Continuing our exploration into the nature and sources of power…let’s talk about the relationship between power and control.
Power is one of the qualities of your soul. You were born with the quality of power pulsing through every cell of your body. It is what enabled you to make the journey from formlessness into form, from essence into incarnation. Without power, you would not exist.
So power is within you, always, just as it is within all forms of creation. Look out your window. That tree, with its bright green leaves, that squirrel scurrying through the grass, that blue sky, those scudding clouds — they all exude power, because each is an expression of spirit in the material world. And spirit can only become matter through the activity of power.
Power remains vibrantly alive in the natural world, where it is renewed through organic cycles and seasonal processes. It’s the reason why walking in the woods, climbing a mountain, swimming in the ocean, working in your garden, lying on a beach and looking up at the stars in the night sky can leave you feeling replenished, deeply rested, as powerful as a planet.
When you consciously connect with it, the natural world lends you its power, and helps you restore your own.
And yet, in the daily rub of life and work, of growing and caring for your business, your family, your body, your home, it’s easy to become disconnected from your soul, and with it, from the source of your power. When your website is hacked, or your child is ill, or that project you’ve poured your heart into doesn’t pan out, you can feel defeated, powerless, at the mercy of forces beyond your control.
There’s the rub. We mistake control for power, and become discouraged when we encounter what we cannot control. The truth is, life has its own rhythm and timing, its own inner logic and flow. We have very little control over what happens around us. But, we do have power.
We are powerful, when we choose to be.
Nelson Mandela used the long years of his imprisonment to develop inner power and freedom. So did Viktor Frankl, in Nazi death camps. They did this by choosing their state of consciousness — they chose clarity, peace, truth, freedom. They chose to meet the fist of brutality with the immense power of the human spirit.
Power is the active form of Love. Control, on the other hand, is powerlessness masquerading as power.