[Self Series] Empowering Yourself

Before every sports match, game, or even practice, sports teams allot time for warming up. During this time, they stretch to warm up their muscles and they perform drills and exercises in order to perfect their skills. This period of warming up is crucial for a successful or hard-fought game because it begins to condition the body and the mind for the duration of the game. Usually, right before a game, sports teams gather in huddles and go through a series of ceremonial practices in order to boost team morale. In essence, the time before any sports match or game is crucial for empowering the team and preparing the team for “battle”.So, as we close out this series, we should allot this time for our own “warm up”. In order to condition our minds and prepare our hearts and souls for the matches and battels we face every day, it is important to reflect on what we have learned, how we have grown, and what we have come to know about ourselves. Throughout this series, we have probed and prodded at areas in our lives in order to deeply evaluate our strength and our growth through that strength.First, we started with loving ourselves. We learned to love everything that has shaped and guided us to be the people we are today. We learned to love all the joys of becoming who we are along with the mess that has allowed us to stumble into the people we have become. By learning to love ourselves, we have found a deeper and more powerful love to share with the world around us. We continued with expressing ourselves. Here, we learned that there is authenticity, opportunity, authority, and freedom in the way that we express ourselves. Once we learn to rightfully and honestly express how we are feeling and what we are thinking, we give others the opportunity to listen and we allow ourselves to bridge communication gaps by listening in return. We then went on with overcoming self-doubt. We drew upon knowing ourselves and loving ourselves in order to speak truth into our circumstances and we reminded ourselves that we are capable of overcoming fear and doubt. But, we challenged ourselves to surround ourselves with people who will reiterate that truth and speak it into our lives when our voices grow weary. After that, we explored growing up and growing into ourselves. We learned to give ourselves grace while we are figuring out what it is we want to do and who it is we want to be. More importantly, we learned that we are living with each choice we make and each risk we take, each failure we undergo and each success we achieve. For, life is the accumulation of our actions in the simple and little moments which build up our character and prepare us in the event that we take on a paramount task. We continued with seeing ourselves. Here, we learned that the power to love ourselves, be secure with ourselves, and respect ourselves is stronger than any other power that could be given to us by another person. We learned to see ourselves and treat ourselves in such a way that we shower ourselves with the love and worth that we deserve. We learned to settle down with ourselves. We learned to give ourselves the slack that we so desperately want to throw to someone else because, in the end, the way we know ourselves and treat ourselves is a reflection of the power we have within us. Then, we went on with dignifying ourselves. We learned that we are worth it, that our uniqueness gifts us with an influence that no one else in this world has. We challenged ourselves to live according to our worth and to act out of that worth. Finally, we embraced believing in ourselves. We learned to believe in our strength and character, in who we are and who we aspire to be. Likely, we learned to believe and invest in our dreams, for when we allow our dreams to soar, we welcome the opportunity of impacting the world.And now, we understand that all these areas of loving ourselves and growing into ourselves leads to empowering ourselves. Through constantly growing in loving ourselves, expressing ourselves, overcoming self-doubt, growing up, seeing ourselves, dignifying ourselves, and believing in ourselves, we will be all the more capable of empowering ourselves. Through this empowerment, we will realize and know our strength to continue to become all we can be. We will push ourselves to learn more about ourselves and more about the world. We will use the love we have grown for ourselves in order to better love those around us. In making our mark in this world, we will use what we have come to know about ourselves: our strength in times of fear and doubt, our perseverance in times of strife, our certainty in times of darkness, and our joy, knowledge, and passion in times of persecution. You see, when we continually grow in these areas, when we push ourselves beyond the limits we thought we could reach, we are empowering ourselves to be the best versions of ourselves. Once we keep elevating the mark of our “best version” we continue to empower ourselves, and in doing so, we empower those around us. Our reach, then, surpasses the mark we set for ourselves and reaches the mark that we have been inspired to set for others. As we continue to push ourselves to love ourselves more, express ourselves more, know ourselves more, and believe in ourselves more, we inspire others to do the same. So, a community of people who are continually empowering themselves and one another have the power to impact the world, to rid the deepest of oppression, to replace the darkest sorrow with the most exuberant joy, and to spread love and light to the farthest ends of the earth.Now that we are all warmed up, let us go forth into our worlds, into our daily lives, and spread our unique influence. Let us live with courage, strength, truth, and dignity. Let us give others the strength to live with passion and authenticity. Now that we are all warmed up, let us put up a good fight against daily battles because we know that our influence is significant, our courage is undeniable, and our story is worth being told.