Who’s got the power? You’ve got the power….

I love going to a variety of power meetings and marketing classes. It’s a great way to meet people and learn interesting new ideas at the same time. Often, these get-togethers are pretty predictable while others are full of surprises. 

I had one of those surprises a few weeks ago at a marketing class for women. It was a great class, full of terrific information. Just when I thought we were going to wrap things up, the facilitator invited us to participate in a little bit of visualization. The practice of visualization is very effective, and something I often use in my Feldenkrais classes. After all, if you can imagine it, you can become it. Or, what we believe is what we become.  

She had us close our eyes and think of a woman we admired and respected–a woman who was strong and powerful. Then she recited a list of very public and high-profile women that we might want to choose from. She lost me right then, because I didn’t respect or admire any of the ones on her list. Besides, I thought she meant women that we knew personally, rather than those who were rich and famous, especially since several woman in my circle of friends fit that description perfectly.    

Next, she instructed us to imagine we were one of those women, and that we had their power. Uh-oh. I didn’t like the sound of that. I didn’t want to pretend to be someone else, even just for a few minutes. And I certainly did not want (or need) somebody else’s power. I have enough of my own, thank you. And so did every woman in that room. But perhaps they didn’t know it yet.  

I opened my eyes and took a sneak peek at the rest of the women in the room. They all had their eyes closed and had dreamy expressions on their faces as imagined they were one of those famous ladies. The speaker had us think about how these women would walk, talk, enter a room, the clothes she would wear, etcetera. She encouraged us to imagine ourselves walking, talking, and moving in the exact same way, so we could imitate them and have their power. Yikes!

It’s important for women to feel empowered. But, they have to find the source of their own power, deep within themselves, rather than trying to find it through somebody else. I thought about my Feldenkrais training and all of the many gifts I received and important lessons I learned from this remarkable method. The most valuable lesson was how to be true to myself as I discovered my own power along the way. It was an incredibly liberating (and powerful) experience.   

All of us have an innate strength and power that most of us don’t even realize. We need find it for ourselves. Trying to find it by imitating someone else, or through hero worship results in sacrificing our own power and handing it over to them.  We each need to be the woman that we admire and respect–our own true self. That’s pretty powerful in itself and a positive message that we can give ourselves. Remember, what we believe is what we become.   

So, find your power, and let your light shine through. Yours is more powerful than anybody else’s, because it will come from your heart. And please don’t be afraid to share it with the world. We can all use a little more light in our lives.