True Power is Evolutionary Power

Musings by Dr. Julia Colwell

Facet #3 of evolutionary power is “discovering your true power.”

Instead of the old paradigm of Power Over/Power Under, at the EPI we understand that our true power results from living in integrity, understanding how we create our own experience, and taking 100% responsibility for our lives. In this month’s blog, Dr. Colwell uses this model to look at current events, and as a way to understand how to regain our own sense of empowerment.

Your presence is your power.
Your presence is your freedom.
Your presence is your happiness.

–Sarah Blondin

Once again, we have a world stage where power and control are the main performers.

We witness tanks rolling, buildings turned into rubble, people dying or uprooted from their lives. Politicians argue, with the “strongest” man using his people’s perceived victimization to justify whatever destruction he deems appropriate to even the score.

As leaders push—and push back—battling for their will to be expressed, it’s clear that, in fact, for a time, someone typically does win. It might be the winning of a battle, or taking over a city, or the fleeting moment of righteousness gained by arguing the better perspective. But we know what comes next. Resistance always flares in response to the initial incursion. The glitter of the win erodes into the ongoing slog of pushing and pulling people to do what they don’t want to do..

Through the lens I’ve developed over time, the irony of these moments is inescapable. For, if this is power, why does it depend on fear and force to maintain it? What is powerful about that?

From our inner world, to our intimate relationships, to our organizations and larger governance, the crocodile pit of power struggle awaits as we navigate the realms of our mammalian selves. We do fine when we don’t perceive threat. We feel good, we think creatively, our hearts are open and connected. Then—in a

flash!—our Reactive Brains perceive a threat and we fall into the thrashing waters of our own crocodile instincts. Suddenly “power” looks like getting to be the eater and not the eaten.

I was confused by the loud and insistent voice of my own Reactive Brain, I thought I was better off believing that threat is what I should pay attention to. But, over time, I’ve learned to listen in on the softer language of my body’s native intelligence. Finding my way out of that first flash of reactivity and rediscovering over and over and over the wiser voice of my Creative Brain helps me climb away from frothing jaws of those insatiable crocs and back to the solid ground of the realms of acceptance, appreciation, love. Peace.

Our species is evolving.

It might not seem true in the face of war, but we’ve steadily been charting our way out of the darkness of our reactivity and to what our bodies know and do best: generating creative, inspired, connected lives. We know when we feel most powerful. It isn’t when we’re perceiving ourselves to be at the effect of life, or embroiled in fear. It’s when our bodies relax into our true knowing, when we can hear the birds singing again, when we feel connected to our own hearts and that of every other living creature. You know it, I know it. Real power is evolutionary power, where we discover and express our essential nature, and cherish that in those around us.

As you participate in relationships, be they with yourself, with your intimates, with your colleagues or our wider species, keep breathing.

Find your way back to you.

Remind yourself of the biggest truths: You are the source of your own power, the life force that is streaming through and lighting up every cell of your being. That to be truly powerful is to lean into your soul’s deepest knowing, translating your own native language emanating from deep inside your soul.