Are You Really in Control? Tips to Reclaiming Your Power

Empowerment
Empowerment is the belief that you are in control of your life. How you view the world, your relationships and your perceptions contribute to empowerment. People feeling they control the choices they make in their life tend to have a higher sense of satisfaction with their life than people feeling they do not have any control or choice over their destiny. Believing that you have a choice about the direction of your life and how you respond to situations is called an internal locus of control. Perceiving that you do not have a choice and being reactive to problems contributes to an external locus of control. This fosters stress and depression.

An internal locus of control does not mean that you can control what situations happen in your life. Everyone has problems and challenges. The empowerment comes from realizing that you have a choice as to how you want to deal with the situations in your life. If you feel like you would like to strengthen your internal locus of control to increase your feeling of empowerment, there are steps you can take to make that happen. Becoming aware of your self talk, beginning to set boundaries and awareness of choices you have to change a situation are steps to increase your sense of empowerment.

Self-talk
Everybody does self-talk and has messages that they use. Start to become aware of your messages, particularly when stressed or faced with a problem. Is your message negative or positive? Is it a message that you heard repeatedly from someone when you were younger? Does your message take you to a place of blame or one that focuses on solutions?

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