Personal Power: Can Childhood Trauma Stop Someone From Developing Personal Power?

When someone has a sense of personal power, they are likely to experience life in a certain way. For one thing, they will feel powerful and know that they have an effect on their life.

As a result of this, they are not going to have a problem with saying no and asserting themselves. If they don’t want to do something, or if something is not right for them, they will make this clear.

A Fulfilling Life

Through being this way, they are also going to feel good about themselves – they will be in touch with their inherent value. To do something that they don’t want to do or to accept something that isn’t right is then not going to feel good.

Another way of looking at this is that one will be their own best friend as opposed to their own worst enemy. And, by being on their own side and feeling capable, there will be no reason for them to tolerate a life that is not rewarding.

One Area
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When it comes to their career, they could do something that fills them with energy; with this being something that they have done for a number of years. This is not to say that they won’t have ‘bad’ days, though.

If this is not the case, it could show that they are studying and will soon embark on a career that is highly fulfilling. Perhaps what they were doing before no longer matched up with their values, hence why they had to make a change.

Strong Connections

The interactions that they have with the people in their life could typically be peaceful and harmonious. If there is something that they are not happy with, they could end up talking about it directly.

This will come back to the fact that they will feel comfortable in their own skin and won’t have an issue with expressing themselves. Also, they won’t believe that other people are out to get them and that it is a case of dominate or be dominated.

The Norm

If they were to look back on their life, they may see that they have been this way for as long as they can remember. What they may do is credit their caregiver/s with playing a big part in how they experience life.

Then again, they could look back on their life and see that there was a time when their life was very different. Due to how different it was, they may find it hard to connect with this period of their life.

Another Scenario

When someone doesn’t have a sense of personal power, it will be normal for them to feel powerless and as though they have no effect on their life. That is, of course, unless they have gone to the other extreme and are extremely controlling.

With that consequence aside, one may be used to being walked over and experience power struggles on a regular basis. Instead of speaking up, they could let other people walk over them and end up behaving in a passive-aggressive manner.

A Core Belief

They could believe that other people want to control them and that there is nothing that they can do about this. Through having this outlook, they will probably see themselves as a victim and other people as perpetrators.

Said another way, they will have what is often described as a ’victim consciousness’. Being this way is going to make it hard for them to feel good about themselves and they will most likely have low self-worth; that’s if they have any worth whatsoever.

Two Areas

Ergo, if they do have a career, and don’t just do something that pays the bills, each day could be filled with problems. They could feel violated on a daily basis and not feel appreciated.

As for their relationships, they could spend time with people who are not right for them; that’s if these people are not abusive. There could be moments when they wonder if they even exist, thanks to how other people treat them and don’t respect them or their boundaries.

What’s going on?

One way of looking at this would be to say that the reason their life is like this is that they haven’t developed a sense of personal power. The part of their being that relates to this, their solar plexus, is likely to be undeveloped.

When it comes to the chakra system, this will be the third chakra, and the colour for this one is yellow. This charka won’t be working as it should, with this playing a part why they have all these challenges.

Back In Time

What this may illustrate is that their childhood was a time when they experienced some kind of abuse and/or neglect. This would have meant that they were violated on a weekly, if not daily, basis and they wouldn’t have been able to do anything about what was happening.

Furthermore, along with feeling completely powerless and helpless, they would have also experienced a fair amount of toxic shame and rage. So, instead of receiving what they needed to receive in order to develop a strong sense of self, they would have stayed in an undeveloped state and been loaded up with trauma.

Awareness

If one can relate to this, and they are ready to change their life, they may need to reach out for external support. This is something that can be provided by a therapist or healer. 

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Oliver JR Cooper
http://www.oliverjrcooper.co.uk