How to Reclaim Your Power Every Day

In the wee hours of the morning in Nashville, TN, mother nature paid us a violent visit.  A devastating tornado took the lives of nine people (and counting) and leveled countless homes, office buildings, and iconic landmarks.  

Thankfully, my family and friends are safe and sound.  However, I ache for the ones whose lives will forever be marked by an uncontrollable, unfair force on March 3, 2020.  

Talk about an absolute loss of power by so many.  It feels indulgent to write about reclaiming power in a space in time that looks so grim.   

And yet it also feels truer than ever—this notion of responding rather than reacting.  

Because if it’s not the Nashville Tornado, it’s the Coronavirus, or politics, or the stock market, or the bleak mid-winter of loneliness.  

I suppose we could decide on any given day that life is just too hard, and not worth the time and effort to make sense of any of it.  We could give up.

I’ve been there more times than I care to admit.  

And yet I go to work every day and meet with courageous souls who long to show up for themselves and their loved ones despite the chaos spinning around them.  

They are in pain, yet they don’t want to suffer.  There is a difference, after all.  

We will inevitably experience pain in life.  Some more than others. Pain is undemocratic. It’s part of life. Suffering, on the other hand, is the story of defeat we believe about our pain. This is optional.  

If you want to read a book and be transformed by a story of overcoming in the face of dire circumstances and pain, read Viktor Frankl’s, Man’s Search for Meaning.  It’s the original playbook on reclaiming personal power.  He survived the Holocaust and harnessed that pain to pioneer a life-giving approach to psychology called Logotherapy.  It’s not about avoiding pain. It’s about finding meaning in the midst of the pain.  

I had a clever blog post all planned out for you today and then changed my tune in the aftermath of this tornado.  

This is what I’m reminded of today: our personal power is not contingent on our circumstances.  Our personal power is contingent on the wink of a moment that separates our circumstance from our response.  Our personal power lies in the ability to slow down that moment and stretch it out. The space we create in that moment is everything.  It gives way to the story we will live out of moving forward.  

I’m watching a pretty phenomenal story play out on the news this morning.   It’s a story of community, resilience, charity, and courage.  

Oh if we could bottle up this beauty and drink just a tablespoon every morning as a part of our personal narratives.  

But wait…we can.  

Your power is in your choice.  How will you wield it today?

Love & Gratitude,

Katie