As I lay in bed for the fifth night of illness in my house, I must recognize that our health has such a determining factor on what we are able to do. So many of us see our physical body as almost an obstacle or an inconvenience to doing all the other things we want to do.

However, we cannot ignore it away. Our body’s state of health is a huge determining factor to the rest of our lives. Its power feels finite and almost non-negotiable. I must work with my body or I won’t be able to do anything at all.

Yielding to our body’s influence and wisdom seems an appropriate response. This is not a case where powering over makes sense.

Yielding to power in this case is not a weakness. It’s an acknowledgment and a partnership.

How does power feel in the body?

The answer is different for each person and can shine a light onto what we actually think about power. While our minds can contort every which way to come up with an answer, our bodies don’t lie.

My body gives a gritty feeling with a slight constriction in the throat and a bearing down of the body.

When I think of empowered, a totally different feeling comes up – a light bursting from my center, expansion and feeling very grounded.

A great way to determine word choices is a check in with the body.

The one thing humans will never be able to overpower is death. 

Of course, we are trying our hardest to avoid it or prevent it. 

We don’t talk about death. It is tucked away from conversation until it becomes unavoidable. We don’t want to be reminded of death. Elders are housed separately. Even something as innocuous as dead leaves are swept and carted away. We don’t respect death. We see it only as the absence of living, a lesser state of being. 

What is more powerful than the elephant in the room that no one is talking about?

Will we ever be empowered if death is invisible and unacknowledged? If we never make sense of it? If we never face our mortality? Or that of our loved ones? 

I think not. 

In examining power, I can’t ignore what I see as the ultimate power. It goes by many names – God, Goddess, Source, the Universe, Spirit, Mother Earth and so on.

It is debated whether or not this entity actually exists or if it’s a human-made concept. I’m no theologian and only have my own experience to work off of. I go back and forth on it myself, and yet, am reaffirmed that whatever you want to call it (I use the words the Universe) does exist when synchronicities, miracles and anomalies of events happen.

Some could say that those instances are purely instances chance based on some sort of statistical metric. There can be a lot of brain power to go into whether or not something that happens is actually an “act of god” or we can let go of the attachment to understand and simply trust.

Using our intelligence, logic and control appear to be these really powerful forces in our world. However, the opposites – unattachment, allowing and trusting – are actually more so because when we do that, we partner with this entity, this power, larger than ourselves.

Today, I scheduled an online co-working session so I could get something done that I was going to procrastinate on. At exactly the time of my session, my internet went out. I missed the start of the session and had to schedule a new one for 15 minutes later. I ended up making a great connection with the person in the second session.

When that first session didn’t happen, I did not get angry. I let it go and moved onto what I could do which was schedule a new one at the next available time slot. It pains me when we constantly see unattachment and not responding with anger or fear or instant action as weak. In a society of constant motion for the sake of motion and reaction for the sake of reaction, we could stand to be in the power of trust and unattachment more.

Birth is not only an initiation into a new stage of life and a new identity for the baby but also for the mother. It can set us on the right or wrong foot to start this journey. I’ve experienced both and I know if my first birthing experience was negative, my life’s trajectory would have changed.

My birthing experience with my oldest was empowering, for lack of a better word. I was able to advocate for myself throughout the labor, had the support of my husband and the delivery team and had a vaginal breech delivery, which is unfortunately harder and harder to come by these days. I entered motherhood with about a dozen or so guests in the room – doctors, nurses and students – who came to witness a breech vaginal birth.

However you birth a child, you deserve to enter motherhood with a sense of wonder and awe with yourself. If we were to really sit down and examine childbirth, our minds would be blown! The cervix is only that big?! The pain is how bad?! The needle goes into the spine?! The amount of power and inner strength that it takes to create and birth a human in every scenario is undeniably super human.

I love working with clients around birth and time in the womb. The power represented during those times is palpable. If there are any, the ruptures call for repair and reconciliation so that we can feel more whole.