Unleash your Personal Power and become your own guru

In today’s fast-paced world, many of us struggle to tap into our personal power, often feeling overwhelmed or powerless in the face of life’s challenges. However, as I share in my Mindful Poetic Stories podcast my story of reclaiming my personal power, and how I love helping others to do the same. As you will hear, from my own experience, this is not only possible but I believe it is essential for living a fulfilling life. I never felt or believed I had any power, but it was interesting to come across Alice Walker who said: “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any”…

The book Super Brain by Deepak Chopra and Rulodph E Tanzi was my first step into neuroscience and the workings of our brain and I have been hooked ever since. This book really opened my mind and helped me to understand personal power but most of all I am grateful as this beautiful book helped me to respect and appreciate my brain, for its unique design, along with my miraculous self, at a deeper level.

The poetic story Personal Power is scribbled on the back cover, as it was written in 2021 when I was reading this book for the third time and the chapter entitled Personal Power. Episode 3 of my podcast “Make Your Mark”, which will be released on 11.02.25, was written a day later.

Louise Hays said; I don’t fix problems. I fix my thinking. Then problems fix themselves.

This book Super Brain helped me to understand that I could change my thinking patterns — and I was ready to.

When we are children our imagination, curiosity and creativity is at its height and its finest. But then in a bid to survive physically or emotionally, many of us develop limiting beliefs that hinder our personal power. Growing up is a journey in itself, and we can never underestimate the power of our beautifully designed brain and inbuilt survival system and its sole job of keeping us safe, protected and alive.

However, in past decades, from my experience, our survival system was only ever seen with regard to how we survive physically, but we didn’t even consider our emotional survival needs. In my podcast, I share my personal stories of believing I was “not brainy”, because I was not academic or intellectually brainy, and because I wasn’t as good as peers or others I believed I was not good enough.

I actually believed I was “stupid” during my school years. These beliefs, from my childhood, of being “less than” reinforced over time by my inner critical voices, led to self-sabotaging behaviours in work and relationships long into my adult life, until I finally realised it was those old outdated thought patterns that were debilitating me.

I have learnt that a scarcity mindset with thoughts like, “never having enough” or “never being enough”, can lead to an inner unhappiness and can be a slippery slope in our life; however, cultivating our personal power is the antidote to this.

In positive intelligence, we call limiting beliefs and negative reinforcement patterns of behaviours “saboteurs.” These are our programmed behaviours caused by underlying fears and negative emotions.

My “victim saboteur,” for example, as mentioned in my poem Personal Power, can generate perpetual feelings and thoughts of being fundamentally flawed, that there is something wrong with me, and this can feed into a loop of blaming others for our circumstances, we can get stuck in this thinking and it is this which hinders us. This voice can be challenging to quieten and to let go of but when we don’t learn to let go of its hold over us, it keeps us in a state of powerlessness and resentment.

Forgiveness is a crucial aspect — but with forgiveness it is never about condoning behaviours of others or circumstances, but about releasing the power someone or something has over you, so you can move on.

The journey to reclaiming personal power involves several key steps:
1. Self-awareness and self-acceptance
2. Forgiveness (of self and others)
3. Letting go of the past
4. Taking responsibility for our role in our own suffering
5. Focusing on building the new rather than fighting the old
6. Developing mental fitness and resilience

I would like to note, that personal power is not about domination or suppression and it is not tied to external factors like money, status, or possessions.

Instead, true personal power comes from a light within which encompasses:
• Self-confidence
• Good decision-making
• Trust in gut feelings
• Optimistic outlook
• Ability to turn desires into action
• Resilience in overcoming obstacles

How to start cultivating Personal Power
1. Believe in your unique power
2. Stop giving away the keys to your personal power
3. Examine and reprogramme self-sabotaging behaviours
4. Develop emotional self-awareness
5. Trust in a higher power and adopt an abundance mindset

Journaling and other forms of self-expression can be powerful tools for connecting with your personal power. Whether it’s writing gratitude lists, morning pages, or exploring story prompts, these practices can help build inner awareness and facilitate self-reflection. I recommend Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way.

Unleashing your personal power is a journey of self-discovery and growth. By understanding the science behind our thoughts and behaviours, overcoming limiting beliefs, and adopting strategies to cultivate our inner strength, we can tap into our uniqueness and live a more fulfilled life.

Remember, You Matter and the world needs your personal power more than ever – all you have to do is reconnect with it, step into it and shine from a place of authenticity with Self Love.

You can change the world because you are you and there is no one like you

As Yoko Ono beautifully put it “You change the world by being yourself”

Are you the one you have been waiting for all your life?

Tune in to episode 3 of my podcast, which looks more at personal power, here.