Have you been giving power away? Huh?
One of my friends told me about this new kind of yoga she was doing, called Dahn yoga. Unfortunately, I had to tell her she was involved with a cult. Is Dahn Yoga really a cult? Well Forbes, Rolling Stone and CNN say it is!
So if you know anyone in this program, you might want to show them the evidence I linked above.
Have you ever given your power away to someone or something without realizing you were doing it?
Well, I have, and it taught me a lot about how to step back from a situation, and look at it with a pair of critical eyes.
I don’t judge people in cults, because giving away your power is very tempting.
Today I salute a nonprofit that helps people research and get out of cults, The Cult Education Institute. If you’d like to investigate what other movements are cults on their site, they have a comprehensive list.
I went to a meetup called The Shepherd and the Knucklehead last week, and we talked about concepts of power. We mainly asked questions. We asked: What are your associations with the word power?
What is power?
Who needs it?
What does it mean in your life?
What is the power to do good in the world?
What is authentic power?
Can you feel powerful without feeling power over someone else?
Can you just sit and say, I am powerful because I am not in control of the world, but I am in control of how I respond to it?
There is also the power to fall under a spell. Like a pernicious thought form or a blind belief or a thought stopping cliche. For example here’s a common thought pattern at our nonprofits. A spell that everyone is under.
Thought-stopping cliche #1: “If you really believed in the mission, you wouldn’t ask for a raise!” or
Thought-stopping cliche #2: “You should not get paid more than minimum wage to work at nonprofits!”
Thought-stopping cliche #3: “We have to pay our nonprofit leaders hundreds of thousands to “attract the top talent” but everyone else should make as little as possible.”
Do you have the power to break the spell?
It’s maddening to stop and think about how often and easily we’re caught in these thought-stopping cliches. I’m really glad you’re talking about this now. It’s important to pay attention to this stuff and think about how it fits into a context of “work harder for less”.
For example, take cliche #3 – “We need to pay more, to attract the top talent”. Apply that to #1 and #2 – shouldn’t they also pay more for YOUR position, to attract the top talent? Why does “pay for top talent” only matter once it’s the pay of the person at the top? Why shouldn’t the boss work for peanuts “for the cause”?
In a fairer and more just world, you ought to be able to take whatever slogans and messages the boss says about THEIR privileged position and apply it to the lowest-ranked position in the organization.
thanks,
Steve
I totally agree with you steve.
Wow. What a comment. I have nothing to add.