Tag: claimyourpower

  • Faith is always there

    Faith is always there

    Faith is often associated with spirituality, or religion.

    But faith plays a role in our lives in ways we easily lose sight of.

    When we trust someone, we have faith in them to do the right thing.

    When we mistrust someone, we have reason to fear that they’ll do the wrong thing, meaning that we have more faith in them not doing the right thing.

    Faith is always at play the moment we consider what we need from the next moment, the next day, or the next encounter with someone about something important.

    If we lose sight of what we’re investing our faith in, we’ll focus on responding to our fear about the outcome potentially not being achieved, and our efforts will be driven towards mitigating the risk of that outcome.

    Our faith from a spirituality perspective is our fall back position for when our faith in others may be betrayed.

    But, if we only rely on our fall back position, we’ll prevent ourselves from having faith in those around us, giving them little reason to believe that we appreciate or trust them.

    That’s how we create distance between ourselves and others, and often, use that as a reason to believe that we were right in not trusting them.

    Meanwhile, they didn’t feel trusted. That’s why they created distance between them and us.

    Being true to yourself despite the risk of being disappointed when you invest your faith or time in others, is what becomes possible when you truly connect with the value of who you are, and what you are passionate about leaving as your legacy in the lives of those around you.

    When self-doubt creeps in, we withdraw our withhold or contribution, because we need others to validate our significance before we believe in ourselves.

    It always starts with you. Own your life.

  • Let the voiceless speak for themselves

    Let the voiceless speak for themselves

    I see so many people speaking on behalf of others, often starting out with good intention, but later distorting that intention by projecting their own values on the ones whom they wish to uplift.

    Despite our best intentions, we stifle the voices of others when we speak on their behalf.

    Not to be confused with supporting the oppressed against the oppressors, it means that we must cease the hand of the oppressor while creating a platform for the oppressed to speak for themselves.

    To give someone a voice is to ensure that they are independent of your voice.

    The difference between guiding and supporting them versus speaking on their behalf is the difference between allowing them to claim their dignity, versus making them dependent on you for their dignity.

    Anything less is a milder form of oppression and conflicts with the objective of uplifting others.

    For this reason, don’t seek to be anyone else’s voice. Gift them with their own voice by building them up to speak for themselves.