Activate your Power
Activate your Power
By Lisa Byrne, NABBW’s Boomer Women\’s Fitness Expert
Believing that you have power and using it for your growth will make the biggest difference in your fitness for life program. I often think about the word “power” and how to get the message across about its influence.
As a movement and fitness coach, part of what I teach to the women that come into the studio is how to build their strength and power for everyday life. No, I’m not talking about bulking up by pumping iron. These are Boomer women who have nothing like that on their radar. And it’s not only in terms of their physical power.
My specialty is helping people find a fitness track that will work for them according to their physical issues, present lifestyle, and future idea of themselves. It is about helping them learn how to fit in exercise/fitness/movement whatever you want to call it.
For many, fitting it in sometimes means forcing it in. Forcing fitness. That just makes me cringe. Why? Well, I sense we have forgotten what we are capable of regarding our health and wellness in movement. Being well or well being is about taking care of ourselves in many dimensions that truly begins way deep inside.
But what is power really? How do you find it? Above all, how do you use it?
Understanding the idea of physical power is an easier concept to grasp because we can look at building physical power as a process. Over time we do specific movements to build into that. We don’t start moving around 5 lb. weights and immediately become strong or powerful. There are a few other considerations like time, practice, progression and patience.
It’s the way deep down power, the invisible strength that is not so easy to teach to someone. This is a quality that cannot be taught, it must be ‘caught’. By you.
Deep at the core of every human is the capability to harness the physical power along with its mental and spiritual aspect. It is a ‘seeing it’ inside, feeling it, tapping into it, exuding it, and with all that fired up, it comes. But it must start in your mind. Mentally you must believe that you embody it and believe it to be true.
You have the power. You house it. It is not stored electronically on a disk, file, box, or shelf. Let it leak out and it will. Harness it, feed it, build into it, spread and share it. The word ‘power’ originates from the word ‘potent’ which means to have influence to achieve or bring about a particular result. What do you desire to achieve? This answer you want to keep in mind so that you can recognize the result as it approaches. If you don’t know where you are going, it will be hard to tell when you arrive.
So, if we took an all encompassing definition of power let’s say: it implies the latent or exerted physical, mental and spiritual ability to act upon. In other words, exerting effort. You have the ability to apply power by using your energy to transform. Nobody else can do this for you. Making yourself accountable to another person is fine to use as a tool. A tool aids you in accomplishing a task. Use it for what it is worth. Put it back into the toolbox when you are done, you can access it later.
Strength is the quality that makes possible withstanding the strain or the exertion of force. Do you think of strength when you hear the word power? I think that’s what most people equate strength with power, being strong. Certainly, that is a great quality to have. To be strong is to be able to do what you need and want to do because you can.
Remember though, it is the way you use strength that matters. Strength is probably the one word here that you can get a grip on. It could be a palpable feel. You know when you are strong enough to move something or withstand the strain.
But how do you activate your power?
How do you use it for your growth to make a really big difference in your fitness plan for life? It really all comes down to one step. Teach your body to see it. You see, you can physically teach your body to see it, and this over time builds strength. You can apply that power using your energy and transform your life. Using this force inside of you is the actual effective exercise of power. Employ these so that you may be able to have influence to bring about a result for yourself. Believe in it, you can do it. Remember, it takes time, practice, progression and patience to get where you are going. You’ll see and feel the accomplishments along the way as you keep an open mind.
Being well means using your power to honor not only what you have become to this point, but also what you are about to be. Being well is like having a lookout tower- always aware of what is happening. Is it safe to land? Is it safe to start anew?
Activating your power is a knowing belief in your own ability to do it. “It” can be the new 3 month fitness program, your new job, learning that new dance that feels funny, or finding a way to respond positively from the less than good news you just received. It comes down to having that confidence first and foremost that you have every right to be in the place where you are, period.
You can be in this, so activate your power. Call it up, work it out, muscle through it, and energize yourself. Don’t just sit there and do nothing. No matter what it is, you have the ability to exert physical, mental, or spiritual ability to act on it, simply because you can. Go for it and honor it yourself the whole way- you can do it.
Lisa Byrne is the owner and chief creative officer at Pilates for Sport, LLC in Bucks County, Pa. She has her B.S in Exercise Physiology and is a Certified Pilates Instructor. Lisa has operated her fully equipped Pilates studio since 1999 and has been in the Health and Fitness Industry for 23 years. The studio space is home to private sessions, small group training, and the outdoor circuit buffet, sure to get anyone grooving. Visitors to the movement studio span the range and include average Boomers looking for diversity; young people with Asperger\’s-Autism; hard core athletes looking to ‘loosen up\’; and those in need of chronic pain management through movement. Learn more about Lisa on her site, Move More Today.
