Dear Reader,
As promised, let's dive into the subject of influence.
Setting aside the paraphenalia of things we can ingest or use, let's broaden our perspective by considering the word 'influence' in a more general sense. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, influence is defined as the power or capacity to cause an effect in indirect or intangible ways.
So to answer the question of what influence you are under, you need to look at what is influencing your decisions, behaviours, and even your mood. Anything from the planetary alignment to the political situation or your family and friends expectations can have an influence on you. But it isn't a common thing to wonder about.
How often do you pause to ask yourself, What drives this decision I'm about to make? What triggered my reaction to this situation?
By default, we often assume that we are the conscious awareness residing in our bodies, directing our actions through our rational minds. This would seem like the normal scenario, and yet, we couldn't be further from the truth.
Most of the time, our attention is pulled out of ourselves, imagining potential scenarios, picturing what other people think and do, and adjusting our behaviour to create the desired result and to fit the persona we created to be accepted and loved.
Unless we make the conscious effort to bring our awareness inside our physical body and centre ourselves in a peaceful and open state, which a lot of people refer to as grounding, we are not fully under our own influence.
That's when we generally use our reasoning mind as a protective mechanism rather than an empowering tool.
To help us distinguish external influences, we have been granted the gifts of our emotions. Often misunderstood, emotions actually act as our internal compass, guiding us to understand the extent to which we are under our own influence. As a general rule of thumb, positive emotions reflect that we are mainly centred and subject to our own inner influence. The deeper and more felt these positive emotions are, the stronger our influence is active within our body and beyond.
Negative emotions, on the other hand, are a sign that we are not solely under our own influence. Of course, if external influences align with what you believe and feel to be true, nothing happens. But when external influences present contradictory data to what your inner intelligence provides, you experience that discrepancy in the form of emotions such as doubt, fear, anxiety, frustration, anger, sadness, etc. This is what is often referred to as resistance,
The level of resistance and negative emotions we experience is equivalent to the value we attribute to these outside influences.
Because we have been taught to calibrate to outside influences to fit in, pacify our lives, and get things going, we often miss the opportunity offered by the negative emotion, which is to strengthen our inner influence.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
As you journey towards empowerment and the embodiement of your Commander Energy, I would like to offer a practical tool. Although there are many ways to approach the subject of external influences, I prefer to work on strengthening your internal influence.
It requires that you pay attention to what you say.
Our choice of words serves as a mirror reflection of our emotional state. As an example, when we use vocabulary such as I have to and I must, often, unknowingly, we are expressing that we feel obliged to perform specific actions to satisfy an outside authority. I have to go to work or I have to pick up the kids from school, whichare very common examples.
No, I am not saying that to gain command and be under your own influence, you should stop going to work and let the kids find their way home on their own. The change is subtler than this and yet very powerful.
I choose to go to work.
I want to pick up my kids from school.
Can you feel how the power shifts in these sentences? You have not altered external circumstances, but you are now under your own influence. Of course, the words you choose must reflect your truth, but they must be empowering. This is not meant to be just a shift in words.
As you alter the words, you alter how you feel.
Once you start paying attention to this, you will be amazed at how simple it is to regain influence over yourself. You may also be shocked at how many times a day you use this type of phrasing. ;)
In time, you'll become so familiar with identifying these emotions that you will perceive them even when the words haven't been spoken. Little by little, it will reveal the web of external influences that you unconsciously give your allegiance to.
This is one step on the path of the Commander, simply becoming aware and taking ownership of your actions and thoughts.
When you have mastered this, you should take advantage of the opportunity offered by the negative emotions and start asking, How does my own influence perceive this situation?
It's one of those golden questions that opens the door to a much smoother way to dance with life, but I'll leave that for the next Commander's Report.
Until then, keep an eye on the words you use and become an avid follower of your own influence!
And if this text raises any questions, don't hesitate to send them my way, I'll be delighted to answer them!
Big hug,
