How to Reclaim Your Power
/Confused, Frustrated, and Stuck: The New Normal
Both individually and collectively we’re undergoing a variety of traumatic experiences due to the coronavirus pandemic. We’re worried about our health—mental, emotional, physical, and financial. We may be in positions where we’re asked to choose to risk our physical health to ensure we can maintain our financial health. Few of our options feel like good ones. If you’re getting used to feeling confused, frustrated, and stuck, you are not alone.
Reaction versus Response
When the fight-or-flight system is triggered, which is what happens when we’re confronted with sudden change, it narrows our vision (literally and figuratively) and puts us on the defensive. We feel like we need to protect, protect, protect. That’s understandable. And it’s an automatic reaction. At some point, we become aware that we’re stuck in “reactive mode,” and we start to wonder how to move forward.
Let me be clear: Moving forward after trauma is very much an impulse from within. It’s not something directed by an outsider. It’s something inside that says, “I want to move on.” It may be a gentle or quiet impulse, and it’s all YOURS. Trauma leaves us feeling like we don’t have agency. Healing, then, gives agency back to us. And when we decide it’s time to respond, we take back our power.
You may reach the place where you want to respond, where you know there’s an option to respond, but may not know how to grow the capacity to respond. That is an expected part of the process. It’s here where yoga, mindfulness, and breath work have their power. Those tools give us the opportunity to put space between stimulus and response.
Making Space for Change
Moving forward after trauma is very much about learning to practice the pause. It’s about noticing what’s happening, giving plenty of space for all the responses, finding center, and making choices from your natural rhythm. It’s about honoring your path from a place of peace.
No one can give you the answers that are right for you or your circumstances. No one can tell you what’s best for you. The power and the will to heal come from the inner longings for wholeness—which is your True Nature. Ultimately, tapping into what is right for you will give you the strength you need to take the next step. And no matter how small that step may seem, when it’s right for you it makes a giant difference.