“Our deepest fear
is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are
powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness,
that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn’t serve this world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God
that is within us;
It is not just in some of us – it’s in everyone!
As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others!”
Nelson Mandela – Inaugural Speech 1994
The preceding speech showed up in exact form twice on my desk in a span of 24 hours. God was telling me something, so I am listening…
A beautiful new yogi called me “powerful” in yoga class today. I thought that was the best compliment ever although at first, I shied away from it but did manage a thank you. This same yogi said she loved her first class. Her goal had been to feel “wrung out” and mission accomplished. My goals for yoga class are strength, flexibility, balance and stamina, all important for my physical and mental health. Then I thought about it, my ultimate goal isn’t to be powerful but to know my own power.
I am often reminded of Pink’s appearance at last year’s Grammy Awards. It is one of my favorite performances of all time. She brought the entire music industry to its feet with her song Glitter in the Air. If you missed it, please watch it on You Tube. It made me stop breathing and brought tears to my eyes. I was so proud to be a woman watching her command the entire audience with her voice and body. She was so confident in her abilities, in her gifts, in the power that is her divine right. It was one of those times I thought to myself, ‘God I want to do that.’ I am not a singer but wish I were. I haven’t discovered another medium other than music that can express what there are no words for. We all have this power inside us, waiting for us to remember it is there. For those of us that are not musicians, how can we release it? Maybe I have to write a screenplay. Movies are a great medium as well, when accompanied by an amazing soundtrack mind you.
When I received that compliment in class, I first thought of all the yogi’s that can stand on their heads or hover on their forearms for an hour and thought of how far I have to go. Then I thought, ‘hey stac, why don’t you acknowledge how far you’ve come’ (for just a sec). So, yes I have come a long way. I am at least done with unconscious living and unconscious behavior. It wasn’t that long ago that you could find me eating out of a tub of something, fridge doors still open, before I even realized I had gotten out of my chair. Food was always my great miracle stuffer. Things that are working for me on my road to higher consciousness are: Hatha Yoga courtesy of the wonderful environment at Blackbird Yoga, Kundalini Yoga taught by the radiant Jackie Tepper, meditation and reading a lot of books.
So I whole-heartedly agree with that new yogi and I too want to be wrung out. Not in the beaten down by life sort of way, but in the used to my fullest capacity by the glorious grace running through me sort of way. I want to be used up by God’s divine plan for me.
With all of the goal setting that seems to go on this time of year, here are mine as it pertains to this topic: to know my own power, to connect to the abundant stream of energy at my source and that which connects us all, to expand my consciousness, see our world in a fresh new way and to quote Susan Boyle, “be who I was born to be.”
Happy 2011!!
