Standing in Your Own Power: Defy Institutions

Last week on *8Things I started a riff about ways to Stand in Your Own Power. As I said then, I’m not even sure what this turn of phrase means, and I know it is key.

I know it means not letting your internal authority be overruled by external sources of authority (religious institutions, schools, “experts”). I know it has to do with tapping into your intuition.  I know it is the most essential thing I can teach my children.

Allyson wrote to me asking that I expand on these thoughts. She has been on my mind a lot these days, and I figure that is a prompt from The Muse. So I am going to listen. For the next 8 weeks I will do my level best to write a post on each of the *8Things I Know about Standing in Your Own Power. These may be embryonic thoughts, but embryos have been known to go on to do great things. This week: Defy Institutions.

From the time our parents enroll us in preschool the Institutions start to shape us. Sit in your chair. Face front. Raise your hand. Don’t dot your “i”s with smiley faces.

This is not entirely a bad thing. At their best, Institutions teach us how to work in groups and to play nice with others. They introduce us to new ideas and provide us a place to practice.

The problem with Institutions — particularly church and school — is that a big part of their gig is to be Authority Figures. They get to be in charge because they purport to be the keepers of knowledge and instructions. They Know What to Do. They are the experts at How it is Done.  Furthermore, the Institutions have a vested interest in keeping the status quo. Because if the things they have authority over change — the way you learn, the way you worship, the way you connect to God — well, then they are out of a gig aren’t they? (Unless they can adapt. Unfortunately institutions are notorious bad at adapting at any kind of reasonable pace. They are clunky, those institutions.  Even as culture begins to shift, Institutions remain the same in mis-guided effort to hold on to power.)

Now what if YOU are an emerging, growing being? What if every day you are growing into your own skin, experiencing moments of revelation — what if you are becoming? What if you are doing all these things and you are embedded in the Institutions, which are standing still, ruminating on the past, and reminding you ad nauseam that they are the Authority?

When this happens you experience cognitive dissonance.

The messages the External Authorities are telling you, and the messages your Internal Authority is giving you – your Intuition – are discordant.  What you are being told about How it is Done and what you are functionally experiencing within your own being is not matching up. What Everyone Says and what your Own Wise Soul is telling you to do are clashing. The Institution is telling you to pay attention to their External  Authority, while your Internal Authority is tugging on the hem of your garment.

Now, you’ve been trained since preschool, right? So the Institutionalize Voices in your head are very loud. They are telling you to acquiesce. They are telling you that it is scary to challenge Authority. The Institutions are saying that Bad Things happen to little girls in red hoods who go off the beaten path. They are encouraging you to be afraid.

To this I say, “Bullshit.”

You have a deep seeded source of Divine, Intuitive Wisdom. The voice of the Institution does not get to drown that out.  Start listening to your own Voice. Name it. Acknowledge it. Act on it. And the voices of the Institution, of External Authority, will begin to quiet..and then to fade…and eventually you will rarely hear them at all.

Every time you practice…Every time you notice your Internal Authority…Every time you hear her voice you are standing in your own power. Every time you act upon it, you add to you power and make it increasingly possible to do it again, and again, and again. The effects are cumulative.

Here are some examples of how you might step into your own power, and listen to your Internal Authority:

External Voice: The school tells you to present your report double spaced with one inch margins and the staple angled on the left hand corner.
Internal Voice: You see the whole project as photographs in your head.
Act: Ask to give your assignment as a slide show instead.  (Do it both ways, if you must.)

External Voice: The church tells you to worship sitting in a pew that faces forward, making eye contact with no one but the Authority figure in the pulpit.
Internal Voice: Your body is longing to move and your mouth is full of the words which rest on your tongue.  
Act: Hike to the nearest lake and sing your lungs out while your voice echoes against the cliff walls.

External Voice:  The News is telling you that to survive you have to work full-time in a job that does nothing to feed your soul.
Internal Voice: You are longing for a flexible creative job that honors your body’s rhythms and lets you do what you love.
Act: Forget buying a house, sell your car, reduce your consumption, and strike out on your own.

Conventional Wisdom is frequently out of date, but the Divine Intuition within you is always current, always functional, and always speaking. Defy Institutions. Find your own way.

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Help us make this article stronger and better in its next incarnation. Add your thoughts, questions, and examples in the comments below. (Testify! We need your story!) Thank you for adding to the Giant Pool of Wisdom, now forming. We’re so glad you’re here!

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