The Empowerment Paradigm

The more troubling the times, the more we must seek refuge in ourselves. Now is the time for those who desire more out of life to step forward and be accountable for our actions. We cannot blame others without blaming ourselves. And like it or not, we are a part of the health care kerfuffle.

We must become serious about what we really want to see in our lives. To do this requires us to move beyond the regrets and fears burying us deeper into one the greatest social quagmires in our lifetimes. Now is the time for clarity.

The stench from our fears and worries overwhelms us. We become consumed by daydreaming about what could have been. We fantasize on what our lives would be like if we had everything we ever wanted. Perhaps, if we had everything we wanted, we would want something else.

Sometimes we even reminisce about what our lives would be like if we had married our first love, finished high school, college or the many aborted projects we just couldn't seem to finish. Whenever we do recall missed opportunities, we frequently believe this would have been better for us. If only, we had. ...

It's easy to daydream about what we should have done, but it's very painful and dangerous to try and relive past decisions. At the time we make our decisions, we do so based on what we think of ourselves. If we believe we are powerless as we decide, then we act as victims. On the other hand, if we feel complete and powerful, then we act as empowered individuals.

This moment-to-moment awareness of ourselves with or without power is our paradigm consciousness. It is the pattern of behavior we express in exemplifying who we are aware of being. And without effort or assistance from anyone, we express all that we are in that moment in time.

Some of us believe we are already empowerment. We want people to think we are good, kind, loving, and peaceful. We don't believe people perceive us as mean-spirited, angry, jealous, envious, and greedy, even when we act in this manner. Somehow we find it difficult to recognize this behavior in ourselves.

Nevertheless, whether we face it or not, the empowerment paradigm we have created for ourselves is badly flawed, and in need of some more spiritual work. This work begins with our changing the images we have of ourselves. We must perceive ourselves with power before we act. And when we don't do this, we must take the time to evaluate our behavior.

The key to power is not in the empowerment paradigm, but in its creator. And since we are the creators, we must ensure we are aware at all times what we are creating. In other words, our uncontrollable, regrettable emotional reflexives are effortless expressions of our innermost thoughts and beliefs.

On the road to empowerment, we must remain cognizant of the vision we have created of ourselves with limitless power. In this vision, we have the potentiality of limitless expressions. For us to embody this vision now, in this very moment, we must remove the revisionist behavior that inextricably keep us thinking and acting as victims. As revisionists of victim behavior, we evaluate our actions after-the-fact. This process prevents us from doing the evaluative work before we make decisions.

Similarly, whenever we act as victim revisionists, we distort our empowerment paradigm. From this perspective, we believe we are weak when we are actually powerful. We find it difficult to let go of the painful experience, because it continues to live in the changing-our-lives process.

Meanwhile, when we are conscious of being empowered, this means we have done the work to overcome the deleterious behavior of victims. We clearly know that for us to to be kind, loving, peaceful, and compassionate we must do more that read and espouse spiritual platitudes, we must do the work.

Regardless to the depths of our pain and suffering, we must do the work to change our behavior. The essence of our empowerment paradigms is work, and more work, until we feel and accept ourselves as having enough power to make decisions without any regrets or lingering doubts. Moreover, we must accept the results of our actions, regardless to how we interpret them.

In the meantime, we must exalt our consciousness to reside in our empowerment paradigms. And whenever others challenge our decisions or seek to engage us in their battles, we must remain confident that we made the best decision with the information (awareness) we had at the time.