Power from internal to external

Power is often experienced in relation to other people, as when a person expresses power over someone else. However, power is also closely associated with control. An example occurs when one spouse controls another spouse's decisions. Although power is often experienced externally, it originates in our psychologies. Our shadows (dark side of the personality) and our egos (identities, values and beliefs) are responsible for expressing external power.

Associated with power is a sense of domination. Clearly, a controlling person dominates over the other person being controlled. When this happens, the controlling person experiences a sense of personal ego strength (their identity feels inflated) and a sense of domination, following from the power inflation. Child abuse and rape immediately come to mind.

Other situations leading to power include leadership positions, feelings of fear and feeling threatened. In these cases, we, again, often express or react with a sense of shadow and egotistical power. In other words, we try to control and dominate the people we lead and to reverse a threatening situation to reduce our fears.

Collectives or groups also express a form of power. So often, we hear one group expressing that their race is far superior to another race or a country indicating it is the most powerful country in the world, while attempting to dominate other countries with threats and intimidation. Bullying is the everyday term for these power expressions.

So, power expressions extend from an individual level, to a leadership level, to a collective level, but there also are dominant expressions on a species level. The human species expresses power over animals, insects, microbes, plants and the earth. Almost over everything! So often, our egos and collective egos are power-driven and inflated, but as mentioned, these power-driven expressions are defenses against our fears.

Clearly, the earth and its weather patterns have repeatedly demonstrated a natural and greater power than ours. This cannot be denied. Today, we only need to look to the news, which is riddled with descriptions of the coronavirus, to realize how powerless we are. Human beings are getting sick, dying, being quarantined, panicking and more, due to this virus. My point is that as a species, humans are not nearly as powerful as the earth or the smallest viruses invisible to our eyes.

The realization that humans, individuals, leaders and collectives are not nearly as powerful as they claim is important. Finding ways to humble our egos and diminish our shadows leads to psychological balance that not only benefits human nature and each individual, but the earth as well.