Power or Force?

" Reclaiming the authentic self and developing character are essential tasks in the second half of life. Congruence within our nature fosters authenticity. Acting with integrity is the practice that brings us into alignment and congruence."



~ Angeles Arrien, The Second Half of Life

For so long I was afraid to really know my own power, afraid that expressing it or even showing it was dangerous, that something unsafe would happen to me or that I would lose those closest to me. But power is a realm. And we breathe it in all the time; it permeates the ethers. Yet when we are afraid of that which is equally everywhere present, we try to control it through some fabrication of our own thinking. When we do this with power, it becomes force.

Force can express as domination, but also as withdrawal or shyness or aquiescence - any form of manipulation. The force can be expressed externally or directed more internally, when we inhibit ourselves from true and authentic expression.

When we stand in the psychological vantage point of power, we stand in the clarity of our compassionate commitment to humanity, unthreatened by another's perspective. We radiate impersonal centeredness from this source of our own integrity. We become magnets for other's integrity, and power - through us - elicits clarity from others, where before confusion lived.

The realm of power is actually the safest place to stand.

Force is rigid, brittle, and therefore an expression of weakness.

True power is formidable in its gentleness and therefore irresistable, an expression of strength.

Force is fear.
Power is Love.

~ ten thousand blessings to you ~