How to Pivot from Powerless to Powerful without Ballet Moves
Have you ever been so triggered that you’ve felt overcome (not necessarily overwhelmingly) with a sense of powerlessness? Maybe it’s the thought of the week ahead?, or your child is having a tantrum?, or you received some unexpected news?, it could be someone close to you said something sour (or sweet), or maybe there’s something you’re trying to get done and it’s not going to plan? Or something else seemingly innocuous?
I have too, and it can be a great opportunity for an emotional clean-out if you can stay in your body and feel. Why? Because everything mentioned above is emotionally neutral, but we are not. It’s part of our design. And that is a very good thing.
Once, walking into the cinema to catch a movie (not sure what else we’d be catching), a friend replied to a question a bit tersely. I immediately felt not-great. It looked like she had ‘upset me’. Thankfully I had enough presence of mind to remember all feelings come from within, so I could slow down and look at the situation from a ‘distance’. I could see that the tone of voice she used, provoked a (faster than lightening) thought-feeling reaction in me that had been ‘laid down’ in bygone times.
She didn’t say anything horrible. It was her voice and manner that were grinch-y, possibly something to do with having arms full while trying to navigate seat in semi-darkness. What did I do? I sunk into my own velvety-cushioned space, and felt into the emotion of my experience, without story.
By feeling into the emotion I completed the cycle (for that moment), instead of recycling it. Hello freedom.
This is how we unchain creativity.
Sometimes something horrible/inappropriate has been said or done. In feeling into your emotional experience you’ll have the clarity to know what (or what not) to do, as you shift from a state of powerlessness to a state of powerfulness.
In a nutshell:
+ Acknowledge the ‘perception’.
+ Feel deeply — leaning into the emotion
+ Steward your intention (to stay in your body) and your attention (noticing where the feeling is coming from).
+ Follow the clues, as the breeze of clarity starts to blow gently through your being.
This all happens instinctively when we stay in our body, but we have been conditioned to always go into our heads to resolve an emotion (impossible), rather than feel it, start to see clearly (clarity), then go into our heads to work out the logistics (if need be).
Our inherent power is always made available to us by going through whatever emotional experience is coming up for us right now.
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Jayne writes about (and consults on) unchaining creativity, feeding your power, the elegant use of emotion for intentional living, thriving through feeling, and the various nooks and crannies where they all happily collide.
Say hi @jayneyuk promise to reply inspite of intermittent Twitter hibernation.
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