Empower Your Perspectives
Are your perspectives empowering or draining?
How to Empower the Perspectives of Ourselves, Others and the World
by Crystal Presence
Exploring the nature of our perceptions. Acknowledging where some of our perspectives are draining and misusing our personal power. Ways we can bring forth a new context of living by changing and empowering our perspectives.
How healthy are our perspectives of others, the world and ourselves? Even with our best intentions, we can find ourselves like a fish in water. Going through life with habitual patterns of how we think, feel and act in the world. We trick ourselves into believing that our perspective, our worldview, is just “how life is” and necessary to survive. We pretend that our lives are “fine” while perpetuating an epidemic of disconnection, isolation, and suffering. What if we acknowledged our power draining perspectives such as overworking, avoiding emotions, creating drama, overthinking and other ways we misuse who we are? What would happen if we created a whole new context of living based on new and expanding perspective?
Below are a few ways to expedite this process…
1) Asking ourselves powerful questions such as, “What is the nature of experiencing full alignment with myself and my source?”
2) Observing and admitting the details of how we disconnect and hold ourselves back. We can make this easier with Riso and Hudson’s book, The Wisdom of the Enneagram; an excellent resource for recognizing our current perspectives, core motivations and how we misuse or use our greatest strengths The Enneagram is a quick way to understand ourselves with extraordinary clarity and compassion for ourselves and others. It teaches us how to set ourselves free by recognizing our perspectives and changing the ways we think, feel and behave. The following is a list of prominent perspectives for each of the nine personality types outlined in the book.
Each of the types is sabotaged by a belief that “We will feel free when…
~ We can get things and people organized and in perfect order. Then we can relax, and everything in our lives will be perfect. We can keep our lives together by organizing things and getting people to shape up and do things the right. By making “to do” lists and being sure that everything gets done in the perfect and right way.
~ We have met everyone’s needs. Then life will be better, and people will like us and meet our own needs. We will make this happen by anticipating people’s needs, providing what they need, advising them on what is good for them and trying to fix them.
~ We have achieved and accomplished the things that we need to. Then we will have value, be successful, be highly competent, the best, have others think well of us and everything will be fine.
~ We can prove there is something wrong with us. So we can justify why we feel so powerless to be normal like everyone else and take responsibility for our lives. We will prove that there is something wrong with us with emotional overwhelm, drama and be provoking so that people avoid us. We will fantasize about how life was and how it could be.
~ We have gained all the knowledge we need. We will have a grip on things to survive. We will get the knowledge we need by isolating ourselves and trying to block out our needs. We will be sure not to get involved in anyone else’s needs. Observing, but not getting too involved with the other people. We will take in more and more information, analyzing it before taking action.
~ We have proved that life is not scary and that we can trust people. When we are not worried about being unable to take care of ourselves. We will survive by finding a few people that we can trust, and rely on what they think, be loyal, not trust authorities (even though we depend on them) and find ways to deal with our constant anxiety.
~ We have totally escaped the discomfort of our feelings and know that our lives will always be full of exciting experiences. Until then, we will be on the go all the time. We will keep it all going by always planning what our next experience will be, entertaining everyone and being in a continual state of motion so no one can tie us down.
~ We can know that we will never need to be vulnerable again. Meanwhile, we will be keeping the upper hand by being overly assertive, and in charge of the situation, so we do not have to risk being hurt again. We will deal with this by not feeling our feelings too deeply, preventing ourselves from being vulnerable and being the boss of the others around us.
~ We have a life that is free of conflict. Meanwhile, we will stay neutral and pretend that nothing bothers us and negotiate all the problems around us, so at least life feels better. We will negotiate our lives by staying on the sideline and out of the way so that we are not a target. We forget our needs and our lives, merging with and focusing on everyone else. Doing what we can to keep the peace, understanding both sides of the story and helping negate the reality around us.
You will also enjoy How to Recognize Emotional Blackmail
About the Author:
Crystal is a certified expansion guide, coach, author, and facilitator of the five days live event called Freedom at the Core. Her passion is creating a safe, fun and nurturing space for people to discover what stands between holding back and the freedom they desire.
