Source

[Protection] Reclaiming Power

An exercise for reclaiming your power, protection, and safety in dark times

If you have been on the receiving end of an act of aggression, violence, trauma or abuse — one of the most difficult aspects to endure is the core feeling of powerlessness. If you have experienced any aggression like this, you know this sense of powerlessness, and you know it does not go away once the event subsides. Rather, it stays with you, enduring into the present and future. For many of us, the powerlessness changes the way we look at, feel about, and interact with the world.

If you have experienced trauma, abuse, or aggression of any kind (emotional, physical, or sexual) it can feel like any sense of safety or protection you once had is gone. In its place is left a pit of anxiety — an uncertainty of your safety, an uncertainty of who to trust. The anxiety can ignite with the slightest trigger, compelling you to stay inside, to avoid social situations, avoid intimacy, or simply avoid being seen. You may find yourself hiding, isolating, and withdrawing not because you want to, but because you feel you have no other choice.

While there is wisdom in these measures of self-protection, they come at great cost: namely, the life you want to be living.

For those who might be withdrawing to cope in the aftermath of abuse, discrimination, or aggression (micro or macro) from others, here is a simple meditation to help you reconnect with your power, sense of protection, and safety that might have been lost in the wounding. It is designed to help you connect back to your core power — because you deserve to have your life back.

If you are being continually victimized as a result of oppression that is beyond your control, you can do this exercise to regularly stay in alignment with your core self in the face of discrimination, judgment, questioning, and aggression. This exercise is a spiritual one — intended for you to reconnect with the aspects of you that might have been wounded in the experience of the aggression, to help you find a deep sense of wholeness again. This exercise is not intended to permit or excuse social injustice by any means, nor may it protect you from future injustices that may come to pass. Rather, it is a tool for aligning with your core self, recovering your wounded parts, and actualizing your full potential — in spite of the behavior of those around you.

Note: this exercise involves you returning to the experience of the wounding. As such, it may trigger a fight-or-flight response. If you find this happening at any point, please take a moment to pause the exercise, find your grounding and breathe. One way to ground is by focusing on your feet as they make contact with the floor, or your sit bones as they connect with the floor or chair. Stay with this groundedness and sense of contact — and proceed through the exercise at your own pace.

May this exercise re-connect you with the lost aspects of yourself. May you know your true greatness.

To begin:

• Find yourself in a comfortable seated position.
• Take a deep breath.
• Imagine the inhale traveling down your spine, into your sit bones.
• On the exhale, picture the air moving from your sit-bones along your spine, out through your nose or mouth.
• Repeat for at least 4 to 8 breaths.
• Feel free to close your eyes.
• Begin to be with your emotional self. Notice how you are feeling.
• Allow yourself to fully feel any feelings that may surface.
• Notice what surfaces, and simply listen.
• If there is pain, pause here.
• Feel free to stay with this pain and not go any further. Simply allow the pain to exist. (Allowing the feeling to exist without pushing it away is a huge step towards healing.)
• Feel the hurt and follow it — perhaps like a tunnel.
• Ask the pain to lead you to where your power and sense of safety is hiding.
• Be patient, and allow yourself to gently trust what the pain may be revealing.
• Whatever you imagine, go with it.
• If the scene is scary, picture yourself with a symbol or object of protection (such as a sword, or a loved one nearby who comforts you, an angel or guide).
• Look at the scene you find. Take it in.
• With courage, ask to see your power. Ask for the power be revealed. Be patient. It might not happen right away.
• Once you sense the power — thank it for revealing itself to you.
• With grace, you may say to the power:

Thank you for retreating — for the sake of my protection. I now welcome you back into my being.

• Watch and notice how the power responds. Allow it to naturally shift toward you. To move into you, like water.
• Follow it through your body.
• Let the power travel where it wants to go — simply watch and feel the experience, like a wise observer. Let it travel for as long or slow a pace as it needs.
• Without “making” it happen or trying to control, watch as the original place of hurt in your body becomes filled with the image of your power. If you are afraid, picture yourself again with the image of protection.
• Allow yourself the time and space to complete the process until you feel a sense of relief.
• Honor yourself for bravely exploring your darkness.

You are powerful. You are free. You are entitled to what was taken. You are entitled to becoming whole again.

Thanks for reading WITCHES RISE! Please share this article if it’s tickled your inner witch by using the buttons to the left of and below the story.

Follow WITCHES RISE here for more juicy witchery.

Jessica Tepper is a writer, mental health counselor, energy healer and yoga teacher. Her purpose is to guide people to realize their full potential in order to dismantle social oppressions and injustice of every kind.