denying our powerlessness in an effort to be strong or from a place of guilt for our privilege instead of gratitude. We are operating as if we can control everything and it is draining us.
Not only that, but it’s not creating the positive solutions we want to see in the world because we cannot do that from a depleted, disempowered state.
I want you to envision a battery. Every time we give our energy to something we cannot control, the battery is drained. When we give our energy to the things we can control the battery is replenished.
For example, not processing your emotions depletes our energy very, very quickly. Denying what we feel, suppressing, hiding it. All I the name of being….”strong”?
Who told you that you needed to be strong? You are a human. You need to be a human. Things are going to shake us and that is okay. There are going to be things outside of our control. There are going to be things we cannot do anything about no matter how much we wish we could. This doesn’t mean something is wrong with us. It means we are human.
We need to give ourselves grace. We need to give ourselves a break!
We all have limitations over what we can control and there is power in acknowledging our powerlessness by saying, “I am powerless over this thing. There is nothing I can do about this thing,” you are actually demonstrating how powerful you are.
Contrary to what you might think, that doesn’t mean we give up. It means we stop draining the battery and with that energy we’ve preserved we can look at directing our energy in ways that make a difference for our communities.
When we stop taking on the problems of the world to carry fully on our shoulders we can use our energy to ask for help.
Seeking support with the burdens that are too much to carry ourselves.. that is exercising our power. It’s not a bad thing to admit our limitations. Ignoring our capacity is what leaves us feeling powerlessness. It depletes us.
What we are saying when we admit to not being about to do it all is, “I am worthy of care.” Only by believing that can we start to be cared for.
The world cannot heal until each of us finds our power and team up to contribute our unique strengths. The way we find our power is by focusing on what we can control, and by honoring our emotions, and by honoring our powerlessness.
We have to honor it. We have to be willing to remember that we are worthy of care, and we have to be willing to stand up, raise our hands, and ask for that care and keep asking.
And it is not selfish to ask for care because of what you’re going through. We don’t need to be comparing our personal struggles to what’s happening to somebody else. All of our struggles are valid, and all of us deserve care.
The reason that we are all given different gifts is to be able to help each other and care for each other in our unique way. Not in the way someone tells us to care. We have our own unique ways of exercising our power. We can team up, we can pair up, and we can help each other.
Please stop ignoring your powerlessness. Please remember you are only human and you cannot control everything. Put your energy into what you can control with your unique gifts and strengths and let others do the same.
It is okay to admit that you don’t feel very strong because it is through admitting that, that you are showing yourself so much love. You are refueling that personal power battery and that energy is required to see change in your life and in our world.
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