Personal Growth: Discovering Your Area of Power

By Lynn Woodland

A seeker asks, "I want to make a difference in the world, but there are so many causes crying for attention that I feel overwhelmed. I don't know where to put my energy to have the greatest impact. Where do I begin?"

Lynn Answers:

There is no one "right" place to begin. Each of us has a different starting place, and the place where we will be of greatest service has to do with where we most want to give. If we want to have an impact on the world around us, it's important to identify what I think of as our "Area of Power." Our Area of Power is where we feel the most passion to act and have the most faith that results are possible.

If we pray for world peace, but have no vision of what this would look like and no faith that our prayers will help, our impact is less than if we pray for peace and harmony in our own family with a clear picture of what this means and excitement that healing is possible. Without faith that we can make a difference, our power to help is diminished.

The following steps will help you make the shift from ineffective good intentions to being a powerful catalyst for positive change. With this approach you are very likely to see results, which is important because when we see that we've had an impact, we have more faith in our spiritual power. With faith, our power increases and our Area of Power expands.

While I'm primarily addressing here how to be of service, the personal fringe benefits to helping are many. As we increase our power to change the world around us, our power to shape and transform our personal lives grows as well. As we understand how connected we are to all life, we find that our heartfelt effort to support another person's highest good just naturally furthers our own as well, often in ways we never would have imagined.

Know that you are more than a collection of personal desires, personal problems and personal histories. Every one of us is a spiritual force with limitless wisdom, power and love. Remember and remind yourself often of this truth.

Step Two: Identify Your "Area of Power"

Choose something to "light up" with the force of your spiritual power. It could be a person, a cause, or an area of the world. In deciding who or what to light up, listen to your heart rather than your fears and "shoulds." Let go of all judgments around what cause seems worthier and instead ask yourself where you feel the most passion to help. Where could you give service the most joyfully? It may be a world cause, it may be assisting a friend in pain. Don't assume the "bigger" cause is the better one. Where you feel the strongest pull is your Area of Power. This is where you will do the most good. If you feel no passion for any area of service, then assume you are your worthiest cause. You may need to begin your path of service by asking God to light you.

Step Three: Grow Your Faith

Along with passion, it's important to have faith and trust your cause is not a hopeless one. Faith and passion are a powerful combination. It isn't necessary to dispel all doubt in order to access the power of faith. As Jesus pointed out, it only takes the faith of a mustard seed to move a mountain. You can grow your faith bigger by giving more attention to all that has been accomplished and how much can be accomplished than to how much is wrong and how far there is to go. Keep your mind open to miracles and solutions you haven't yet imagined. If it's still difficult to believe your efforts can and do make a difference, imagine how you would feel if you did have total faith. Imagine what it would feel like to be someone you know of whose faith and power to make a difference is greater than yours. As you step out of yourself in this way and see through new eyes, you will experience a bigger faith. Even a moment of faith is a powerful force.

Step Four: Shine Your Light

Knowing yourself to be a spiritual being with the power to move mountains, imagine shining your Light into the area of need you have identified as your Area of Power. Do this in your own way. Say a prayer. Visualize a shining light dispelling all darkness. Open your heart with loving intent that the highest outcome now come to pass. Ritualize it in any way that helps you know the importance and sacredness of what you are doing.

Instead of focusing on fixing the pain and breakdown you perceive, find the core of health in a person or situation and imagine that growing bigger. Let go of what form healing is to take. Don't tell God what to do. Instead, open your mind to outcomes far better than you are currently able to imagine. Let the hand of Spirit move the mountain.

Spiritual work of this sort has been demonstrated to have a powerful effect. Numerous studies have shown, for example, that prayer speeds up the healing process, even in people who don't know they are receiving prayers. (For an excellent compilation of research on the power of prayer, see Larry Dossey's book, Healing Words.) Know that your gift is having an effect whether or not you see results in the way you want to. Healing is often like a seed that, once planted, remains invisible and dormant for a time until the growing season arrives. And when growth happens, it may not reflect your agenda.

Step Five: Take Action

Do the above spiritual work before deciding on a course of action. Prayer often eliminates steps and helps direct us to the action that will do the most good. Again, in deciding what action to take, follow your heart. Find the action that feels joyful to do and know that even the smallest action when it has spiritual power behind it makes a difference. Let go of judgments about the worthiness or importance of the action you take. Self-importance will diminish your spiritual power as will a lack of faith in yourself.

Over the years I have encountered many spiritual teachers and leaders of social change. There are a few who stick in my mind as especially powerful. However, along with the movers and shakers who are working in an obvious way to heal the world, there have been people who I've been just as deeply moved by in spite of their humble activities.

One such person is a woman I regularly encountered in my former hometown of Baltimore when I bought gas. She worked in a small Plexiglas booth between gas pumps on a busy stretch of city street in a neighborhood considered unsavory. Her job certainly wasn't glamorous, easy or overtly aimed at world healing. Yet she had an aura about her. Her smile was authentic and heartfelt whether it was to a polite elderly person or an intoxicated troublesome one. She seemed to create a ripple of peace around her in this chaotic atmosphere. More than once my encounter with her changed my day significantly for the better. It's hard to know how profoundly she affects the world around her through these simple emanations of love. My guess is that her impact is considerable, and so can yours be.

Lynn Woodland is the author of "Power, Effectiveness and Spirit." Please visit her website at http://www.lynnwoodland.com/