Today’s Mandala Message: Empower Yourself From the Inside Out – 3
This week I’m working through the final principle, Principle #64: Empower Yourself by Empowering Others of Jack Canfield’s book “The Success Principles”. I set my intention today to ponder more ways to empower myself. Continuing with an article by Ilene Berns-Zare entitled “Empower Yourself From the Inside Out” she states: “Life is a process filled with transitions and choices. What if we choose to deliberately learn and practice strategies to help ourselves strengthen our personal empowerment? Learning a new skill typically involves multiple choices that proceed one step at a time.” Knowing that by doing so, it will allow us to empower others with what we’ve gained in the process.
She offers 10 ways to empower yourself. I’ve been sharing them over the last couple of days. Here are the remaining 4:
7. “Know your strengths and grow them. When you recognize your strengths and use them, you can feel empowered. Strengths can be learned and developed throughout our lives. What are you naturally good at? What do you enjoy doing?”
8. “Get quiet on the inside. It may seem counter-intuitive, but gently quieting down can help you feel greater wellbeing and empowerment. Take time each day to pause and notice what you’re experiencing in this moment.”
9. “Be kind to yourself and others. Empower yourself with kindness. Treating yourself and others with care and kindness can help you experience greater acceptance of byourself and others. Self-compassion can empower you by combining strength with love (Neff, 2021).”
10. “Move toward your goals. Build your empowerment and wellbeing by establishing clear, realistic, meaningful goals and working to achieve them. What goal have you been waiting to pursue?”
As with the other six, these all resonate with me. #7 offers two great questions worth answering and focusing on for the new year (2024). I know I need to do more quiet time (#8). It’s challenging because I tend to have a busy brain. I also know that with practice it gets easier. With #9, I’m easily able to be kind to others…to myself, not so much. Definitely something I need to do more. As for #10, I have a lot of goals/projects…and maybe that’s why I struggle with pursuing any of them…overwhelm. I need to create an overall goal…a mission/vision. From there I could determine which of the goals/projects align best with my mission/vision.
It occurs to me that I recently came up with a tag line for “The Mandala Lady” that could also be my overall mission statement: to inspire and encourage creativity, curiosity, and play through the art of mandalas. It may need some tweaking but essentially that’s what “The Mandala Lady” is all about. For me personally, the statement would be shortened to: to inspire and encourage creativity through curiosity and play.
A good mindfulness practice would be to get quiet, then with kindness determine your strengths.
So how about you? Of the four self-empowerment ways presented, which one resonates with you the most? What are your strengths? Are you able to allow yourself to quiet down?
“Character
— Helen Keller
cannot be developed
in ease and quiet.
Only through experience
of trial and suffering
can the soul be strengthened,
ambition inspired,
and success achieved.”
Blessings,
Maureen
The Mandala Lady
All Things Mandalas
An Invitation
I invite you to color along with me this year as part of what I’m calling “The Year of Self-Exploration and Expansion” with all of my “Mandalas of the ___” (day, week, month, year). If you’re interested in more of a self-exploration approach to coloring, check out my “Coloring Mandalas as Meditation”. You can download this mandala at MandalaoftheWeek.com.
Mandala of the Day 