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Most thinking about power focuses on power over others — domination, control, hierarchy. This framework offers something different. Power is change — the capacity to effect change, to resist change, and to change yourself. These are not separate abilities. They are three interdependent dimensions of a single phenomenon.
"Power is not something you have. It is something you do. And what you do is change — or refuse to change — or change yourself."
— Germane Marvel, How to Reclaim Your PowerThis framework draws on Octavia Butler's Earthseed cosmology: "God is Change." If change is the fundamental nature of reality, then power is the capacity to participate consciously in that change. To be powerless is to be changed by forces you do not choose. To be powerful is to be an agent of change — in your environment, in your boundaries, and in yourself.
The three dimensions are interdependent. You cannot have genuine Expression without Resilience (or you burn out). You cannot have genuine Resilience without Agency (or you just endure). You cannot have genuine Agency without Expression (or you are powerless to act). They are a triangle, not a hierarchy. All three are required for what this framework calls mental health: the capacity to be changed, to resist change, and to change yourself, in dynamic balance.