Everyone Has Superpowers. How Are You Using Yours?

Comic books and movies are full of superheroes with magical powers. But we too have superpowers that can be activated anytime and help us live a conscious and intentional life. Here are some of them:

The Superpower of Self-Awareness

This power enables you to have insight into your own inner processes: how you tick, your conscious and subconscious beliefs and values, your strengths, skills and weaknesses.

When you know and appreciate what makes you uniquely You — even if you are not like others, don’t conform to common norms or are often less than perfect — you will be able to walk your own path with self-acceptance, authenticity and confidence.

The Superpower of Free Will

This is about choice. You have free will over how you respond to life’s challenges and the kind of inner life you allow yourself to have. Many situations are beyond your control and proceed in their own way, especially if other people are involved. But your free will allows you to make a crucial choice: living on auto-pilot according to habitual inner programs or taking responsibility for how you deal with a given situation.

The Superpower of Self-Regulation

Rather than being passive and letting pre-determined currents determine your thinking, feeling and acting, you have the power to tame the “gang of 3”. Begin by deciding not to accept the automatic processes within you but take charge of your inner life instead.

This might involve modifying your expectations, focussing on solutions rather than problems, riding out emotional storms, calming your nervous system and challenging automatic negative thoughts. Be realistic and honest with yourself about what is going on, inside and outside, and take control of yourself.

The Superpower of Discernment

There are different aspects to this power:

• Understanding that not all is what it seems.
• Awareness that information or other people’s behaviour may contain hidden agendas and motivations.  
• Critical thinking and questioning whether you are presented with the facts of an event or whether the narrative is one-sided, obfuscating the truth, or simply lies.
• Recognizing what undermines and sabotages your power and restricts your choices. This does not only come through laws and regulations but also when you are manipulated into such fear and uncertainty that you limit yourself.

The Superpower of Your Inner Compass

The ‘sixth sense’, is a real powerhouse. It transcends thinking and analysis. In most people this power has been discouraged in their early years so that it takes a while to activate and use it again in later years. Many societies place greater value on logic and the commonly accepted five senses than on sensitivity and inner knowing.

To consciously work with your intuition requires trust in yourself and a solid sense of self. When you have to make a decision or even just want to make sense of a circumstance, tune into yourself in a quiet moment and ask any of the following questions: How did this scenario come about? What is my part in it? What is my gut feeling about it? What action could I take? What feels ‘right’ – often without knowing why? Then be still and listen to the small whispers of knowingness and heart wisdom that might emerge from within.

The Superpower of Manifestation.

Frequently this power is understood in a rather simplistic way: You can have anything you want. Affirmations will get you there. If you envision the future with enough conviction, it will (magically) appear. It is true that the mind is so powerful that what you focus on will eventually manifest. A person who expects problems and focuses on things that are ‘wrong’ will inevitably find them arriving in their life. Someone else who sees things from a less negative perspective, will have considerably more positive experiences.

Manifestation is a creative power. To be really effective it requires action as well as visualisation or imagination. Athletes use the methods of manifestation by internally ‘seeing’ themselves perform at their best, but they also train and develop their skills through targeted action. If you wish to manifest something in your life, you also need to take practical steps in the desired direction and boost your chances by creating it in your mind as if it has already happened.

The Greatest Superpower of All: Love.

Love is the power of the human heart that gives rise to compassion, empathy, kindness, forgiveness and acceptance. Whether it is for another person, mankind or yourself, love transcends hate and blame, indifference and callousness. Love relieves suffering, nurtures your soul and allows you to live with light in your being.

Love and wisdom go hand in hand. With it, you know what to do and how to be. It can be a romantic feeling or a powerful stance of benevolence towards yourself and other living creatures. It is a truly spiritual attribute that arises from the understanding that all lifeforms are connected and you are but one part of a mysterious whole greater than yourself.

What other superpowers can you think of? How are you using — or not — your superpowers? Which ones do you need to develop further?

from World of Psychology https://psychcentral.com/blog/everyone-has-superpowers-how-are-you-using-yours/