Greetings,
Recently I was talking with a friend and who asked me what it meant to be an empowered person. I stated simply that being empowered is having the power to do the things that you want to do in your life. After getting home that evening the conversation kept playing in my head with the single question rising to the forefront “what does it mean to be an empowered person?” Well, needless to say I spent about a few hours on the web researching the various definitions of what it means to be empowered. Now, anyone who knows me knows that book definitions are never enough and so even after all that I was still not satisfied with the answer to the question. So here we will explore what it means to be empowered in relation to living a joyful life
The dictionary defines empowered as “to enable or to permit” Hmm that’s interesting. To be empowered means to enable or to permit. Well when we are talking about self empowerment then we are talking about enabling or permitting, giving permission to ones self to achieve, to succeed, to be enlightened to be uplifted. An empowered person in his or her spiritual life is one who has enabled or permits God to guide his life, to be receptive to and to follow the steps ordered by God etc…
Indeed to be an empowered person means that you function with a sense of self confidence, of self love and self respect. It means that you acknowledge your feelings around a particular situation, fear, anger, envy, etc… but you refuse to allow them to control you. You don’t get stuck in the emotions. You move past the emotions and do what you are setting out to do. For example, there was a woman who had a great sense of style and an eye for fashion. She wanted to open a clothing store but everyone around her kept telling her that she couldn’t do it. They kept reminding her of what she didn’t have, the money, time, business experience, etc… Mind you that when the initial idea came to her she felt empowered, enabled and permitted to do it. But after listening to the folks around her she GAVE them and their negativity her power, her self confidence and self respect, she empowered them . She gave into the negative thoughts of others and permitted that negativity to prevent her from realizing a goal she wanted to accomplish. Subsequently she began to feel depressed and sad most of the time and was unable to see her life as meaningful and joyful. This will never do!
Beloved, The Creator has endowed us with the ability to manifest his will and the righteous desires of our heart. I mean if the woman who wanted to start the clothing store would have done it instead of giving her power, giving permission to other to bring her down, how many people could she have employed, how might she have changed the fashion industry? Do you see my meaning? We were all born with the ability to create our lives in a good and glorious fashion. We all have a piece to the puzzle called life that will make it a better place for us and those whose lives we touch. Even those who seem to be at the bottom of life’s rung have not been left out of the opportunity to be empowered. First and foremost we must begin to cultivate the daily habit of enabling and permitting God in our lives for this is the true path to empowerment. Second, everyday we must affirm, claim and manifest our self-worth, self-love and self-respect. We must begin to realize that we have been given permission and enabled by God to set forth and share our talents, gifts and goodness with all who cross our path. Third, we must take note of people in our lives who may not have the best intentions for us and our goals and put some space and distance, with love of course, between them and us. Forth we gotta just do it. Research starting that business, then move out on it. Be informed about losing weight then get in the gym! Know what it would take to go back to school and enroll now! After all as empowered people we know that there will never be the perfect time or enough money or everything in place just the way we need it to be. Being EMPOWERED means I live my life JOYFULLY, ABUNDANTLY, SPIRITUALLY NOW!!
Tags: coach, empowerment, healing, health, joy, life coach, nurturing, spiritual, success, upliftment, wellness, woman, women
