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Reclaiming Empowerment, by Bente Hansen

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

Recently I spoke with someone whose son has been diagnosed with ADHD. This young boy was prescribed medication, which he took regularly. One day he shared, with his father, his dark feelings about many things. The medication had helped calm his hyperactivity, yet the boy was experiencing extreme thoughts and emotions with which he was uncomfortable. When his parents took him back to the doctor, requesting that he be taken off his medication, the doctor referred the boy to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist spent some time assessing the young boy and then told his parents that he was concerned for the boy's mental and emotional welfare and recommended an additional medication. At this stage both parents reclaimed their empowerment and said, "No."

Reclaiming empowerment is not always easy, especially when confronted by authoritative figures. Yet now, more than ever, is the time when it is most appropriate and necessary for us to do so.

What exactly does reclaiming empowerment mean? According to the Oxford Dictionary, "empower" means "give power to." Given our hectic lifestyles and preference for using thinking to resolve life issues we, as a society, have lost touch with our inner knowing. When reclaiming empowerment we are merely tapping into an amazing powerhouse of inner knowledge and guidance. We have always been powerful—we have merely forgotten just how powerful we are. When listening to the wisdom of the inner knowing we step aside from the mental gymnastics of the mind and reconnect with our inner guidance system!

Our society is organized and structured in such a way that we continually give our power to people who are specialists in their particular field. We trust and accept the diagnoses of medical experts, the technical advice of computer technicians, the legal advice of attorneys and so on. While it is perfectly acceptable to trust the expert knowledge of those who have trained in their respective fields it has often resulted in an inability to access our inherent innermost knowing. This is especially true when this inner knowing, or intuition, relates to matters of individual choice and freedom. All too often when confronted by the voice of perceived authority it is easier to comply than to question.

Why is now the time to reclaim empowerment? We are living in a time of constant change. Many formerly accepted "truths" have been found to be untrue. For example, for years we were told that it was perfectly safe for menopausal women to take Hormone Replacement Therapy. We now know better! Given the constant change and uncertainty in our world ultimately we have no option but to be responsible for our own wellness and wellbeing. This reclaiming is definitely a process; it involves becoming aware of, listening to and responding to the inner knowing, or voice of wisdom.

Ghandi stated, "The outward freedom that we shall attain will only be in exact proportion to the inward freedom to which we may have grown at a given moment. And if this is a correct view of freedom, our chief energy must be concentrated on achieving reform from within".

It is possible in every day situations to become more mindful of the intuitive inner voice. It means stepping out of the mind (or ego) and following our "gut instinct" or intuitive hunch. In most people something either feels right or not right for them. This feeling is often found within the body, especially in the solar plexus, heart or stomach area. The more we listen to this inner voice and follow its guidance the easier life becomes! When doing this we are in a process of reclaiming empowerment.

Indications of disempowerment are evident when an individual has mainly feelings of futility, frustration, anger, resentment, judgment, irritation, depression, guilt, etc. Life feels tough, it's a battlefield out there!

Symptoms of empowerment include feeling calm, peaceful, having acceptance, being joyful, compassionate, being in the flow, etc. Basically there is a feeling of being balanced, or centered.

In reality, it's normal to experience a mix of emotions on a daily basis. Where there is a predominance of the emotions associated with disempowerment (as above) then it would be beneficial to explore possibilities and strategies for reclaiming empowerment.

Basically, our emotions are an indication of where we stand in terms of empowerment. It is not our thinking that holds the key to this awareness, it is our emotions!

In my book, The New World of Self Healing (Llewellyn, 2006), I describe many processes and strategies that will facilitate the process of reclaiming empowerment. Understanding energy is the underlying theme of this book. When we have understanding and acceptance that energy is the basis of life, that it is a powerfully creative force, which we utilize to create our reality, we are then able to manage and work with energy in ways never before imagined. Reclaiming empowerment occurs when we learn to consciously work with the subtle energies.

The benefits of reclaiming empowerment are obvious:

• We eventually become responsible for all choices and decisions we make.
• We become empowered to choose wellness over ill health. This does not mean we no longer listen to the advice given by people with specific skills. Reclaiming empowerment means we have the freedom to choose whether or not to accept that advice.
• We become empowered to choose abundance over scarcity, happiness instead of misery, etc
• We learn to honor the inner knowing, the intuitive wisdom and voice we can all access. This inner knowing is available to us at all times. Once accessed, understood and applied empowerment results in all areas of life!

The parents of the young boy I mentioned earlier are now in the process of exploring options for their son's wellbeing they would never have considered previously. They feel challenged and inspired to make decisions that are in alignment with not only their inner knowing, but are also consciously working for their son's highest good. Their actions clearly demonstrate the magic of reclaiming empowerment!

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2006. All rights reserved.

I've had the same recurring dream for the past eight years. In it, I am living in a mansion, and in every dream I find a new room. This place is filled with unspeakable beauty, and the feelings I feel in this dream are priceless. It feels like a very profound dream, but I don't know what it means. Any ideas? - Kisses

Dreamchaser:

This dream is a clear message that you are not being true to yourself. You are living a life of duty instead of living the life that you want to live.

The mansion is your life, and your life is a beautiful thing. You have gifts and potentials that are absolutely mind-boggling, but you have chosen to stay in a place that feels safe to you. I would venture to say that the last ten years or so of your life have been pretty miserable.

I will use myself as an example. At one point, I was working in an accounting firm in a job I hated. I was in a relationship that was so destructive I can't find the words to describe how miserable we were. I was holding love, money, happiness, etc., away from myself because of the choices I was making.

I was absolutely miserable on ALL levels because I was not allowing myself access to my own mansion. Once I got rid of the man and the job and started to reach for something better, my whole life started to change.

You are doing the same thing. You may not be living the same circumstances, but you are most definitely not being true to yourself. This dream is your subconscious mind showing you how your life could be. As you wrote, This place is filled with unspeakable beauty, and the feelings I feel in this dream are priceless.

The rooms signify parts of your life and parts of yourself that you have yet to consciously discover. The feelings that you feel while in these rooms are the feelings that you could feel in your own life every single day. Because of your current life choices, however, you are not allowing yourself access to those joys, possessions, people, places, gifts and feelings.

I know that we put ourselves in positions that are very hard to change. We get into unfulfilling marriages, and then even though we're not really happy, we trap ourselves further by buying a bigger house or having another baby.

We get into unfulfilling jobs, and we justify staying there even though we hate it because the hours work for us, or the benefits are great, or some other reason.

The truth is that we are scared to change things, because we don't know what things would be like th en. What if we got divorced and never found another person to love? What if we quit our job and hated the new one, or got fired or the company went bankrupt?

We can dream up all sorts of reasons to NOT change things, but we only have one reason TO change things. You have unspeakable beauty and priceless feelings waiting for you. That is your reason. You can choose to change your life.

I wish you keys to all those lovely rooms!

*****

Astrea:

When I do past life readings, I often focus upon times in which the person was not incarnate here on Earth - on their Celestial Incarnations. I don't think it's possible for a soul to continue to be born human, suffer, and die over and over again without having at least some periods of rest.

The degree to which we remember or dream of our past lives varies from one person to another. Some people have vague memories of their Celestial Incarnations, but most of us don't. Your dreams are your memories of the place you were in between physical lives. Many people call this place heaven.

Not everyone we meet is coming from The Purpose. Some people incarnate for just one life here; they have never been here before, and never will be again. It's different for those of us who have been here before.

Everyone I encounter who knows they've lived as a human on the Earth before seems to have at least SOME inkling of what life is like beyond this dimension. Even if they don't have conscious memories of living before, people, places and things come to them in dreams which are not of this Earth. That's the experience you're having now.

People who have recently crossed over spend some time recuperating before they incarnate on Earth again. Our souls head for paradise to be rejuvenated and energized. It's here that we can visit with loved ones in both our physical families and our Soul Families who have passed through the Veil before us.

Here there are lots of soul mates for us, many of whom we may not have met in our most recent physical life. This is when Soul Contracts are entered into, when we agree to experience certain things or meet up with certain people when we incarnate again.

The mansion you visit is a Soul Home for you. You were there many times before in Celestial Incarnations. Even if you don't recognize every room, you remember them on some level.

Paradise has an unspeakable beauty and an indescribable smell. From time to time, I have spent brief moments in your mansion. On the rare occasions that a friend or relative has taken me with them for a few minutes, I remember the smells of the flowers most of all. The place is pure delight.

Throughout the New Testament and in many of the books that were left out of the Bible, there are detailed descriptions of the place you're dreaming about. The people who wrote about Him say that Jesus said, In my Father's House there are many rooms. I go to prepare a place for you. (John 14:1)

That's where you are in those dreams. You've been there before, and you'll be there again.

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.