Your Power

This is blog #1 in a series about Your Inner Power.

Your power starts within.

It starts with a simple, yet one of the most potent, skills you will ever learn.

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” ― Viktor E. Frankl

I first began to learn about this skill in my early 20’s. I had started already to pour all of my energy into my healing in whatever holistic method I could find. I had spent time already learning about mindfulness - being present to my body, my sensations, the present moment, even though it was almost unbearable to feel what I was feeling in each moment, as a result of the trauma & PTSD I was deep in the thick of (read more about my journey here).

It was helping though, even though it felt like it was minutely.

Next I dove into mindfulness meditation with a little app I found that was just starting out (and now a hugely known company) - Headspace. I started with 10-20 minute seated meditations where I followed the technique & prompts to be present to my breath. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out…. for 10+ minutes.

As I practiced this, & practiced this, & practiced this day after day, because it was at the time one of the only things that helped me feel even marginally better (and I would do anything at the time to feel only marginally better), I began to have one of the most fascinating paradigm-shifting experiences.

I remember it vividly to this day - as if I had a life before that experience, and all of a sudden - an entirely new experience & way of living. I remember the power that bled through my body & filled my cells, as I felt the anxiety, the fear, the tumult & terror & rioting energy inside me, that was always there - and then, for the first time ever, a space. A moment. A buffer.

A witness.

A breath.

A gap…

There was me, and there was this cacophony of thought & emotion within me… and for the briefest instant that was earth-shattering & life-altering, there was a separation.

In that moment & from that moment forevermore, I knew - I knew - that there was an I that existed beyond any current moment thoughts, emotions, or human experience… that there was an I that could observe it/them/me…

Now if you are a meditator or familiar with this, it may sound simple - second nature - mundane even to describe this. Yet, this one moment, this simple breath, this gap, this moment in space & time, remains to be the basis of how I live, how I navigate the experiences of my life, how I live & breathe every single day of my life. How I create what I desire, be more of my truest & powerful self daily, and how I choose to respond to every situation in my life.

Viktor E. Frankl’s quote above may sound like it’s referring to something external - an outside stimulus - and perhaps he was when he said it. However, I believe one of our greatest powers lies in our ability to separate stimulus and response within us.

And this requires a space.

A moment.

A witness.

Being the observer of our internal thoughts, emotions, reactions, beliefs, feelings, actions……

I formally learned this as “neutral observation” during my time as a student at the University of Santa Monica studying Advanced Spiritual Psychology.

Neutral observation, which means what it sounds - observing things as neither good nor bad, right nor wrong, righteous or evil, but neutrally.

As William Shakespeare wrote, “There is nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so.”

Neutral…

When we rest in the presence of each moment. The love at the core of each moment… the peace the “all is well”-ness of each moment… we come to see that everything truly is neutral. Everything simply is.

Everything simply is…

Our power is to decide what it is.

And what if - just what if - those thoughts that keep plaguing you, that headache you keep feeling, or those emotions that overwhelm and almost suffocate you at times - what if they were just that -

Thoughts.

Emotions.

Physical sensations.

NOT. TRULY. YOU.

If you stop IDENTIFYING as those fickle temporary external things, you could instead start to notice & experience: the gap. The space. The breath. The present moment. The peace. The love. YOU.

YOU.

The real you.

The true you.

Underneath and bigger than and surrounding it all. Always.

Love.

Peace.

Presence.

Safety.

Security.

Joy.

Bliss.

Infinite. 

PERFECTION. WHOLE. COMPLETE.

Now. And Now. And Now.

Always. Always. Always……

When you know who you are underneath everything.

When you know you are NOT your thoughts. Not your emotions. NOT your physical experiences or even your body, you shift. Something shifts. Everything shifts.

Freedom.

Power. 

Everything. Can emerge.

Much love,

Jenna

This is blog #1 in a series about Your Inner Power. You can read blog #2, Free Yourself From Your Thoughts, here.