77. Influence

Flow


Mountain

Artwork by:

Meg Vellejos-McCoy at innerlifecreations.com.

Day 199 of 2021 and Day 2055 of her Daily Painting Practice.

How do you use your power and presence to influence others?

In my work and in my personal life, I choose to deliberately reveal the emotional underpinnings of what is important to me.

Just to be clear: Revelation of emotion is not always considered a strength. In fact, unless the emotion is anger or courage, revelation of emotion is often seen as a weakness. It is not.

When I was twenty, I worked as a mental health social worker, doing court intervention and diversion for people with mental illnesses who were charged with misdemeanor crimes. I would develop a treatment plan and ask the court at the initial appearance to “hold open” the charge for a year, giving the charged person time to pay restitution and comply with a treatment program.

If successful, charges would be dropped. I did that job for a year and when I quit to finish college and go to law school, a judge told me: “It was often your passionate belief in the program and in human nature that tipped the scales in favor of the proposal you made on behalf of your client.” Even as a youth, my passionate belief, communicated with a sound argument, tipped the scales of justice in favor of compassion and kindness.

I use my power and presence to speak the truth as I know it and to persist in speaking the truth if it is ignored.