As children, we believe that our parents are invincible and indestructible and that they will never let us down. Then the unthinkable happens and they do. Then when we are older and we think wiser, we fall in love for the first time. As we view this person through rose-colored glasses, seeing no faults, but only the perfection of our love as we place them upon a pedestal thinking that they will never hurt us. Then the unimaginable happens and they break our heart. It isn’t our parents or our best friend, or our first love that let us down. It is our own expectations, which were unreal. We are broken hearted by our own projections of who they are, something that no one could live up to.
The strongest source of empowerment is that which we find within ourselves.
– Brett Blumenthal
What we discover is that it is unfair to put someone else in charge of our life. It is unfair because each of us is responsible for ourselves. Handing it off to someone else will only hurt both them and us. When you build your house upon the foundation of your soul, then we can add those we love to our souls home. We add our spiritual beliefs, our family, our friends, our career – everything we want in life, but the empowerment that comes from that foundation is what makes everything run.
I came to believe that my identity goes beyond the outer roles I play. It transcends the ego. I came to understand that there is an Authentic “I” within – an “I AM”, or divine spark within the soul.
– Sue Monk Kid
The roles we play, being a wife or husband; being a mother or father; being a son or daughter, being a grandmother or a grandchild – those roles can make us happy, but they are not the source of the happiness. The source of the happiness comes from within. Otherwise, we are burdening our happiness on the expectations of those roles, burdening our loved ones unfairly with the responsibility of making us happy. That is dooming ourselves to be the perpetrator of a broken family filled with trauma and drama.
We simply can’t control what comes out of people’s mouths. However, we can control how we feel about what they say.
– Scarlett Jones
The same thing is true for our friends and those we work with. We can’t base our happiness on what those around us say, or do. Or don’t say or do. Have you ever worked really hard on a project at work, and no one noticed your brilliance? Were we trying to be brilliant to have others laud us, or because we loved exceeding the expectations of others? I love it when someone notices I did a good job, beat the deadline, came in under budget, etc. . , but it needs to be for our own empowerment that we feel good about it. Then if someone else does notice, that is whipping cream on the dessert, good when it is there, but not necessary to be enjoyed as a great dessert.
The creation of authentic power is the creation of a life of joy.
– Gary Zukov
Have you ever planned a trip with the girlfriends and then were disappointed when others didn’t contribute and left all of the work for you to do? What really caused the unhappiness? Miscommunication, unrealistic expectations of others? What about if we come from the viewpoint of creating an experience of joy? Being authentic enough to ask for help when we need it, without expectation of how the help shows up as. Creating from that place is a gift to yourself and to those others who will be there. It takes all of the drama out of the experience, leaving a space of “WOW” for what is created. It makes us vulnerable to the beauty of what happens next.
What makes you vulnerable makes you beautiful. There’s a word for it. . . . Authentic.
– Tim Brown
Going back to the analogy of the butterfly. The caterpillar is vulnerable in creating the chrysalis, not knowing how it will all turn out. Knowing that the transformation is necessary, doesn’t make it any easier to do it. The butterfly is vulnerable as it fights to get released from the chrysalis and dry its wings so that it can take flight. It is a beautiful creation that can’t see the brilliance of the colors and designs of its own wings. Putting our own human thoughts into the analogy, this transformation into something new would be terrifying.
Your authentic self is the source of your brilliance. It’s the universal you – the person you always thought you could be before your fears and beliefs about what is really possible reined in this brilliant reality. Getting in touch with the source of your brilliance and staying connected will make you shine every day. Tapping into your intuition is how you will discover your authentic self and your true brilliance.
– Angela Artemis
There is no manual provided when we tap into intuition and transform our lives from the ego-driven life to the life of being self-empowered and fueled from within. It is a journey of self-discovery. It is scary and terrifying because we will almost certainly fall down and have to get back up many times. But we also have the joy and satisfaction of knowing that it is our own magnificent journey. There is a tunnel that you drive through when you travel to Yosemite National Park. On one side of the tunnel, you have beautiful mountains and trees and you think this is what the park is about. Then as you emerge through the tunnel it is like arriving on another planet. While what you saw before the tunnel was beautiful scenery it pales in comparison to the vista that opens before you as you exit the tunnel.
If you push through that feeling of being scared, that feeling of taking risk, really amazing things can happen.
– Marissa Mayer
Discovering our true authentic self and living from that place is like coming out of that tunnel. You thought you were happy before, but it pales in comparison to the true source of happiness when we live from within. Every day we connect, lose connection and reconnect to that brilliance of our soul’s intuition. We learn to believe in our future self. It is like the beauty of that butterfly taking flight. Miracles take place every day. Tap your true potential. Spread those wings and fly.
