Acts of Power

"An Act of Power," what does that mean, exactly?

As I stated in a previous blog, the word "power" is not one most individuals are comfortable with, as most of us have experienced being on the receiving end of some authority or other exerting his/her/their power over us. Committing "an act of power" is a way of beginning to free oneself from other people's power over us in our minds. In our minds is primarily where that power over us resides.

If you have read my previous blogs, I remind you of the story about a former employer's youthful bullying personality, where he was exerting power over a smaller classmate. The child being bullied committed an act of personal power by coming out of his "trapped" place in attack mode, changing the bully's life forever, and, perhaps, his own as well.

I write "perhaps," because many individual's have experienced such epiphanies, or illuminating discoveries, of his/her own power, only to forget them. By forgetting them, the individual drops back into his/her old programmed/habitual ways of being.

As indicated previously, most individuals live and, literally, die in accordance with his/her beliefs and habits. This statement is not hyperbole, it is fact. Our indoctrinated/programmed beliefs and acquired habits encompass everything that the vast majority of individuals do, therefore, only by bringing to consciousness what one's beliefs and habits are, can one begin to rid him/herself of them and/or change them.

One overriding belief most individuals seem to have is that he/she is powerless to change his/her life. You have been conditioned/programmed to believe this! You must stop believing it. Everyone has choices, (power) every moment of every day, what one must do is to claim that power consciously by becoming aware of one's choices.

What we choose to do is usually what is habitual--it begins with, Shall I roll over and go back to sleep? The ultimate choice anyone can face is whether to go on "living" or to risk dying; apparently not such a big deal--vast numbers of people are choosing to risk death on a regular bases. Usually, it is a slow death, however. What I am referring to here is: When push comes to shove, where do you stand?

In the book, The Secret, one of the suggestions frequently made was to begin to appreciate what you have. When you get up in the morning, in placing your feet on the floor, you say, to yourself or out loud, "thank you." "Thank you for another day to...." It can be just, "Thank you." Each day you wake up gives you another chance to change your life, after all.

It is not easy to maintain a positive attitude toward life in these parlous times, I know.

An excellent first step, to bring about change in your life, is to decide to try to pay attention to what you are thinking, instead of being a human robot, as many individuals are.

A simple "Act of Power" is to decide to take a positive attitude toward life, as opposed to a negative attitude, in the moment. This requires you, when you become aware that you are thinking negative thoughts, to correct those thoughts to positive ones. Say to yourself, "cancel," and think a new, positive, thought to replace the negative one(s). This is called a "switch word." You are signaling a change to your unconscious self. (I will discuss switch words in another blog.)

This brings up, again, the subject of the "unconscious," or, "subconscious," as some call it. Anyone who has had any contact with psychology, has some familiarity with this part of the self. (Generally, those who do not, even some who have heard of it, consider the idea preposterous.) It is that part of self that is not conscious; it is unbelievably vast in comparison to the conscious self. It can be safely said that the vast majority of the population is sleepwalking through life--literally unconscious, a zombie, or flesh-and-blood robot. Every day, however, more and more individuals are beginning to wake up, due to the shock therapy being given out by world events currently.

As most individuals are unaware of the functioning of that vast part of themselves, their unconscious selves go about their tasks completely ignoring the conscious selves--this used to be called, "tit for tat." By engaging the attention of the unconscious self, and gaining its cooperation, one can call upon untold power to change one's life for the better.

After a lifetime of ignoring, getting the attention of the unconscious requires some effort on an individual's part, however. The unconscious is functioning and recording everything an individual does/thinks/dreams, literally, every moment of every day, waking and sleeping. This fact has been proven irrefutably through hypnosis experiments. Such experiments have also proven conclusively how unbelievably powerful we humans are. As a small example; say a brick layer who, among other things, builds walls of bricks; if the brick layer is hypnotized, he/she can report in exactly what order each and every brick was laid down in the building of that wall.

In hypnosis-regression therapy, under hypnosis, contact is made with the unconscious self; the conscious self, in effect, steps aside for a time. Having done much reading in this field of research, I have come to have nothing but the greatest respect for it. Just coming into awareness of this information shocked me out of my rational/intellectual world view and propelled me into the vast study of what-has- come-to-be-called "the human potential" movement and the formation of alternative philosophical ideas of just what a "human" is made up of, and can become.

There, I will stop today's blog.

Shirley Gallup