Episode 23: The Essence of Power
The world needs people of power, not more power games, power struggles, and disempowerment.
Marti and Todd explore power in the negative, and then move into a conversation about how we can shift our perception and experience of power to participate in something much larger than ourselves.
From the Edge: Tribute to Christopher Alexander (Todd)
Conscious Rant: Frothing (Marti)
Series: People of Power
What if we think of power as potentiality and capacity, deeper than just the ability to act? Capacity—“to be able”—speaks more to a state of being. This power involves the capacity to act from an inner resource—an inner energy or knowledge—that has an expressive ability larger than itself. Potentiality and capacity suggest a fertile force that might spark germination and growth, not just the action of a force pushing on things.
In this series we explore what it means to be a person of power—one who stewards the process, rather than controlling it. One whose identity is so well grounded that s/he is completely part of life. People of power are leaders who impact the world significantly without effort and striving.
Photo by Maksim Romashkin
Timeline
1:39 Why a series on “power”?
3:06 Todd introduces the topic
9:40 Fear of power
14:41 Fear-based organizations
21:38 Remembering and deep work
26:09 Power is never isolated
31:52 Relaxing into power
34:43 Not knowing as power
37:44 Preview of coming episodes
40:14 From the Edge: Tribute to Christopher Alexander (Todd)
46:14 Conscious Rant: Frothing (Marti)
55:35 Takeaways
Quotes
“Power / life force/ Consciousness is used to create states of fulfillment to create abundance, to maintain the flow, and the evolution of abundant, successful life. That’s really what power is.” — Marti Spiegelman
“In order to become a person of power, we have to be in exchange with life . . . When we try to hold it, we actually cut ourselves off from that exchange.” — Marti Spiegelman
“Power is life force—something that flows through us. It is innate to us, it needs to be expressed, and there are a lot of different ways to express it.” — Marti Spiegelman
“It's that deep dive where our fear really lives. You can't deal with it on the surface. You have to go into yourself and find yourself. In finding yourself, claiming your own life, actually claiming your history, really claiming what actually happened to you because you can't change that. Claim it learn from it and surface it to live your own life. If we can do that, then we are really free. But it is a terrifying dive. We use our power to keep ourselves from that dive.” — Marti Spiegelman
“Passion is the force that ignites your life force and feeds your dreams. Passion is the force that ignites universal love as an organizing principle. Don't let your passion lie dormant.” — Marti Spiegelman
“The only way we learn anything is through direct experience.” — Marti Spiegelman
“If we can live into connecting to the world—experiencing moment to moment, knowing the world—we are much more powerful, and much more negotiable and fluid.” — Marti Spiegelman
“To Alexander, the process of designing buildings was not to be reserved just for the experts. It was for everyone, most importantly the people who were to live and work there. Architecture was an ‘unself-conscious process.’ The architect is not the powerful designer who delivers the blueprint. The architect is a facilitator, who applies a timeless way of building – core principles of living in communion with Nature.” — Todd Hoskins
“In Nature, the leaves don’t “make” a tree. In fact, the tree makes the leaves! There is a constant process of adaptive differentiation, and this process gives rise to new forms, through a process of morphogenesis. This is going on all the time in healthy structures, and healthy environments. We as planners and architects can either learn to support this kind of process, and support life, or we can choke it off, and create dead places.” — Michael Mehaffy
“In practice master plans fail - because they create totalitarian order, not organic order. They are too rigid; they cannot easily adapt to the natural and unpredictable changes that inevitably arise in the life of a community.” — Christopher Alexander
“[Alexander provides] a call for all of us to live in harmony with Nature, to evolve and allow our plans to evolve, to humbly and confidently sense and create.” — Todd Hoskins
“Thanks to the pandemic, we've really learned to use power to stay out of relationship. It's become habitual and we need to change now.” — Marti Spiegelman
“Through our rootedness we are given power, literally fed and informed by earth energies—by all the elements and forces of nature that create and sustain life. Fed and informed. That taproot into belonging is the source of our collective power.” — Marti Spiegelman
“When you are a collective person, Spirit will attend to your logistics.” — Marti Spiegelman
“How much effort are you using to get on top? On top of life? Your to-do list? Perhaps other people? Are you ready to step into the waters of collective power rather than trying to get on top?” — Todd Hoskins
Links
Credits
Theme music courtesy of Cloud Cult