Hey folks,
I haven’t written for some time and I wanted to share some of my reflections with you. Tonight I found myself contemplating as usual and the thoughts that came to mind focused on the concept of “power” and how we give it away. We all have power; whether it’s in a leadership or career situation or even at home or with friends, there’s a certain degree of power you have in your life and believe it or not, we often give it away.
I’ve given it away lately because I’ve allowed myself to get upset and react to things in my environment. As a result, I’ve felt different from my usual peaceful state; I’ve felt a little drained mentally and physically, and this has reminded me of the nature of power. Think of power, in this case, as a form of energy. When you emotionally respond, whether it be with anger or another emotion, you give some of that energy away to the thing you’re respond too.
Now I’m not saying you won’t get angry, or that getting angry is a bad thing, but to constantly feel frustrated, upset, enraged etc. is very taxing on the mind and body. If you’re accustomed to being in a good state of mind and you’re sensitive to the way you feel, you can physically feel the loss or absence of energy, you just know what’s caused it, and you definitely know it’s not there.
If energy is so important then we have to use it sparingly, but we tend to give it away so often. We give it away when we give in to that urge to yell at someone or allow ourselves to be occupied with thoughts and emotions that do us no good. Worried ? anxious ? frustrated ? these are but a few feelings that sap our precious energy.
Example: Sometimes, when I play certain games involving random teammates, they may say negative things or rant about my playing style. After some time of this, I may feel like I need to respond; I may feel like I need to put them in their place, but what I’m actually doing is occupying my mental space with something that actually has less to do with me and more to do with them.
How do we prevent it ?
By developing new habits that will prevent you from consistently giving it away during certain instances. Develop a sensitivity for how you feel and then try to figure out how you want to feel during and after these situations. You empower yourself by first acknowledging the situation or thing that’s sapping your energy. Once identified, you can devise a method to handle the situation whenever it arises.
Think about the example I shared with the teammates for a minute. I try to deal with these situations by stopping myself from responding with anger and I take a metaphoric step back. I decide to block the naysayers (sometimes literally) and then continue with what I’m doing. If I keep arguing, responding and playing their ‘game’, I’ll keep giving away my energy.In some cases I might just win the argument, but I might also succeed at becoming more ignorant or conceited as a result…
Choose your battles wisely, be aware of your words and actions, become aware of the things that evoke that particular emotional response and then become empowered by deciding how you want to respond next time. It’s worked wonders for me in the past, but it only worked because I made the time to plan, and then actually do it.
Hope this was helpful folks, we all things that weigh on us over time so I hope this will make your load a little lighter.
Thanks for reading !
Nick
On A Mission 