There is no such thing as being powerless. We all have the ability to choose what we will and will not give our power and attention to.

Though we often find ourselves feeling bad, in truth… there is no such thing as being powerless. We see how a person who resists life — who hates or fears unwanted changes — becomes the instrument of a power that effectively renders him powerless to do anything but struggle.

But we’ve seen the converse as well: the one who realizes that the only power negative states have is to create the illusion that we have no control over them. And this new awareness, like the power it grants, is failsafe.

We can practice this true, new power anytime we wish to have its strength and safety as our own. We start each time by remembering that ours is the power to choose what we will and will not give our power to. A short study of the following examples reveals this new and higher possibility:

• Rather than live with the pain of a thousand regrets, we can realize that no number of visits to a painful past can change it. The light of this new awareness empowers us to start over now.
• Rather than look to anxious thoughts to help us through some fearful situation, we can see that anxiety serves fear — so how can it free us from it? The light of this new awareness empowers us to let go of both these imposters.
• Rather than defend our mistakes by finding excuses for them, we can understand that our refusal to learn the lesson at hand ensures we will meet that lesson again, along with its misery. The light of this new awareness empowers us to accept what life would teach us, and the truth sets us free.

Can we see the difference in these three life cases? On one hand, negative states want to convince us we are powerless in the face of what frustrates us. But we have seen the truth: this false perception is actually produced by a dark state that would have us turn to it for the power we need to make things right. And so now we can do something radically new: rather than give ourselves over to the habitual reaction of resisting the moment, we remember the truth that sets us free; ours is the power to live from the power of our choosing. Said slightly differently, but equally true: we are created with the power to surrender our sense of powerlessness and, in exchange for this sacrifice, realize a life without stress and strife.