Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. Viktor E. Frankl

As our beloved country finds itself more and more divided, I’m struck by how much more important it is that we unite our internal houses in order to cease the war within. All day we give away power and shove away the uncomfortable feelings deep in our bellies that disagrees with those actions. We give micro-consents that chip away at our wholeness, our ability to make aware choices and live sovereign in our own nations.

“Eat the cake! You don’t want to hurt Grandma’s feelings after she went to all this trouble for Christmas dinner do you?”, says (pressures) your Dad.

What a position to be put in, do you disempower yourself and eat the cake knowing that small action means you have to betray a promise you made to take care of your body? Knowing it and doing it anyway leads then to more tiny betrayals until you’re back to battling food issues all over again.

Or do you say, “Well, Dad, I hope Grandma wouldn’t want me to feel sick all afternoon so I’ll pass on the cake and spend some extra time chatting with her instead.”

In the case of my grandmother-in-law if you don’t say, “No, thank you”, you could end up with food poisoning due to her tendency to hoard food and serve something from the freezer that expired in 1989. Saying no gets easier if you think your physical life might be at stake but is your emotional life worth less? I would argue that putting your emotional life on the back burner contributes greatly to the physical problems arriving later from stress and division in your system.

Saying yes when you mean no on a small scale means that once a day or more you are relegating to an internal closet the discomfort in your system that you feel every time you do so. It’s just one bite. It’s only a few hours overtime. It’s simply one hug from creepy Uncle Thomas. It’s just one more drink, joint, hit until you almost end up divorced.

Your house is divided and has been for a long time. The stress of this division, this creation and ongoing contribution to a Shadow Self who carries all your disowned bits and pieces is taking a toll on you personally, your immediate family, your colleagues and as a whole; this country.

Living in the heart of Trumplandia I see on a daily basis how circumstances can get so bad that when someone dangles a gold plated stick of hope in front of you, your eyes light up and you grab it. I don’t have to like it or agree with it to get it and I really do. I understand how you’re so tired you just want someone to fix it so you can feed your kids without working three shitty jobs. I understand you want health coverage, the kind of which doesn’t require you to pay $300 dollars for a prescription so you can breathe better. I want that too, literally, I do.

I also understand on a deep level that no one can give that to you. No one. Not a God, not a book, not a person, not a teacher. No one. Rather than despair about that feel into it. Can you feel a whiff of excitement in your animal body self at the thought of reaching in to remove your own paw from the trap? Can you feel a pinch of yearning in the center of your chest as your heart skips a beat when it hears the truth in that concept?

No one can give power to you but you can call it forth. You.

You and your unrecognized beauty, strength, ability to handle your own emotions, drives and cravings once you understand that language of your entire system. You and your untapped vast resources that not only tell you what all those check engine lights going off in your world mean but what to do about them.

Revolutions start small. They begin with awareness. They start with feeling the twinge when you tell yourself a lie. They continue with witnessing the tears you spill driving to a job you can no longer tolerate. They call your attention to agreeing to work more than you are able to and still see your children.

This awareness then asks you to do some small yet powerfully significant things. They require you to not eat when you don’t want to eat. They require you not have sex unless you really want to. They require that you own up to it, at least on the inside, when you pass your power to someone else even for a moment.

Your revolution has begun.

Life is a mirror and you will see your Shadow refracted through the lenses you’ve been given until you decide to trade those glasses in for new ones. Lenses that let you see you’re the author behind every story no matter how small. Lenses that understand it’s never about the person, place or thing even if that person is a political leader, the place America or the thing Democracy.

Healing this internal division is about you and how you see your ability to survive, thrive and grow regardless of your outer environment. It’s about you and your level of comfort with how much power you have buried in the far reaches of your internal rooms. It’s time to decide how many of those hidden abilities come on line to serve you and by extension everyone else.

Learning to own your personal power and live congruently with your seemingly opposite impulses isn’t easy. It does however set you free. It means you sleep at night without dreaming of shoulda, coulda, wouldas. It means even when you make what looks like a mistake you tell yourself and everyone else the truth about it so it doesn’t hang around your neck like a rotting albatross.

Your physical energy increases with every part of you that you allow to come home. The light in your eyes blazes forth a bit more with every inch you raise up your head. The purpose for your life comes forward in a way that you could never have predicted each time you honor yourself with congruent answers to every question you are asked.

Freedom is what this country is all about. As we watch it be threatened without, let us address the divisions within. When you become a United States of You, you become the shining light for others. You change the world with your own bravery and diligence.

Unite (inside) you have nothing to lose but your chains.