"Standing in One's Personal Power"

When I was a young teen I used to spend my summers with my father in Taos, New Mexico. One year in particular my father decided it would be a good idea for me to have something that not only occupied some of my time but would teach me something useful. His idea and my idea were completely different as he wanted me to take a Jujitsu martial arts class. I wanted to be in a dance class with all my summer time friends. As much as I was unhappy about the decision then, I do have to say that I did learn a few things.

The one thing that stood out the most for me when I took the class was when our Sensei would line us all up standing in a stance that he taught us while centering ourselves. Then we would focus our energy on being rooted into the ground. When we did this he would come from any direction and push us. The goal was not to topple over, fall, or move. Triggers from past experiences mixed with our own fears played a roll in creating distractions breaking our concentration as we found ourselves on the floor or being caught by our Sensei. There were, however, a few in the higher ranks that could pass the test, which encouraged the rest of us to work really hard on ourselves. What really stuck with me was that each one of us had different weaknesses that made us fall or lose our stance which were unique to each one of us. The whole experience allowed me to see that even though we were all taking the same class, learning the same techniques, we still had different experiences and lessons that we got out of it.

Years later I found that personal power works very much the same way. It is only when we are standing in alignment with our mind, body, and spirit that we find the strength within ourselves to connect with our personal power and it becomes harder for life to topple us over. As individuals living on the planet we each have our own experiences and gifts that we have brought into this world that helps us navigate through our lifetimes. When we are in alignment we recognize when we are having a moment or when others are having theirs in the middle of a situation. This allows us to stay within our integrity while having grace within ourselves and with others.

Life experiences offers many tests where we find that our foundation is threatened throwing us out of balance within ourselves which may cause us to lose or in some cases to hand over our personal power to someone else. This only creates frustration and discord as the mind begins to over analyze, the body reacts, and the spirit separates as it looks for harmony in what was an alliance.

In truth we each have the ability to recognize and make conscious choices in our response to ourselves or someone's negative actions. We all have our moments and sometimes they spill over on to others or on to us. But all of us have our own lessons that are unique to each of us and it is there in those moments that we discover whether we have what it takes to stand in our own personal power so that we can stay in our integrity and hold our stance.


Photographs by Ana; Japanese Gardens, Fort Worth, TX