Investing in the journey towards empowerment

All you have to do today is walk through the self help section of a western book store and you will most likely see “empowered” stamped all over. And yes, whilst we do all know that empowered means to be somewhat in one’s power, to own your power, to be at one with your power, to be “powerful” as a human being. Or, however we want to talk about it. Are these not just words? Do we really know what to be empowered means? Doesn’t it make sense to talk about this?

Have we really yet mastered what it means to be living as an empowered person? Or maybe the question should be, have we really even defined what it means to be living an empowered life?

I feel led to write an article about this because it seems easy for a word to become a “feel good” keyword of the time, and for it to be slipped into our vocabulary and repeated over cocktails with girlfriends as a way of affirming who we are, and written as part of our intentions for the coming year “To become more empowered”.

Don’t get me wrong, I think this is all great, and it’s really really wonderful to be talking about being empowered, and I am really really glad we are talking about it as a statement today, as it sets the wheels in motion for it to keep happening.

However I do feel the need to go a little deeper, without getting too crazy deep, so that we can be aware of, well basically if we are really “living” empowerment or if we are simply talking about it and then walking around with goggles on and not applying it to our whole lives.

It’s kind of similar to reading a self help book and being totally inspired by it, and then not really applying the concepts in your life.

It’s easy to convince yourself of the former i.e. that inspired  means“applying” (believe me I have been there, and once again NOT dissing self help book as I think there are many awesome ones out there). When we describe being empowered in our lives we may see this as a result of making our own decisions, earning our own money and not being dependant on anyone else, or working towards this reality, and generally being responsible for our lives and making things happen..

There is just another aspect I need to mention, this topic reminds me of the Pocahontas song I keep singing in the shower, “If you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you learn the things you never knew you never knew”. In my experience empowerment is something that needs to be pursued in a very trusting way, it’s like going into the unknown. I know my feelings of empowerment are much stronger than they were a few years ago, and I am so glad I trusted myself to keep growing. Now I am experiencing feelings of power that I never thought possible, because I hadn’t learnt it from anyone, I simply didn’t know it was possible, even though I had read about “being empowered” it didn’t make sense to me until I grew into it myself, and I am sure there are still things “that I don’t know that I don’t know”. I arrived at where I am today through sheer gut instinct and trusting that somehow there were more breakthroughs that needed to be made, and that they would be well worth the investment.

When I think about what coaching is all about, and why I am so passionate about it., I relate it a lot to this topic. When you make the decision to hire a coach, it’s about setting a goal and achieving it but it is so much more than that. It is a magical process of going into the unknown. It is full of surprises and turning unexpected corners, whilst realising that it is a complete investment in yourself and the world around you. It is a journey towards finding your own light, and that’s what being empowered means for me.

As Marianne Williamson says “As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same”. As we evolve into our power, we are reaching new heights and inspiring other people to do the same, we are creating excitement and possibility for those around us.  We are shifting paradigms and opening up doorways.

So empowerment is so much more than you could ever think it is, it is a world of exploration and of infinite potential. Commit to going down that road of trust and you will be constantly amazed. I know I am!!

Books related to empowerment that you need to read are:

A return to Love -Marianne Williamson

The answer is simple – Sonia Choquette