Drumming and Empowerment work together!
I often think about how drumming is empowering us and how it brought a lot of good things into my life. I am fortunate that I get the chance to connect with so many people each year and today I want to talk about how group drumming can empower us.
Let's define empowerment and see what it means...I consider it a social process, a way of being that helps people get control over their own lives. It's a process that fuels energy in people's lives, it helps them impact people around them and bring positive changes.
So is the core of empowerment the idea of power? For us to be empowered two things need to happen. The first one is that we need to understand that power and empowerment are two different things, and the second is to understand that being Empowered is not been given POWER over other people. It’s been given power over yourself.
I want to give you guys a quick exercise. It will only take a few seconds so let's get down to it. Whenever you are ready... write down three words that come to your mind when you hear the word Empower. Nothing complicated, don't think too much about it hear what first comes to your mind and write it down.
In most of the cases, people tend to write down words that relate to control and domination. This is to confuse empowerment with power, and by only seeing this we limit the way we can understand and experience empowerment.
Empowerment can be much more, and group drumming is a way of discovering this. Drumming brings to the surface parts of our souls that we might have never felt... or seen until now. It's a way, an act of awareness and of expressing our creativity. It unleashes our creative spirit and makes us shine brighter. This is true Empowerment. When you step in the room of a group drumming performance you instantly feel connected to what is going on. Why is this? Because as humans we feel attracted to what is true to us, to what makes us feel in the present moment free, confident and competent.
I think it's because deep inside we are all connected...and as drumming is something that resonates with us through rhythm and vibration... it asks for the true version of ourselves to be exposed. We start feeling empowered...we start to feel the energy of the people around us. This happens at different levels. It can happen at an individual, group or community level. Probably the simplest way of seeing empowerment is to compare it to a feeling of acceptance. When we Drum in a group we get this feeling...we are accepted, or acknowledged. This is true Empowerment.
Drumming has been in my life for so much time now that I think it's one of the things that helped me understand myself and others around me. It allowed me to see people change, to see how they start feeling empowered and bring their true self into the moment.
My conclusion to this is that through Empowerment...we grow.
PS. Just wondering, what were the 3 words you wrote down ?
Comments always welcomed.
