Spiritual Empowerment

SPIRITUAL EMPOWERMENT

by Diane Brandon

Those of us on the spiritual path have by and large undergone profound shifts in the past decade or two. We have sought “enlightenment,” more peace, positive energy, and healing. One of the most significant shifts, I feel, is that towards what I would call “Spiritual Empowerment.”

If you think back over the past several decades – even centuries – you may see the extent to which people relied on others outside of themselves – authority figures in church, in government, etc. – for advice, counseling, and, even more troubling, for beliefs, ideas, and thinking.

This engrained custom carried over into the 20th Century and even into its late decades, as people by and large looked to others to guide them in their lives. Even among the spiritual community, both in the East and in the West, we looked to “gurus” and other masters. While respecting and revering others is a positive practice, when we take it to the extreme by not listening to ourselves or developing our own sense of knowing and by looking to others to “heal” us and tell us what to think, we are doing ourselves both a personal and spiritual disservice.

There has been a gradual, but marked, shift in the past several years toward people looking within themselves for answers and outside of themselves to others simply for facilitation, but not to be told what to do or what to think. This is a blessedly positive spiritual shift, because empowering ourselves not only reduces our stress and strengthens our inner core, it also leads us to vibrate more fully with Divine energy, thereby shifting our energy to a lighter and higher level.

I have seen this shift in my intuitive counseling work with others. I have had decreasing numbers of clients wanting just to be told what their future holds or wanting to be taken care of – and more and more truly wanting to be facilitated or guided in a more empowering manner. Healers, as well, are seeing this shift. Rather than people just wanting “to be healed” in a passive manner, more and more are looking for healing facilitators after having read and learned about those healing modalities that could assist their process.

Being the “master of our ship” is freeing as well. Spiritual empowerment does not mean that we become closed down or closed off to others; it means, instead, that we remain open to others’ thoughts, what we read and hear, and the advice of experts – while taking all of that “under advisement,” sitting with it to see what our inner knowing tells us concerning it, and balancing what is outside of us with that which is inside.

What a wonderful shift this move towards spiritual empowerment is! Many of us have embraced this more positive way of being and wouldn’t want to go back in time to any former mode.

Shifts do happen – and oh, how positive they can be!