What does it mean to be empowered? One of my early teachers, Alisa Starkweather, offered a definition that has stayed with me: Empowerment means knowing that you have a choice.

It’s a deceptively simple truth. But in practice, it’s revolutionary.

To be at choice is to reclaim our authorship. It means that rather than reacting automatically to the world around us, we pause, we breathe, and we choose our response. We move from unconscious patterning to conscious participation. This is the foundation of empowerment.

We’ve all been in the grip of our inner victim at one time or another. This part of us believes that life is happening to us—that we are at the mercy of other people, external events, or inner wounds. It’s not a flaw. It’s a survival adaptation. And for many, it’s deeply familiar.

There are absolutely times in life when we are truly harmed or limited by circumstance—where choices are few or painful. But what I’m talking about here is not those moments. I’m pointing to a way of being that keeps us stuck. A habitual lens through which we see the world, where we wait for others to change before we can be free.

In this state, we say, “You are doing this to me, so I must submit—or fight.” And in doing so, we lock ourselves out of the very power that could shift the situation. The power to know that we can create the outcome that we so desire. 

Leaving behind the victim mindset doesn’t begin with blame or force. We don’t shame this part of ourselves into submission. In fact, that approach only deepens the wound. True healing begins with compassion.

Your inner victim, like all parts of you, holds wisdom. It reflects pain that has not yet been processed and stories that have not yet been seen through new eyes. When we meet this part with presence rather than rejection, we open the door to transformation.

Ask yourself:

• What has this part of me been trying to protect?
• What is it teaching me about what I need?
• How might I honor its message while choosing a more empowered path?

Stepping out of victimhood doesn’t mean we bypass difficulty or pretend to be unaffected. It means we start seeing that, even in the midst of challenge, we have a say. We can choose how to interpret, how to engage, how to respond.

The practice is simple—but not always easy. First, imagine: What else is possible here? What else could be true, what other path might you take, what version of yourself could emerge?

Then: Choose. Move in the direction of what feels more whole, more loving, more true.

You may not get it perfect—and that’s not the point. Every conscious choice is a step away from powerlessness and a step toward personal sovereignty.

Empowerment is not a fixed state; it’s a living relationship with yourself. It’s the moment-to-moment remembrance that you are not helpless. You are not broken. You are not at the mercy of the past.

You are someone who gets to choose.

And as you continue choosing—over and over again—you build the strength, clarity, and compassion to meet life as a co-creator, not a captive.

This is how we honor the victim within: not by banishing her, but by loving her enough to no longer let her lead.