Resonance vs Force: The Spiritual Principle That Helps You Reclaim Your Power
Prefer to listen? This is Episode 6 of the No Bullshit Spirituality podcast. Go and have a listen, link below.
I talk a lot about dreaming big and creating the life you want. Choosing consciously. Going after what it is that you actually want, not what you've settled for or what somebody else decided for you.
But there is something that has to be in place before any of that becomes possible. And it's something I don't think gets talked about enough, especially when it comes to spiritual growth for women.
And that thing is power.
I don’t mean aggression or brute force. I’m talking about the energy that helps you to see, dream and create. The kind that lets you see what's possible, hold your conviction when things get hard, and actually bring what you want into your life.
Today, I want to talk about how we can use resonance, instead of force, to gain and increase power, so we can always win.
Stand Like Mountain, Move Like Water
When I started training Muay Thai about six years ago, a Chinese proverb kept going around in my head. In English, it translates as stand like mountain, move like water. Everything I was being asked to do in training required me to stand like a mountain yet move like water. And it was showing me exactly where in my life I was either too much mountain or too much water
So what does it actually mean?
The mountain is your foundation. Your unshakeable conviction. Your strength and your poise and your absolute certainty about what it is that you want and where you are going. It is the part of you that cannot be moved - in your intention, in your boundaries, in what you are striving to create.
You need that. Without it, you have nothing to build from.
But if all you are is mountain? You are rigid. Fixed. Stiff. You are relying on brute force alone, and brute force alone is not going to produce the most power. Not in a fight and not in life.
The water is everything else. The adaptability. The ability to pivot and flow and find your way around whatever is in front of you. Think about a river. It doesn't panic when there's a rock in the way. It doesn't stop and give up. It finds the gap; flows over it, under it, around it. It gets to its destination because it works with the energy rather than bulldozing through it.
And if all you are is water? You're floppy. No foundation, no conviction, no real direction or impact.
The power, real power, comes when you have both. That unshakeable foundation combined with the fluidity and adaptability to move with what's in front of you. That is where everything changes.
What Is Resonance vs Force and Why Does It Matter?
If you are pushing and pushing against something with the wrong type of energy, it's not going to give you the results you want. You can push as hard as you like and still not get what you want, not because you aren't capable, but because force and power are not the same thing.
Resonance is about adapting your energy to match what the situation actually requires. It's about being intelligent with how you move toward your goal rather than just coming at it harder.
Here's a simple example. Say you need someone to do something and they don't want to do it. If you come in screaming and demanding and forcing - all mountain, no water - they are the least likely to do what you need. But if you adapt your approach, meet them where they are, show them how the outcome benefits them (that's the water), they are far more likely to get on board. Same goal. Different energy. Very different result.
In Muay Thai, it works exactly the same way. If you come at your opponent stiff and tense and relying purely on brute strength, you will not produce as much power as if you are relaxed, breathing, fluid, and agile, while still bringing that strength and conviction with you. The combination is what creates real power. Not the force alone.
This is also exactly what we do in magick. We work with energy rather than against it. We align ourselves to what we want to create, and we move toward it with intention and flow, not with aggression and pushing. The principle is the same. Resonance always produces more power than force.
The Waterfall That Said Everything
A few mornings ago I went for a sunrise hike and came across a waterfall.
It wasn't dramatic or thundering. It was soft. Gentle. Trickling down over quite flat rocks. But it had this quiet, absolute determination about it.
I just stopped and watched it.
Because that water knew exactly where it was going. It had its destination set and it was flowing toward it with total ease and grace. Nothing was going to stop it. It didn't need to push or force or bring in anything more than it already had. It just had momentum and volume and this beautiful certainty, and it fell into the most extraordinary cascading explosion at the bottom, like soft, gentle fireworks.
It didn't need persuasion. It just utterly knew. And it flowed, happily, and arrived exactly where it was going.
That is what power looks like when you stop fighting yourself and start working with resonance instead of force.
When you know your intention, when you have the mountain, that clarity and conviction about what you want and where you are going, and you let yourself move toward it with fluidity rather than forcing it? That is when things actually start to move.
But here's the other side of that. If you don't have a clear intention, if your energy is scattered and going in all directions, you don't get the waterfall. You get a weak trickle going nowhere. Not impactful. Not powerful. Just dispersed.
Knowing what you want to create, what you want to become, where you are going, that focus is what gives your power somewhere to go.
Why Spiritual Power Matters If You Want to Consciously Create Your Life
Power is metaphysical. You can't see it or weigh it. But you absolutely have it, and you feel it when it is there and when it's not.
When you have your power as a woman, you can see possibilities. You can dream big and actually believe that what you're dreaming is available to you, not just available to other people, to you. You can hold your conviction when the path gets hard. You can take the bold actions and maintain the resilience needed to actually bring what you want into your life.
And you can withstand what comes. Because creating what you want is not always going to be smooth. Things come up. Challenges happen. Power is what lets you meet them without collapsing or giving up or defaulting back to what's safe and familiar.
Not everything has to be a struggle. We are here to enjoy this. To create with ease, joy and flow. Power is needed for that, too. For the beauty and the fun and the lightness of life. Without power, even the good stuff costs more than it should.
How You're Losing Your Spiritual Power Without Realising It
Imagine you have 100 units of energy. Each one is a piece of your power. Now imagine you've handed 50 of them away.
We give our power away constantly, and most of the time we don't even realise we're doing it. Every time you let someone else make your choices for you, that's giving away your power. Every time someone crosses your boundary and you say nothing, power gone. Every time you do what you're told, even though everything in you is saying no, power gone. Every time you stay somewhere you know isn't right because it feels easier than leaving, power gone.
And sometimes power isn't given away. It's taken. There are people who will drain you deliberately, who manipulate and lie and chip away at your sense of self. You know the ones. You walk away from a conversation with them feeling like utter shit. That is not a coincidence. That is an energy transaction and you came out of it with less than you went in with.
You cannot create the life you want from half a tank. You cannot dream big, hold your conviction, take bold action, or build anything real when you are running on depleted power. As a shamanic coach working with women, this is one of the most consistent things I see - women who are capable of so much more, stuck, because they've been bleeding their power out for so long they've forgotten what full feels like.
How to Start Reclaiming Your Power
The first step is just noticing. Where is your power going? Who is taking it? What choices are you not making that are quietly draining you?
And then you start making different ones. Even small ones. You hold a boundary you've been letting slide. You make a choice that is yours rather than defaulting to what's easiest or what someone else wants. You stop going back to the conversations and situations that leave you depleted and you start treating your energy like it matters, because it does.
The life you want to create, the dreams you have, the version of yourself you can see but haven't quite stepped into yet - none of that is out of reach. But it does require you to show up with your power intact.
Stand like mountain. Move like water. Stop handing your power to people and situations that haven't earned it.
That is where everything starts.
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May you always dare to dream bigger.
Carrie x
