What is the body’s role in empowerment? I think to answer that question, we first have to define what empowerment is.
Empower is a verb and from Merriam Webster’s dictionary, the definition is “to give official authority or legal power to or to promote the self-actualization of or influence of.”
Given that definition, women’s empowerment is when we give power or authority to women or to ourselves and therefore our bodies.
I remember the first time someone asked me to take deep breaths and notice my body. I very painstakingly pulled some shallow breaths into my chest and struggled to feel what was going on inside. My body was a scary place. A place that I had felt awkward in for a long time. So when someone asked me to focus my attention there….I thought, eeeew, painful. But I did it, because I trusted this person. My transformation into inhabiting my body and feeling empowered in how big I am didn’t happen in a year, or two, or three….It took five; Yup, five years. And even though I feel empowered in my body, I am not perfect and there are still days when I feel small or slip into dis-empowerment or feeling like a victim.
When I started to notice my breath and therefore my body, it was like turning on a light inside a house that was really big and you are unsure of what’s inside…..so you take a look around. I started looking around by doing yoga, experimenting with dance, hiking and meditation. What I found was that parts of my body felt somewhat more numb than other parts. For instance, my legs and feet, not that I couldn’t feel them, they just didn’t feel as alive as my hands and face. I never noticed this before, until I put my attention there. But now that I was noticing, I wanted to inhabit my body fully. Bit by bit I did energy work, resolved trauma and broke down walls to giving and receiving love. Every time I gained ground in inhabiting my body, the more empowered I felt. Why did I feel empowered? I think I feel empowered for several reasons: I know I’m not hiding from anything, my body holds incredible power potential, energy blockages are being removed and old painful wounds are being discharged.
Why I say I know I’m not hiding from anything is that when we feel pain in our bodies from emotional trauma or physical trauma, we tend to retract our awareness and/or the feeling from that part of the body. Over time this becomes a habit and we can become less aware of that part of our body.
When I inhabit my body fully, I’m not hiding from old or new pain that might be there.
I am able to have awareness of the pain and acknowledge it will not be there forever and make choices to shift it.
I feel empowered when I am aware of my body and the power potential it holds; because I know I have choice to exercise, eat healthy, hold myself in a certain way, process my pain and experience joy!! Having choice is empowering for me and I believe, most humans.
I wish you all many blessings along your empowerment journey! If you want to learn more about my work and are interested in starting or continuing your empowerment journey, go to the HoloBeing Website and enter your email to get my free guide “3 Essential Ways to Feel Empowered.” You can also schedule a free 15 minute phone consultation with me to discuss working together.
Love to you,
Erin