What is Your Disempowerment Style?

IF ONLY... I HAD MORE RESOURCES!..
[more money, more time, more help, more energy, more support, more
authority, more love, more luck, more success, better health, more
strength, more self-confidence, more good luck, more consideration
from others, more positivity, more talent, more qualifications, more
good looks, etc.. etc..]


IF ONLY... I HAD LESS BURDENS!...
[less workload , less responsibilities, less problems, less demands,
less pressure, less worries, less outgoings, less burdens, less pain,
less feeling miserable, less wounds, less criticism, less setbacks,
etc.. etc..]


In "Why People Don't Heal and How They Can"
http://www.Amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553507125/sunflowerheal-21
Caroline Myss states that in her experience the number one block to
healing is "LACK OF POWER" and I absolutely agree with this!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The 6 Disempowerment Styles
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

1. FRAGMENTATION
--------------------
We are constantly busy, rushing around, trying to get somewhere.
Scattered in pieces over many tasks and concerns. Maybe we are trying
to work hard enough to get to a place
of "success", "fulfillment", "security", "being
accepted/loved/valued/feeling good enough" or maybe a "peace, rest
and contentment"? Whatever it is, it is always "tomorrow" and
tomorrow never quite comes, or if it does come, it turns sour, turns
out to be a "fool's paradise", and our hard work to "get somewhere -
anywhere!" begins all over again.

We know that peace and fulfiment begin inside us, but we just have to
wrestle all those tasks, threats and opportunities to the ground,
before we can sit back, relax and enjoy life. As our busy-busy life
takes its toll on our health and relationships while our deepest
goals are as far away as ever, we become increasingly miserable
inside and distract ourself in more and more ways to keep busily
working on the "busi-ness of living" while telling ourself "I just
have to put up with the way my life is right now".
See also: "Hyperarousal"
[http://www.lovehealth.org/tools/centring.htm]

2. SELF-SABOTAGE
--------------------
Our life is ruled by self-sabotaging mind-talk ["I have to...", "I
must...", "I need to...", "I can't...", "I have no choice..." etc]
AND self-sabotaging cravings and addictions [coffee, sugar, alcohol,
junk food, sex, sympathy, gossip, couch-potato-TV-lifestyle, internet
addictions, narcissism, retail therapy, etc. etc.]
See http://www.sunflower-health.com/courses/selfsabotagecontent.htm

3. LEARNED HELPLESSNESS (co-dependency)
-------------------------------------------
is a "clinging and blaming" lifestyle ruled by "I'm no good/not
enough on my own", "My life is dependent on the whims, fancies or
incompetence" of other people/organisations/God/Destiny who are more
powerful than (but not as innocent, pure and self-righteous as!) me".

4. NEGATIVE PLEASURE
-----------------------
A lifestyle focused on ways to feel less miserable rather than on
creating positive experiences. Often accompanied by a lot of
arrogance or envy and criticising or sabotaging others. Underneath
there is loneliness and insecurity.
See http://www.lovehealth.org/tools/alchemy.htm

5. "SPACE CADET", "DREAMER", "AIR-HEAD"
------------------------------------------
If we want to have power to create results in our earthly everyday
life (including body healing) it is not enough to have ideas,
inspiration or "divine guidance", we must also draw on the power
resources rooted in our physical body, including our emotions,
passions, instinctual drives and our everyday-world relationships.
See http://www.lovehealth.org/tools/centring.htm

6. BATTERED, DOWNTRODDEN, TRAUMATISED
----------------------------------------
After life has given us a "beating" it is natural and healthy to
withdraw from the hurly-burly of everyday life and relationships for
a while. To "Let go", rest, restore, heal, stay safe and focus on the
simple basics of survival and recovery. However sometimes this goes
on too long and we may settle into a "I will never recover" mindset.
This can become a self-serving, feather-bedded rut as other people
move to support us and everyone, including ourself, makes less
demands on us, allowing us to avoid the inevitable risks and ups-and-
downs of everyday life. Over time we can adapt to a comfortable but
unfullfilling "permanently wounded" lifestyle, but all the while our
actual human potential in this lifetime is being neglected. We can
become identified with our woundedness - it can become a "badge of
honour as well as a mealticket. If we neglect our soul's agenda for
self-actualisation in this lifetime, we condemn ourselves to a life
of low self-esteem...
http://www.stress-counselling.co.uk/management/self-esteem.htm


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Centre of Your Sphere!" - A Path to Self-Empowerment
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

We all live in the centre of a sphere - the sphere that is "our
world" or reality. This is our "sphere of influence" i.e. things that
we can change or otherwise interact with, and at the same time this
same sphere is the "sphere that influences us". For example, things
that we "influence via possession" such as a home, car or job,
also "possess and influence us" - e.g. influence how we spend our
time & energy, and may even influence how we feel about ourself and
how we describe who we are.

This sphere of influence/influenced is at the heart of our
experiences of empowerment and disempowerment. By working with it,
using ancient the shamanic principles of connection to soul,
community and nature, we can become clearer about the structure and
dynamics of our personal sphere at this point in our life and begin
to modify it, if we so wish, to a more self-empowered lifestyle
characterised by greater: Balance - Empowerment - Assertiveness.

If you are interested in this approach we will be repeating last
year's "At the Centre of Your Sphere!" workshop in Cambridgeshire on
Saturday July 19th 2008. More information here:
http://www.sunflower-health.com/courses/assertiveness.htm

More forthcoming workshops on:

* Anger Management
* Positive Thinking
* Practical Mysticism
* Stress Management
* Shamanism & Positive Living
* Sacred Circle Dance

can also be found at http://www.sunflower-health.com/workshops.htm


Best wishes

Mike