Everyone is Telling You to Stand in Your Power, But What Does That Really Mean?

How to truly claim your power

Photo by Zach Vessels on Unsplash

Every once in a while, you come across a nugget of wisdom that is so good you find yourself thinking, “In theory, I understand what this means, I can feel it in my bones; but in practice, what does it mean? Really.

The statement, “Stand in your power.” — or its many variants like, “Do not give away your power.” or “Take back your power.” or “Claim your power.” — is one of those nuggets of wisdom.

You almost always sense its truth at a level so deep within yourself but only momentarily. As soon as life moves on, that truth evaporates from your experience. You immediately go back to giving away your power.

How then, can you make standing in your power, a constant conscious practice?

What Exactly Is Your Power?

From basic Physics, we know that power is the ability to do work.

Your power, therefore, is your ability to do your work.

Your work on the other hand is whatever work that is required of you by yourself. Work that you agreed to do for other people also, is work that is required of you by yourself.

This work is determined by your needs and desires. Your needs include food, water, oxygen, clothing, shelter, healthy relationships, etc. Your desires include a bigger house, travel, and so on.

That being said, your power is your ability to fulfill your needs and desires.

How Do We Fail to Stand in Our power?

By subconsciously expecting other people to fulfill our needs.

A good example of a subconscious expectation/request is, “Since you are my boyfriend, you should buy me food.”

A conscious version of that request is, “I am hungry and I have no money, could you please buy me some food.”

Can you see the difference between these two statements and their implication?

In the second statement (a conscious request), it’s clear that you are owning your needs, and should the person you’ve asked for help fail to meet them, you have…