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[0:13] Introduction: Inner Strength and its Manifestation In Life
Aloha and welcome to Your Heart magic and illuminating space where psychology spirituality and heart wisdom meet. Here's your host, Dr. BethAnne Kapansky. Wright, the clinical psychologist with a mystic mind.
Aloha, everyone, welcome to your heart magic. This is Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright, and today we are continuing our archetypes of the Tarot series, and we are talking about the card strength and talking about how do we stand in our strength? Where might we be exhibiting strength in our life, and not fully tapping into an awareness of just how strong we are? And how do we build this beautiful quality and characteristic within ourselves.
So the strength card and the Tarot deck just for a little bit of it. Overview means very much what it sounds like it is a card about strength. But in the deck itself, the card often is a picture of a woman and she is has her hands on a lion. Sometimes it is on the jaws of a lion, sometimes it's depict are pictured putting a lion. And there's this sense of somehow she's tame the lion, through love and through divine feminine energy. And the card itself.
The archetype of strength is not about external strength. This is not a card of some like brawny, super strong person and they've like conquered the lion by brute force and they have it down on the ground. And they've tamed it that way. This is about the idea that inner strength is what true strength is that gentleness and learning to move through life in a way that exhibits moral fortitude and perseverance and endurance and strength of character is really what this kind of strength is about. And it's interesting and the the deck itself.
Originally strength was card number 11. But it's sometimes shown is card eight and it often is now in many decks. And there's a whole history behind that with the think the writer Wait Are Smith Taro. And they decided to flip eight and 11 which used to be justice and strength and make strength eight and justice Sullivan. And there was a whole rationale behind it because it corresponded to something astrologically that they thought was more of the progression and reflection of the Tarot.
So just for clarification purposes, I had been moving through the deck in order and I chose to make number eight today's strength. Sometimes it is justice. And that is from the original, but we're not really focusing on like taro lore, and what's the best way of doing things today. So for the purposes of, of today's podcast, we'll just keep a strength and leave it at that.
[3:39] Meaning of Strength in The Tarot
And I think that this is such a, it's a beautiful card to receive in a reading. Oftentimes, if I am using cards for myself, or if I'm pulling them for somebody else, and I receive the card strength, to me that feels like a reminder from the universe from our higher self, that we have the strength to make it through something. And what's interesting, I think about the concept of strength is that oftentimes we might not feel particularly strong.
When we are in fact exhibiting quite a bit of strength. I think it's very common for people that we might look to, and say they seem to have really good character and I admire their journey. They seem like they have really lived through some things and experience some things and they've done it with a sense of integrity, and some form of an attribute that we might look at and say wow, there is a really strong person.
And if you were to ask that person, how they felt when they were going through the thick of challenge or change and ask them did you feel strong during it? They probably would say oh my gosh, not at all. I was absolutely terrified or I didn't know that I was going to make it through or It felt like it was so insurmountable. And I just couldn't see my way out of this situation.
And so strength is an interesting thing. Because people who tend to talk about how strong they are, and really put on this show of like, I am Teflon like nothing gets to me, you know, life can give me hits. And I'll just take them and keep on coming. A lot of times, what they're projecting outwardly might not necessarily match what's actually happening inside of them. And oftentimes, people who are the strongest are not out there shouting about it, they might not have the loudest voice in the room, they might not be standing behind a microphone, giving a motivational or an inspirational speech.
Sometimes they are there are amazing individuals out there who are gifted with oratory abilities and a ability to speak, and they truly have the character, and they have the amazing story. But oftentimes, it is somebody who looks really unassuming or whose journey we know nothing about because they don't talk about it, or something they've experienced within themselves.
And so we have no idea what they've really survived, who truly exhibit this beautiful energy of inner strength. And I think inner strength in the tarot, it is associated with the divine feminine, this is not so much a card again, of external masculine strength, the willpower action, it's really about the intelligence of love, and knowing that there are many ways to overcome obstacles. And sometimes we do need to go through something head on.
And we have to really gird ourselves up and really put our warrior energy on. But sometimes we overcome an obstacle by simply going around it. Or maybe we find a side door, that we are able to take it by surprise, and it never saw it coming. I think that parable of David and Goliath from scripture really speaks to the idea that you know, David in the Scripture, I believe it was really about faith. But you know, true faith, whatever we believe in, it is about love. And it's about having a spiritual connection and a relationship with something higher than ourselves, and believing and a power that is bigger than just our own might our own ego, our own resources.
When we are in a relationship with love, and walking the way of the heart, and opening ourselves up to love's way and the hearts way, we are automatically inviting energy and spiritual connection into our process. And when we do that, we are putting our faith in something that is so much bigger than just ourselves. And when we do that, it allows us to have these moments of potentially overcoming something that looked like it was bigger than us.
And sometimes this doesn't always translate on paper, having inner strength and overcoming might not always equate to justice and a linear sense, where we are able to see in the material world, kind of this cause and effect, where the person who had the most character is the one who won the day in court, so to speak, are overcame. But I think that in the immaterial world and in the inner world, the psychological world, the spiritual world of inner peace, the kind of legacy we are creating for ourselves.
[9:05] Inner Strength, Spiritual Growth, and External Conditions
Are we creating light and being a con contributor of love on the planet? Or are we creating discord and being a contributor of fear and chaos and darkness? Are we building up good karma for ourselves karma just kind of being in a very simplistic term, that idea of reaping what we sow karma is actually more complex than that.
But we'll just keep it really simple and say, like, are we creating good possibilities for ourselves where we are acting in a way that's integrity, and integrity, and so we are potentially creating pathways for opportunities to come to us that are in integrity and an alignment with the energies we are creating, or are we creating negativity.
And in so doing, opening ourselves up to pathways, that we might attract more chaos or negativity into us, or maybe be presented by spirit and the universe and our will say soul for opportunities for growth, because we're just not getting the lesson, really small caveat with that, if you are really trying to walk your path right now, and you're going through hardship, it doesn't necessarily mean that you're creating it. It's not always as simple as that. There's many, many reasons we are doing everything that we know to do. That's right, and things still aren't going our way.
So it's not always an A plus B equals C kind of thing. But I do think as a general guideline, oftentimes, if we are living in alignment with our heart, and we are really working on trying to be the kind of change and light in the world that we want to see, we are more likely to create opportunities for positive relationships, we are absolutely creating more opportunities to experience qualities like inner peace, to experience an increased spiritual connection, and really feeling supported by spirit.
And in relationship with spirit, we are creating opportunities for more love to take place in our light, we are definitely creating more opportunities for solutions to come for the problems that we are having. And for support to come in whether that is material support, relationship support, or something that's energetic and intangible, and we receive support that way.
So when we are making those choices from that place inside of us, even if we don't necessarily see it all add up and external conditions. I think that when we choose the path of love and the way of the heart, we are building internal strength, we are building these internal riches, we are building a relationship inside of ourselves, and a sense of well being inside of ourselves that allows us to stand strong in the face of life's challenges, and allows us to have a sense of knowing okay, it well, it's well with my soul, no matter what else is going on around me, I know I'm at home with myself, and I have a sense of peace, and a sense of well being within me.
And ultimately, I think not only is that a beautiful place to be because we feel grounded, we feel secure, we feel connected to ourselves, we feel connected to spirit. But I think that it allows us to continue to build character, and to build the qualities that we need to continue becoming a stronger, more authentic person. So strength is not based in status. And it's certainly not based in anything that you might be able to measure externally. And an interesting journaling prompt might be to think about what's the difference between inner strength and outer strength.
When might the two of those be a direct reflection of one another, many people who appear externally strong whose journeys we admire truly are internally strong people. And so their external strength, their ability to walk into a room and have a peaceful presence, or speak with authority is actually a reflection as well of the inner work that they've done. But external strength is not always a reflection of internal strength. And so there might be people who have a lot of status, or who have been given a lot of power, who don't have the character and have no peace in their soul and no peace in their heart.
[13:56] Differences Between Inner and Outer Strength
So when are those two similar? When might they be just similar? What ways in your life might you exhibit inner strength? And what ways in your life might you have exhibited some form of external strength? Where you stood and your strength or you took a stand or you spoke your truth? Or you did something that was more of an external action? And what's the relationship between the two of those things? That's just a really fun and interesting prompt to explore.
Because like I said, usually if somebody has inner strength, there are some form of an action that they take that if we truly knew their story, we would say, Wow, you've really acted in integrity. I can't believe you survived all that like you really are a strong person. It might not always be evident, and we might need to hear more of their narrative, but we can see the fruits of that inner strength and their life, but external strength and things that looks strong to us don't necessarily reflect the kind of strength that we're talking about, with the archetype of strength and the taro. And again, that is that inner strength, and that quality of character of integrity of being in our hearts of moral fortitude, of perseverance of trusting and the path of love, even when we can't see where it's going.
And one of the things that is an observation on the archetype of strength is that it really runs counter culture to our world right now, at this time, you know, we really are big on celebrating external shows of strength, athleticism comes to mind. And I appreciate athletics. I'm a runner, I wouldn't call myself an athlete by any means. I run for fun. But I know it definitely takes something to show up and to train and to race and all of that, though, I think anybody who truly does that and invest in it often will say that it is what happens behind the scenes that gets them to the starting line that's actually more important than what happens on the day of the race.
And it is all the invisible moments and training where you want to quit or you don't feel like you're doing your long run that day, or you had to walk during a race because you were experiencing, I don't know, some form of malaise or something like that, and you just wanted to bail and you didn't, that really it is that inner the sort of the inner gifts that are received from the endeavor that truly give to the person and the external part is just the accomplishment.
But I think we could like look at the breakdown of just salaries and what people are paid, and how they're well paid to say that our values as a whole as a society, not necessarily those who are listening to this podcast, but kind of the norm right now is to award a lot of money to people who sort of have these external
exhibitions somehow have strength, or status, or power or something like that. And we tend to award influencers and people that we think have some sort of a prowess and a lot of times, on a very superficial level, we might look at that and say, Wow, that person's really strong. And sometimes I will talk to people and they will say, I feel like I should be doing more, I should be more productive, I should be building my resume more, as if somehow accomplishments equal a show of strength and a show of success.
And I think that one of the beautiful things about this card and the Tarot deck is that it really reminds us that it's okay to run counter to that culture of celebrating this sort of immediate success, ambition, shrink driven, looks good on paper kind of push right now and instead, really turn inwards, and try and celebrate instead. Am I staying in my heart? Am I working on my inner growth? Am I trying to find the light right now? At a time where the world feels dark?
And if I do feel dark, sometimes on behalf of humanity? Do I cave to hopelessness? Or at some point do I say, Well, I'm going to say a prayer, I'm going to do this positive thing? How do we respond to the ingredients that life gives us? Do we choose to be defined by them and fall into the space of victimhood or feeling like I am this story, this thing that happened to me?
Or do we use that as alchemy, and use it in a way to kind of mix ourselves up and from that create more fortitude, more integrity, more realness, more authenticity, and that journey, that journey of the heart is counter to the direction that most seem to be going in this world right now. It's definitely counter to what most of what is trending for the most part.
And so I think this idea of remembering what strength isn't, and what it is, and really thinking about what is spiritual strength, what is the power of love? What is the strength of love, and being able to tap into that for yourself, and ask Where am I already showing up like this in my life, there's always more we can do. Part of the information shared on this podcast is inspiration, and it's an aspiration. It's the idea that these are these overarching principles that In our own unique way we can all aspire to embody and more meaningful ways.
But at the end of the day, I think it's really important to be able just to look at where we're at right now and understand that's enough, that we can inspire and we can aspire, and we can grow. And we can always do better. But part of strength is also being able to say, I'm also well, in good and beautiful right now, I am perfect where I'm at.
And I don't have to change anything about myself to be more accepted by spirit to be more lovable, to be more deserving. I already am all those things, I already belong in the eyes of the heart, I already am beautiful, I already am filled with light, we can be complete, and still working on our growth because we tend to be growth oriented, right? That's why the soul is on this human journey, to experience growth and to have these new experiences.
[21:08] Developing Inner Strength Through Life Experiences
So we can be growth oriented, while also knowing how to be content, where we're at. And that contentment is an invitation to really look at your journey right now and say,
How can I be content in the strength that I've already brought to the table? How am I already showing up in a way that exhibits the qualities of inner strength and exhibits the qualities of the way of the heart and authenticity? And a spiritual connection? And loves way? How am I already doing that? And really reflect on that and figure out what is your unique way that you are already like this badass, awesome being who's rocking your inner strength, even if it's not evident to anybody else around you.
Something else about strength, that is something that none of us really ever liked to hear. But I found it to be true, is that strength is something that usually is developed through trials and tribulations, it's developed through challenges. And certainly there are people who just have a maybe stronger sense of some of those internal qualities. Sometimes it might just be like who they are as a soul, and they came into this world with it. Sometimes they are not only blessed, but have that privilege of being raised in an environment where they are kind of taught to exhibit those qualities, and other people might not have that advantage.
And so they have to scramble more. And they have to take some wrong turns and really find that for themselves. So sometimes some of it might already be in us. Sometimes some of it can be growing. But I really think no matter what it is that we have to work with, and no matter how much we start out with, it is something that we continue to grow.
And we can continue to develop and we continue to add to it, it's not like you get a one time dose of inner strength and like you're good to go, you're going to be able to make it through whatever comes your way in life. There's a reason that I think some of the hardest things that we go through, we just don't see coming. I've often thought, oh my gosh, if I knew what was going to happen with this, I don't know that I would have said yes to it, I would have made a different choice.
At the same time, if there are the things that I'm thinking of in my life, where I might have made a different choice, I would have missed the stuff that impacted me the most and influenced me the most and helped me to become the Batman that I am at this point in time, I would have missed all the things that became character testing, that became opportunities to like really dig deep and have to get into my heart and listen to like what is my heart say, I would have missed times where I really had to rely on my spiritual connection. And there have been situations I've been in where I felt like David from the David and Goliath parable, and I felt like I was the person kind of up against like, the big giant.
And, you know, the, in this case, it was, you know, kind of people with more money, power, prestige, belonging and influence than I had. And I really had to rely on my spiritual connection. I really had to rely on being creative, being resourceful. I had to rely on things that were not status bound, because at the time, I wasn't as connected to those things.
And I really had to dig deep and find new qualities about me that I might not have been aware of where they're five years before or 10 years before or the way that I would have been navigated the issue at that point in time would not have been in the same way. Because I didn't have that strength developed yet I didn't have that aspect of strength. So it's helpful to think about inner strength as this evolving concept. Or if it was a collage and an art project, and we are continually adding new colors to it, there are certain colors that we are going to bring into our strength palette that we might not have previous to an experience.
[25:32] Finding Inner Strength Through Difficult Times
And then that experience gives us that. And that allows us the next time, something similar comes along, to sail through it with more ease, or to say, Oh, this challenge is no problem. I've gotten really good at doing this, because I've done it before. But oftentimes, in order to get to that place, we have to go through that, that place of scrambling, and not knowing and feeling like we're not going to make it and feeling like we are in a dark night of the soul.
And so I think that's something that I've heard from people before, when they're going through a hard time, I don't know that anybody likes to hear something along the lines of well, it wouldn't be happening to you, if you couldn't make it through. That's sometimes helpful. But a lot of times not helpful, especially if you feel like you're drowning. And I'm thinking of a line from as good as it gets, where Jack Nicholson says like his character does, he says, Melvin Udall, I'm drowning here, and you're describing the water.
And I think that's how it feels when somebody gives us this sort of platitude of like, Well, God wouldn't have given it to you, if you couldn't handle it, you know, or you're the strongest person I know, you're gonna be okay, you're gonna make it through this. You know, oftentimes, when we're the one who feels like we're really struggling, we just want to hear something that is validating and saying, I hear that you feel like you're going under right now. And I have to believe that since you've made it this far in life, you will find what you need to make it through, I believe in you.
And I know right now, you might not believe in yourself, but I believe in you. And I'm going to kind of stand here as a pro you a believer and you and kind of hold some faith for you right now, as you find your way through this. And I'm here as a friend or support, if you need me, you know, you've got a lot of light in you. And the light always helps us find the way through. You know, and it's hard to hear that when we're the one and it. And it's hard to receive those words.
And yet there is also truth and those words, that if we can draw on our strength and stay connected to the light inside or the love inside, it allows us to see our way through I often think about inner strength as staying connected to love. And I've talked about on your heart magic before this idea of can you find the love in this situation? And it's not like there's one answer for that I use this principle in my life.
So it's something that I do feel fairly well versed in. And the answer to this question for me is almost always different. I will look at different situations in my life and say, okay, BethAnne Like, what's the love in this right now? Like, how can you love yourself through this. And sometimes the response is really simple. It might be just be compassionate to yourself, it might be this is an opportunity for extreme self compassion.
That's always a beautiful way to find the love and a situation. It might be this is an opportunity to rely on my spiritual connection. And as that connection shows up, for me, I really feel supported. That's a facet of love. It might be Wow, it is tough to find the love right now.
But I'm really learning about the stickiness and the messiness of the human journey. And something that I know for myself is that whenever I have those hard lessons, you know, lessons on being human as what I call them, I almost always come out the other side with an increased sense of compassion, or connection or ability to empathize with what somebody else might be going through. And so there's always something useful about them.
Sometimes the love is just grace and being like, it is so hard human being. And I don't know what the love is in this situation, but I can find the laughter. And I can find the humor and what a mess this is and I don't know how to resolve it. And I am not the first person to feel this way throughout the whole history of humanity.
Sometimes the way that I find the love is by drawing on what I call the collective Well, the collective well of hope of humanity and just remembering like I am not the only person at this point in time. I'm or at any point in time, who's felt the same ways, somebody else out there many people throughout history at different points in time have probably had a similar experience. And somehow they figured it out. And so maybe I can too.
[30:16] Strength, Self-Compassion and Growth
So there's always a way to find the love. And when we're able to find the love, I think about that like this, this red piece of yarn, this red string, that kind of helps us move our way through this labyrinth that we feel really lost in, and we feel lost in the darkness.
And if we can find that red string of love, we can follow it through the murkiest times the most confusing times, and we find our way back to ourselves, we find our way back to our heart, we find our way back to the heartbeat of love. And then we find our way home again, we find our way to growth, or authenticity, or forgiveness, or equilibrium, or whatever it is, that helps us feel like we've successfully moved through that challenge. love really is the quintessence. It is the building ingredient here of what inner strength truly is about if we can access that, we can find what else we need to make it through that time in our life.
The last thing I wanted to touch on today as a way that all of us can keep learning to keep building this colorful collage that represents inner strength, and our inner worlds and our psychological makeup. In our inner being is this idea that I really think when we learn to hold our own hand through challenges, when we learn to be a good friend to ourselves, when we learn to kind of survive the night, there might be these times where we are emotionally suffering and we feel like we're not going to make it.
And there's nothing wrong asking for help can be part of like holding our own hand. Like there's no shame in asking for help with from a friend or therapist or you know, a crisis line, or listening to a podcast that fills you up. That doesn't mean somebody else is doing the work for you, it means you're intelligently pulling resources and to kind of help shore you up and help you feel stronger and help give you some feedback and help you feel not so alone. But you're still holding your hand through the process. You are so learning how to say I believe in myse
lf. And I'm gonna hold my own hand and learn to tolerate things that feel intolerable. And as I'm doing that, and as I bring in the energy of self compassion, and the energy of fortitude, and the energy of just persevering and staying with myself, isn't that well, holding our hand is it's just staying with yourself, staying your course, trying not to lose faith, keep on keeping on with you. And as we do that, I think we got stronger. I think we realized, wow, like I made it through that time. And maybe if we're trying to make it through in a way that's more constructive instead of destructive.
And so we say, Okay, this week, I am going to make an appointment with this practitioner who's supportive, I'm going to talk to a friend, and I'm going to take walks in nature and do my spiritual practice instead of and maybe the of is, you know, texting somebody that I know is toxic, or doing something that I know isn't good for me, or falling into a lot of negative self talk, I want to try and stay in a better frame of mind.
Anytime we're able to gently bring ourselves through those moments, we have growth, we experience a new experience of ourselves where we say my gosh, I did it, I didn't think that I could make it through that. And yet I did. And I didn't send that text, or I didn't take that drink, or I didn't stay in that place of self pity, I kind of pulled myself out of it. And I did something constructive instead, you know, or I turn it into a poem or I made art out of it.
You know, there's all sorts of ways that we can learn to hold our own hand and be a good loving friend to ourselves, and be a good guide for ourselves and access our wiser self. And when we do that, again, we introduce a new experience into our palette. And that allows us to see ourselves in a more expanded way where we start to realize our own capability. And whenever we do that, we are very much tapping into the qualities of enter Strength and tapping into the gifts and our heart.
[35:06] Coming Up Next Week on Your Heart Magic
And again, that's what your heart magic is. It is your unique talents, your unique gifts, your unique abilities. What hidden gifts do you have in yourself? How are you already being strong? What can you take with you from this podcast today that sparked one or two ideas in you? And it really resonated, because it's something that you want to flesh out a little bit more for yourself.
And either you're like, Yeah, I felt really inspired. I didn't even realize I was being strong in this way. Or maybe it gave you an idea for how you could grow something in your life. That is your heart magic. That is the beautiful alchemy that issue.
All right, everyone. That wraps up our topic on standing and your strength today. Next week, we are going to be doing a talk storytime podcast and I will be bringing some passages and from some of my books and some new things that I'm writing that haven't been published yet.
And talk story is where I read a little bit short blurbs and then kind of talk about the process behind it a little bit more about my journey and what contributed to writing the piece in the first place. So that is coming up next week on your heart magic. In the meantime, have an incredible week. Stay with yourself and be well be love. Be you and be magic.
You've been listening to your heart magic with Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright. Tune in next week for a new episode to support and empower your life.