JUDITH BARR
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"Power is like fire, lightning, wind, ocean – like life itself – a raw, vibrant force of nature. It has the potential for great harm and the possibility for magnificent good. Each of us chooses, whether consciously or unconsciously, how we will use the power of our own life energy."* |
Every form of power can be used well or misused.
- Law is used to manipulate as well as to serve justice.
- Parenthood can be a means of captivity; and it can nourish a soul, helping it grow into fullness.
- Sexuality can be a weapon to rape and dominate, a substitute for unmet childhood bonding and physical touch, and an exquisite sacred expression of love and union.
- Money can feed, clothe, house, nurture, and fulfill positive potential; or it can be used to grab, hoard, trick, steal, sabotage, and destroy.
- Work has been used to create, engage people’s gifts, experience cooperative ventures, do good in our world; and it has been used to take advantage of people, make slaves of them, suck the life out of people for someone’s personal gain.
- Even God’s name can be used to destroy and to heal.
The misuse and abuse of power is rampant in our world today – sometimes under the guise of goodness, sometimes raw and unmasked. It is right out in the light of day. If we are willing to see it, we can utilize it for healing.
Too often we try to change things in the outer world and wonder why it doesn’t last. But in order for our corporations, our communities, our world to recover, the changes must occur within each of us. They must take place from the inside out.
In the realm of power, if you remove a corporate leader from office because he is abusive to his employees, that is a temporary fix. Sooner or later another officer in the same company will need to be removed because of some other abuse of power in the chain of command. But if corporate leaders do their own inner work with their relationship with power – the environment of the corporation will be transformed from the inside out.
We all have so much we can bring to the healing of our companies, our communities, and our world. Our inner work needs to include four crucial aspects:
- We need to feel and not be afraid of our feelings. Our feelings are friends and guides: some to right action and some to the ancient wounds calling to be healed. If we repress our feelings, we feed misuse and abuse of power without even knowing it.
- We need to be open to, and intrigued by our shadow: the dark within of which we are not yet conscious; the part of us with wounds to be healed, weaknesses to be transformed, strengths and gifts to be birthed and developed into fullness. If we ignore our shadow, it will haunt us and drive our lives without our even realizing it, inevitably creating the misuse of power in its wake.
- We need to hold the light and dark together, for our wholeness and the wholeness of our world. Jennifer Berezan sings it beautifully in her song Open It Up: “If we do not face the darkness we will not see the light; there is beauty in the day, but there is healing in the night.” We women need to remember that conception and gestation occur in the dark fertile womb! If we split the light and the dark apart, we will make ourselves the light and project the dark in us onto some other person, family, company, or country – a misuse of power in and of itself.
- We need to develop a passion and commitment to consciousness. None of us is perfect, but when we take on the responsibility of leadership at any level, even within our family as a parent, we need to make a radical commitment to living responsibly and consciously. We need to know that we have blind spots and commit to our healing—not only for our own sake, but so that out of our unhealed wounds we don’t cause harm to others. It is alarming the widespread effect our wounds can have on others…all over our world. Not committing to consciousness is a misuse of our power.
Near the end of the movie The American President, Michael Douglas gives an impassioned speech:
America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship.
You’ve gotta want it bad. ‘Cause it’s gonna put up a fight. It’s gonna say, ‘You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil. Then claim the land of the free. The symbol of your country can’t just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising the right to burn that flag in protest. Show me that, defend that... and then sing the land of the free.’ ”
Let’s translate Douglas’ speech into passionate, inspired words about consciousness, meant to call us into the healing process.
Consciousness isn’t easy. Consciousness is advanced living.
You’ve gotta want it bad. You’ve gotta be called to it and say ‘yes.’ ‘Cause it’s gonna put up a fight. It’s gonna say, ‘You want consciousness? You want real healing and transformation? You want to truly become all you can be? Let’s see you commit to healing the misuses and abuses of your own power – the ones you know about and the ones you don’t yet know.
Let’s see you commit and not break the commitment, even though you feel you want to. Let’s see you discern when you give lip service to consciousness from when you live it. Let’s see you develop the ability to do this with love and compassion and truth, all held together. Let’s see you refuse to stay on the surface, insist on rooting yourself at the very depths of your being. Then you can begin to trust that you will work with your power consistently. Then you can say you are living consciously.
Judith Barr is a depth psychotherapist and spiritual counselor in private practice in Brookfield, Connecticut. For more than 30 years, she has brought a passion for safety to the healing process and a commitment to help heal the abuse of power in every arena of life. Her new book, Power Abused, Power Healed, addresses this theme in both the healing arts and other arenas of life. Contact Judith Barr at 203-775-5006, JudithBarr@PowerAbusedPowerHealed.com
*Judith Barr, Power Abused, Power Healed, p. iii, Mysteries of Life, 2007.
© 2007, Judith Barr. |
