Power within—I’m not talking about power over others—is a funny beast.

Some days you feel fully able to stand up for yourself, act with agency, and flow through whatever challenges arise.

Other days, for no apparent reason, powerlessness reigns.

So what’s going on? Where does power come from? Why does it dissipate? And what can you do about it?

Power Is An Energy 

Think of power as an energy that flows through you. It’s not a thing, or a static condition, or something you “hold.” By nature, it comes and goes, like wind and waves: sometimes gentle, sometimes fierce, sometimes in-between.

Following this analogy, wind itself arises from the interaction of the elements. A hurricane, for example, builds power when warm moist ocean waters evaporate and rise. As enormous amounts of heated moist air are twisted high in the atmosphere, they gain more power as they move over more moist waters. Heat + water = wind.

Like the power of a hurricane, our power comes and goes. Remembering this, being conscious of the bb and flow of power, makes it easier to embody.

Power Comes From Connection

Connection is a source of inner power.

Think about when you do conscious breathing (in meditation, yoga, Energy Alchemy, or Qi Gong for example):

You are breathing, paying attention to the in-breath and outbreath.

You slow your breathing, or follow some rhythm: four counts in, six counts out.

You let your breath flow out through your feet, out through your crown, connecting yourself with earth and cosmos.

You breathe into your belly center, your core, and out again.

Your body calms and your random thoughts fade.

You are fully in your body.

In this state of openness and permeability, you can receive. You connect with the practice, the lineage of teachers, and the energetic field of ancient wisdom.

Your energy field expands beyond your skin. You are connected. Your connection is a source of power.

In contrast, when you hold onto some idea or feeling—self doubt, or worry, or despair for example—nothing else can come in. Your rigidity and your stuck-in-what-I-believe attitudes keep you isolated, disconnected, alone. This is when your inner power fades or stops flowing.

The key to flowing with power is to have ways to reconnect, to experience yourself as a part of the interconnected whole.

Power and Ancient Wisdom  

In a lifetime of exploring of shamanic, animist, and meditative consciousness, the most potent ways of experiencing myself as an interconnected being have been both simple and ancient. They have to do with breath, with feet in the earth, and with connection to the living energy (qi) that surrounds us.

As I mention frequently in Weave the Heart of the Universe into Your Life: Aligning with Cosmic Energy, the tools you use to keep connected—to carry and flow with your inner power—are less important than putting them into practice. Daily.

In the world of yoga, pranais the vehicle for inner power. In the world of Qi Gong and T’ai Chi, qi is the vehicle. In Vipassana meditation, following the breath through your body is the vehicle. In the shamanic world, it’s called being a hollow bone.

When you are receptive, open, and connected with spirit, when you listen and allow guidance, wisdom, healing to come through you, you embody your inner power.

Shifting Your Perception

One day I was standing in my house, looking out the window at surrounding trees. It’s a lovely view. But I was looking through the barrier of glass.

I did an experiment. I walked outside. I experienced an enormous difference: I was with the trees, not separate from them. My heart opened, I felt the energy flow, and I moved through the rest of my day in that state. My inner power came from the connections I opened to.

May you, too, embody your inner power using the three keys of connection, breath, and daily attention!