Uncover deeper secrets behind power dressing

Power dressing is a synonym for dressing for success. No matter which milieu you choose, how you look reflects how you feel about yourself. Would changing your appearance make any difference in how you’re perceived? Would changing self-care influence your esteem? Dressing for success includes feelings you reveal and conceal.

For working women, power dressing can mean female versions of men’s suits or other workplace attire, especially if women are expected to behave like female versions of men. If any hint of sexuality is removed from sight, would you think women would get more respect? What about self-respect? Should yours change?

Men at work are also expected to fit a particular part. Dressing up or dressing down makes its own statement about authority or subordination. Society has expectations for men and women. Each person chooses to conform to standards or not, to be a follower or a trend-setter. Each choice will have consequences.

How you review your position, whether or not you feel comfortable  in your role, all give you hints about the suitability of where you are.  Are you listening to your dreams? Your work choices may not touch upon social causes. Your focus doesn't have to be the pursuit of justice to be right for you. What's important to recognize is whether your choices revolve around other people’s ideas of success or your own.

No matter what you wear, or how you contribute to society, you hide behind masks. As you gain insight into the masks other people wear, you also gain insight into your own. It is these masks of emotion that shape your ideas of success and whether or not you realize them.  Do your current path and clothes make you feel good?

Some people portray arrogant or assertive personas, but they’re really terrified of powerlessness. Other people hide behind sexism or discrimination to conceal their unsatisfied desires, impotence or unresolved anger.  Appearances can indeed be deceiving. Learn to discern what is said by others through their subtle nuances. Reinterpret your choices. Are you a walking contradiction of success?

Fear is always linked to unhealed wounds. Violence, oppression and any other treatment that holds you back from success tends to stem from pain. This could reflect your own as much as anyone who seems outside yourself. Success can be understood as discerning the inter-connectedness among compassion, patience and power. We can only ever choose to heal ourselves.

Master the Guardian at the Gate

Spread the Love Now is a worldwide group writing initiative.  It invites many contributions as the joint brainchild by the Three Monks – Wade of The Middle Way, Kenton of Zen-Inspired Self Development, and Albert of Urban Monk.Net.  I encourage readers to explore their blogs and to write an article for this wonderful project.

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People often sense obstacles prevent them from experiencing love and realizing dreams. Why do obstacles to compassion arise in your own life and seem to persist? What can you do about that? How often do you interpret them as opportunities to learn to love yourself more deeply and to forgive more unconditionally?

By deciding you will confront obstacles, you’re ultimately moving to confront shadows. You are slowly uncovering how you measure meaning in your life, and eliminating those things that have little or no intrinsic value.  Master the Guardian outside the Gate.  Simply tap into what's hidden inside your soul.

Behind the shadow

We all conceal love behind the shadow we create for ourselves. We aren’t meant to turn our back on it. We need to learn to work through it. If we give in, then we succumb to our own weaknesses and we risk projecting them onto others. We need to find courage to invoke the sources of our perceived obstacles and become strong enough to push against them.

Until we take steps to master the challenges this shadow represents, it will continue to hold us back from our truest selves. This means we bar ourselves from choices we sense will enable us to love others for who they are, and to experience love to the fullest extent possible, that is, without limits.

Raising awareness

Each of us can choose to reframe our thinking. However we define love and compassion, our view can expand. We can decide this shadow we create will be our teacher, no matter which form it assumes; fear, doubt, ambition, shame, humiliation, selfishness, or any self-destructive behavior. We can choose to shift focus from ourselves, the wants and needs of ego,  to focus on becoming a miracle for others.

To learn more about love and compassion, all you have to do is be good to people. Whatever you have, you can offer it. It can be measurable, like money if you can spare it, or, it can be things like your time and energy. You can raise awareness about compassion by doing things for people who are unable to reciprocate or repay you. What you give from the heart will come back to help you discern your inner self and accept it as is.

Personal journey

Any negative energies we encounter reflect our own progress toward a greater understanding of love. Challenging people and circumstances actually give life to shadows that stand between you and your Highest self. This is your personal journey to knowing love. It requires you conquer fear, banish ignorance and liberate your spirit. No matter where you are, who you are, you can devise creative ways to be a blessing.

As we learn to work through what troubles us, we build strength and character and also discern the infinite power of our love that initially clouded our judgment.  It’s all about taking steps to redefine catharsis, purification and transformation.

The infinite power of Love

Love and compassion are not experiences beyond reach.  They are not the goals of some relentless pursuit that continually eludes you.   Life experience enables you to learn how to express love and compassion despite reasons your mind may echo you’re not worthy or someone else doesn’t deserve your love and forgiveness. 

As you progress on this mental and emotional journey, you discover the means by which your true identity takes form. You find the means to become unstuck, to get out of that rut, and you grasp the means to change for the better.  All you have to do is reach inside, embrace them, share them, and wait for the imagined confusion to pass.

Choosing a fork in the road

We’re all been there. You know, you set out for a destination and somehow, you get sidetracked. You end up on what seems to be a detour. You may come to a sign and take an unknown road out of pure curiosity. You may never reach the original destination. It may bother you or, you may forget about your initial intention completely. Upon later reflection, you may wonder if you were ever meant to reach the place in your initial thoughts. Maybe that quest had a different purpose.

Angels are always watching over you.  As you ask, they perform deeds to help you. What if you suddenly realized what you assumed were detours actually led you to the path you were meant to travel?  At times, your sense of direction may be misguided, yet, you go on as if all is well. Who or what might put new ideas into your head at different phases in your life? Could this be your guardian angels reminding you of their presence? Helping you get back on the right track?

Each step you take is either a step toward or away from your true self. Each choice you make can enable you to move into your true talent and true identity or, further cloud your perspective. Learning the difference is part of the reason you’re alive. Your guardian angel is ready to help. When was the last time you reached out for heavenly assistance? Why not ask for what you're thinking about right now?

Consider a woman who was driving to deliver material to a prospective client.  Encounters with heavy traffic and road construction caused her to rethink the trip midway. After waiting for a time, she turned her car around and began to retrace her steps. Soon after that, she came across a sign she hadn’t noticed before. The sign directed her attention to a different client prospect that had an office nearby. Although it turned out to be closed, she did find another unanticipated prospect. This new client turned out to be larger than the other two prospects combined.

Why did she set out for the original destination and never actually reach it? Why did this woman suddenly notice that alternative road? Where did that sign come from? Did her perception change? What about her energy vibration? Did she find something because she was ready and looking? Maybe her originally planned trip was actually meant to prepare her for what she found. It wasn't coincidence that she discovered an angel T-shirt with wings on the back that afternoon. It was another positive sign.

Rethink your motives

Many people seek to access Akashic records. They may be assumed as a store of everything you and everyone else has ever done, in this life, and in past lives. Some people sense things described as Akashic fields help explain cyclic events of the universe.  They offer an explanation for you discern certain events seem to repeat. Your curiosity may propel you to think, “how could I learn more?”

Of course, to realize you can access the sum total of all forces in the universe may intrigue and surprise you. You may wonder how Akasha could exist with motion and without motion where it would be transformed into potential. As you explore some of your own questions, I would encourage you to consider these:

1) Why do you desire to access your records? If you seek a short-cut to your Divine purpose or some trigger for self-interested revelations, then Akasha isn’t going to be accessible. You may also be going about this with inappropriate intentions.  Akashic isn't a tangible thing that would enables you to exert power over others. Its not a thing to be owned or possessed and it doesn't enable you to have a hold over people. You'll only access Akashic when the universe decides.

2) What do you hope to gain? If you seek answers to life’s mysteries outside yourself, then Akasha isn’t the answer. Self-growth arises from making choices along a journey, not from receiving what you think might be the answers to problems before they arise. On invisible levels, Akasha reveals who you are and why you exist now, and what events have influenced your evolution. Practices such as meditation enable you to gain insight into your ego mind.

3) Which messages are conveyed if you don’t see them? Ervin Lazlo has extensively researched this subject. His view of An Integral Theory of Everything explains that our own senses don’t register Akasha until we reach a certain level of spiritual practice. If Akasha is indeed an all-encompassing medium that underlies all things, and becomes all things, then one needs to learn how to step back from the world and its influences.  Its up to you to interpret events your way and evolve.

5 Steps to reconnect with the Source

As you reflect on awareness, you may come to believe mind power is our greatest gift. Each human being exists in part to learn how to use it, to discern and reshape how we think. As part of that process, you are meant to accept and believe in innate abilities you initially scoffed or overlooked. What are they? How can you explore your mindset differently right now? Embrace five steps to reconnect with the Source:

1) Believe everything that happens is an invitation. You may ask, “an invitation for what?” As the saying goes, “to learn or not to learn?” That’s the question. Consciousness is a journey. Your beliefs emerge from how you project and evaluate life experiences. What you retain and how you apply it determine the life you choose to lead. You have opportunities to act or not to act, to change or remain as you are.

2) Accept reality doesn’t change. Only perception alters our sense of time and space. How you sense your truth is based on what you think and feel. At this point, you may limit yourself to a physical reality. You may permit emotions to cloud your view. Do you focus on what enables you to feel good? Do you assume uncertainty must be negative? What of the influence exerted by your ego-mind?   If you choose, you can embrace obstacles as character-building, as necessary for your own development and increased self-understanding. Your mission is what you make it.

3) Realize your interpretation of events is full of errors. You’ve been taught things that go against your innermost thoughts and principles. It’s a given. You may be at a stage where you forget the original compassion and forgiveness that define your authentic self. It’s your job to uncover to what degree outside influences shape who you think you are and how you live. Whenever your thoughts and behavior move away from this inner truth, rationalization and ego take control. This implies you refuse to give up the beliefs you’re meant to change. What are you really giving up?

4) Nothing is gained through struggle. Issues you hesitate to deal with will reoccur in new forms again and again. If you sense you’ve been experiencing a vicious circle, the same kinds of painful or frustrating experiences will keep occurring in your life. This is because you're aware and expect them. If you feel like a victim in relationships, if you feel people shaft you or you don’t get what you want, then you conclude doing nothing, fighting back (being confrontational), or becoming defensive aren’t the answer. Your own perceived problems would simply escalate.

5) Love everything and everyone unconditionally. How many people do you know who succumb to self-centeredness and make choices because of being controlled by fear? Your own life may reveal examples where taking risks didn’t “pay off.” Rather than generate resentment and disappointment, why not sense blessings everywhere? Perhaps you’ve become content to remain complacent, to continue judging, criticizing and perpetuating beliefs that seem to define your identity. The way to raise awareness is to teach yourself to love everyone and everything unconditionally, no matter what they say or do to you. You get what you expect.  Imagine the incredible impact of showing others the meaning of true compassion.