Practice These 3 Skills To Feel Empowered

Feeling confident, powerful, and capable are all essential pieces to growing and learning as a person. You are much more likely to be successful at something if you believe you can do it.

The opposite is also true. Doubt and insecurity can be detrimental to one's ability to learn new things and grow if they allow them to overshadow everything else.

While it may often feel like everything is out of your control, that is not the case. Stepping into your power over your own life is possible, and it is called empowerment. Keep reading to discover what empowerment means, how to harness it to drive your motivation, and how to cultivate it within yourself.

Unlocking the Power of Empowerment

Ever have that feeling like you're on top of the world and ready to take on any challenge?

When you exude self-confidence, assurance, and self-determination, you radiate empowerment. Empowerment is a "process that fosters power in people for use in their own lives, their communities, and their society by acting on issues they define as important" (Page & Czuba, 1999).

Empowerment is about feeling "in power" - confident and capable of creating the life you want. It cultivates the belief that you can accomplish anything and gives you the strength to pursue your dreams. If you lack motivation or confidence, empowering yourself may help your self-esteem and quality of life.

In a study, an online psycho-educational program was used to aid individuals with depression. The study measured changes in empowerment and found that participants experienced an increase in self-esteem and empowerment immediately after the program.

The impact on their quality of life was still noticeable even six months after the program concluded! (Crisp et al., 2014). This indicates that boosting self-esteem and feeling more empowered can have a positive impact on one's overall quality of life.

The opposite of this feeling is powerlessness or defeat. This mindset may cause you to feel like a victim and believe your life is out of control. While it isn't possible to feel fully empowered one hundred percent of the time, having a defeated attitude may have a negative consequences for your health.

A lack of empowerment (high powerlessness scores) is associated with:

• More limits on physical activity with age

• More Negative psychosocial symptoms with age

• More health problems five and ten years post-survey

• Deterioration of health in general (Seeman & Lewis, 1995)

Don't worry if you often feel powerless. Empowerment is a trait that we can cultivate with time and practice.

How To Empower Yourself

Now that you better understand empowerment, how can you start to build it within yourself?

Some people may naturally feel empowered and confident, while others may need to work on building a sense of empowerment. The following are suggestions for developing behaviors and taking actions to increase feelings of empowerment.

Develop positive self-talk

Negative self-talk can be harmful to your state of mind. By consciously replacing negative thoughts with positive affirmations, you can develop a more supportive and encouraging relationship around self-talk. For instance, rather than accepting the thought, "I can't do that," which reinforces feelings of doubt, inadequacy, and helplessness, you might reframe it to, "I can do difficult things."

It also may be helpful to remind yourself of times in the past you have accomplished difficult things as proof. The shift in perspective changes your emotions and fundamentally your outlook on your ability to conquer challenges.

Quick tip: Incorporate techniques such as journaling or mindfulness to further support this process. Actively writing and challenging unhelpful thoughts builds the habit and develops resilience.

Here is a list of techniques you can use to reframe negative thoughts.

Create an action list for your goals

Ideas and goals are important, but they are essentially meaningless without action. Empowered individuals understand the importance of taking action to achieve their goals. Begin by identifying your main goals and breaking them down into actionable steps that you can work on today, this week, this month, this year, and beyond.

Practice confidence and assertiveness.

Feeling confident and assertive in your abilities is vital to feeling empowered. It's okay if this isn't naturally a part of your personality. You can learn to speak up and make your voice heard with practice. As Robin Sharma said, "Speak your truth even if your voice shakes." Try practicing what you will say in your head before you say it out loud if you feel extra nervous.

Take Home

Empowerment is a beautiful tool to drive you toward your goals and dreams. This feeling happens when you feel confident, assured, and assertive in your capabilities. Feeling empowered is essential for personal development and other areas of life, such as school and work.

People who feel empowered engage in positive self-talk, take action to reach their goals, and behave assertively and confidently. However, feeling empowered can be challenging for those who struggle with self-worth and confidence.

To build a sense of empowerment within yourself, use positive affirmations and practice being self-assured. Once you start believing in yourself, you will realize that you are capable of much more than you thought.

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References

• Crisp, D., Griffiths, K., Mackinnon, A., Bennett, K., & Christensen, H. (2014). An online intervention for reducing depressive symptoms: Secondary benefits for self-esteem, empowerment and quality of life. Psychiatry Research, 216(1), 60–66.

• Page, N., & Czuba, C. E. (1999). Empowerment: What is it? Journal of Extension, 37(5), 1-5.

• Seeman, M., & Lewis, S. (1995). Powerlessness, health, and mortality: A longitudinal study of older men and mature women. Social Science & Medicine, 41(4), 517–525.