Personal Power: Why Do Some People Believe They Have No Effect On Their Environment?

While having complete control of one’s environment would be practically impossible, what is possible is for one to have some control over their environment. And in some ways, the more control one has, the more empowered they will feel. 

Control is often seen as something negative and as something one should let go off. But if one has no control of their body or their life for instance, it is unlikely that they are going to be in a good place.

Separation

Inherently, there is no separation between anything on the planet, and therefore it is nothing more than an illusion. But in order for one to have a unique experience on this planet, this illusion that the ego creates is essential.

So through feeling separate, it is vital that one has a sense of personal power. Without it, one is not going to be able to fulfil their life purpose and to achieve what they need to achieve.

This is not to say that one needs this personal power to realise things that have no benefit to mankind. Even though one wants to achieve things for their own benefit, it is highly likely that other people will also benefit in some way.

Making A Difference

As separation is an illusion and ones purpose has the power to enhance the lives of others, not having a sense of personal power is not only going to limit one’s own life, it is also going to limit how much of a difference one can make in the lives of other people.

However, having the need or the desire to do something is one thing, but if one doesn’t feel that they have what it takes to achieve it or even to take the first step, it is unlikely that anything will ever happen.

Differences

For some people, personal power will be the only thing they have ever known. And for others, it will be something they won’t have experienced on a consistent basis. Perhaps one has never experienced it in their entire life, and has always felt as though they have no impact whatsoever.

So this means that it can relate to ones whole life or it can just include certain areas. But even though it might not affect ones whole life, the affect it does have in one area could overflow into every other area.

Needs And Wants

To have personal power means that one has the ability to get their wants and meet met.  This doesn’t mean that one will always get them met; it means that they will have the ability to have them met.

When one doesn’t get them met, it might be overlooked or ignored, or simply accepted. And when one doesn’t have this ability, not having their needs wants met is going to be all too familiar.

One may have become accustomed to feeling: angry, frustrated, powerless and hopeless. And as they feel this way and their reality continues to offer them the same experiences over and over again, it is to be expected that one would believe that they have no effect on their environment.

Another Angle

But although one may believe they have no effect on their environment, it doesn’t mean that this is the truth. The mind is constantly filtering ones reality based on what they believe. So if one believes they have no effect, this is what they are going to experience.

Their external reality then reinforces what they believe and they can end up in a negative cycle. While this belief is inherently inaccurate, it is there for a reason. And at one point in this person’s life, something happened and this caused them to form the belief that they have no effect on their environment.

Causes

If this is something that has been a challenge for most of one’s life and is something that one can seem to change, it could mean that it is due to what happened during their childhood years.

Although the mind can forget about what took place all those years ago, the body will have remembered. And the emotional experience that one had during those years could have stayed in their body.

Childhood

As a baby and then as a child, one is completely dependent on their caregivers. So whether ones needs and wants were met or not will have depended on how aware ones caregivers are. Through having caregivers that respond to ones needs wants, one will have been able to feel a sense of personal power.

However, if ones caregivers did not respond to their needs and wants, one wouldn’t have been able to feel a sense of personal power. And this is going to have caused one to feel: abandoned, powerless and hopeless, amongst others things.

Consequences

As ones caregivers were so unaware, there is the chance that these feelings would have stayed in their body. And, based on what happened and how one felt as a result, it is to be expected that their mind would believe they have no affect on their environment.

At this time, it was the truth, and the reason why one continues to recreate this early experience of having no control is because the emotional experience is still in their body. As they feel the same, it is also going to have an impact on how they behave.

Through feeling this way, one might not bother doing certain things and this could lead to a self fulfilling prophecy. These early experiences would have created certain expectations, and one of these expectations would have been that other people don’t respond to their needs and wants.

Awareness

One could change their beliefs, and this might be enough. However, if one has trapped emotions in their body from these early experiences, just changing beliefs is unlikely to be enough.

One will need to get in touch with their trapped emotions and release them. This might require the support of a therapist or healer; as if one was to do this by themselves, it might be overwhelming.

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Oliver J R Cooper
http://www.oliverjrcooper.co.uk/