The Rebel is the Key to Your Power

When the pain of staying the same gets too much, you will create change—or will you?

Upon waking I went down to the lake to walk my dog. I was surrounded by a dense layer of cloud that the sun was yet to burn through. Much like the feeling I’ve been wading in these last few days.  

With a cup of tea in hand I wandered over the grassy field, around the pond to a big grassy hillside overlooking the lake and bumped into George. 

George was in a terrible car accident over 6-years ago that left him with a brain injury. I often see him out walking, bare foot, in all kinds of temperatures. He’s tall and lanky. He has an energy about him - odd to some but also undeniably free.

I asked him how his healing was going. He smiled and said, “I’m getting better and better. I ran a half marathon last year and beat my best time by 30 minutes.”

“How do you keep motivated?” I asked.

He replied with that familiar statement: When the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change…

And yet, I realised—I don’t believe it’s that simple.

Your nervous system doesn’t always propel you forward when you are in the immense pain of staying the same. Sometimes it collapses. It shuts down, leaving you frozen in place, 

The shadow aspect of your Rebel comes out to play now. Having you stay up late chasing distraction instead of deep rest. It lights the cigarette simply because it can. It reaches for fleeting indulgence. It has you doing things that are short term rewards that don’t serve your greater desires or purpose.

The mind tells you that you’re lazy, complacent, undisciplined and shames you into action—but that’s not the truth. The truth is, you are holding immense power that hasn’t yet found its channel.

The amount of collapse, confusion and muscular constriction you experience is equal to the amount of power you are suppressing. 

It is literally because your body is using all its energy to suppress your power that you lose yourself so much and get all wound up - that tight pelvis, jaw, neck, or shoulder that always comes back no matter how many sessions you have with osteopaths, bodyworkers, counsellors, and all those people who you hire to focus on ‘healing your pain’.  If only it would let you go, you say. 

The answer is not to suppress the Rebel or constantly try to heal your trauma. The answer is to direct its fire toward what truly sets you free.

The Rebel is Wild Power. Learn to Direct It, and You Will set Yourself Free

The Rebel has both shadow and light. It’s the part of you that dances under the moonlight and skinny-dips with glee. The fuck it! energy that makes you feel wild and free, electric and alive. 

The Rebel in service to you say’s fuck it! to the things that don’t matter so you have the space, time and energy for that which does. 

It stops you bending over to please others, holding back your truth or living with fear about what will happen if you follow the wildness inside you. That wild Rebel is leading you to more life, life force, aliveness and the liberation of your creativity - your art, movement, and medicine. 

So, what is the way out of the shadow Rebel? 

When I dug a little deeper with George he shared, “when I really don’t feel like running I ask a friend to come with me. I also have a rule that I do two things on my list before my morning coffee and I have a whiteboard that I use to track my progress.” George very beautifully shared the dance between the shadow Rebel and Divine Discipline. 

Divine Discipline: Not Control, But Devotion to Your Own Power

This is not about forcing yourself into submission. This is Divine Discipline—the path of commitment to your own aliveness. The small daily acts that generate momentum, that turn resistance into desire, and desire into expansion.

Like a water wheel, it takes energy to start, but once it flows, it moves with effortless power.

And the wildest thing? Once you start, you’ll miss it when you don’t do it.

The Five Spiritual Acts That Reconnect You to Your Power

Years ago, I read a book (or perhaps I dreamt it!) that listed five of the most spiritual acts we can do. They are so simple, yet they change everything:

• Drink when thirsty.

• Eat when hungry.

• Sleep when tired.

• Go to the toilet when needed.

• Nourish your sexual self.

  
  

That’s it. If you did no other spiritual practice and simply honored these, your life would change.

So, when my shadow Rebel starts to pull me off course, I don’t fight it. I return to these acts for a cycle of 30 days.

The result? More creativity. More magic. A deep, cellular remembering of my own rhythm and power. It’s like stepping out of an eddy that has kept me circling in old patterns—and back into the full flow of my soul’s path.