How individuals experience the psychological effects of power and powerlessness

In fact, the very best leaders don’t swan around telling people what to do. They hire talented people, establish the vision and values, and foster an environment where team members can perform at their best. Once you’ve identified your goal, the second question is, “who can help? You might even start with peers who may be facing the same struggles as you to brainstorm possible solutions.

By actively seeking information that makes you feel more empowered and capable, you’ll be better able to break out of a powerless mindset. However, paying attention to the things you can control can help you feel more capable. It provides a greater sense of agency and can give you the motivation and energy powerless over alcohol to work toward making a change. “People often feel helpless because they are not taking action,” explains psychotherapist Yolanda Renteria, LPC. These previous studies had all tended to look at individual crises, rather than global events. Or make a one-minute YouTube video on an issue you deem important.

Harmony within: The dance of body and mind in stress management

In these studies, power included both the personal characteristics of self-respect and empowerment and the interpersonal component of influence over others. The disparity in power between men and women appears to shift over the life span. Studies have documented an increase in the perceived strength, confidence, and interpersonal power of women later in life.

Once you recognize those helpless thoughts and feelings, it is time to start actively challenging and replacing them with more accurate, empowering ones. When you spend too much time ruminating over the things you cannot change, you are more likely to magnify feelings of helplessness. Focusing on those unchangeable things only leaves you feeling more defeated. There is no doubt that this loss of personal control will have affected our wellbeing, but Anicich’s recent research suggests that many people have coped much better than they might have initially expected with the new challenges. And for those of us who are still struggling, psychologists like Anicich have some advice for the best ways to restore our sense of personal power and control – both now and in the future. We cannot control how our government reacts to the situation, the policy and measures they put in place, the actions that they take to contain the virus, or the stock market from crashing.

Strategies for shifting power

In this way, in any moment, no matter how difficult, we can make an intentional choice to honor our core values, make principled choices, and take wise, ethically grounded action. Mindfulness practices and titration are two ways to explore this internal space. Resilience is generally considered to be the ability to recover or adapt well to stress, adversity, or trauma; it ensures that change and challenge improve, rather than hurt our lives, and fortifies rather than weakens our spirit.

Maybe you had high hopes for yourself and the result was not what you wanted. Perhaps the people you counted on in life did not end up being who you had hoped. Or you feel overwhelmed by work, your health, your support group. As a result, you feel too many things are not in your control…powerless. If you feel helpless, it can be beneficial to recognize your own unique talents, strengths, and abilities. Emphasizing these capabilities is a great way to gain more empowerment and motivation to tackle challenges you might be facing in different areas of your life.

Start Living Simply

Or create and perform a one-person show, even if it’s just for friends in your living room. Take a class on mediation even if you only use it with family, friends, and coworkers. That can boost your ability to harness much of the world’s information. Most of us think that we don’t have a choice when it comes to our thoughts and emotions.