What is Kind Power
My quest to discover kind power started as a child.
Everyone called me shy; behind the shyness was an anxious little person, intensely fearful of unexpected, unfamiliar events; trying to control my world by hiding behind my shy persona.
Afraid to put my face under water in swimming lessons.
Afraid to join clubs because I didn’t know what would happen.
Buried my nose in books as a way to explore the world without actually living in it.
Shyness and dread kept me from many activities as a child. I seemed like a calm, quiet kid, good in school, but my inner world was saturated with intensity.
Parents, teachers, other caring adults urged me to just try it, that it won’t be that bad, that I might like it. At the time, I didn’t know the word, “overwhelm” but looking back, I was coping with feelings of overwhelm often.
Martial arts helped me break out of my shy, intense internal world. Starting with karate in my 20s, I learned Intensity is a strength in martial arts, not a problem to be regulated. Aikido taught me how to connect within myself, how to connect with someone fully. I learned how to flip my inner calm switch to engage with challenges that would have overwhelmed my younger self.
I discovered an inner center of spaciousness cultivating within me that helped me to be with my fearful thoughts, my anxious feelings. As this inner, spacious center grew within me, I experienced less overwhelm. Less anxious rumination and catastrophizing when things go wrong. The more I trained, the easier it was to re-center myself when I am knocked off-balance physically, mentally and emotionally.
When I was a child I also asked, “How do we do peace?” I had heard the phrase, ‘Make war’ so believed we should also be able to ‘make peace’. This inner spacious center shows me an essential element in how to ‘do peace’.
Kind Power is a power born of kindness. It is letting the intensity we invest into fear, anxiety, self-protection, distractions, all the ways we keep our distance from life to be channeled into connection, kindness, and choice.
An early example of this power born of kindness was the first time I met my aikido teacher, Brad Schultz. At the end of the kid’s aikido class, a small boy was racing on and off the practice mat. Club etiquette asks each person to stop and bow when they enter or leave the mat space. Rather than command this boy to stop and bow, Brad called him over and invited him,
“Let’s bow together.”
They bowed and the boy raced off to his parents. Simple connection through kindness. No need for command and control.
Kind Power seeks to integrate the wisdom of the body with our hearts and minds, to fill in and fill out our personal toolkit of resources. Rather than relying on our mind to talk us through feelings of dread or overwhelm, we work with our body-mind connection to:
do calm,
do peace,
do kindness,
do connection.
Recently, I trained with a new aikido student. One of the realities I face training aikido is that most of the male students are physically stronger than I am. As I taught him a technique, he started to push hard on me, trying to do the technique forcefully. Most beginners do this, wanting to do the technique forcefully as soon as possible. As a black belt, I have learned to trust my structural strength and the power of my body when connected to the ground to receive force without needing to fight back and without becoming a victim of that force.
He bore down on me and the force he exerted had no impact. He looked up at me and said, “You are strong”. I replied, not strong, structurally powerful.” We have been taught that being physically strong means using forceful effort and that physical strength is the only kind of strength that matters. The integrated wisdom of our body is a different kind of power, one that just exists and is less subject to the impacts of force.
In the beginning, Kind Power practices don’t seem so powerful. You are building connections, with the ground, within yourself, with other people. Rather than pumping up muscles to be capable of using force to protect yourself, you will be cultivating structural strength that comes from bringing your whole body into movement. This integration to wholeness takes time. Power grows through practice.
In a Kind Power class, you will cultivate coordination and confidence when you can move your body in alignment with your intentions. You will learn to hold healthy boundaries and strategies for safer interactions with other people. You build confidence and trust in yourself as you road test your kind power self, taking on challenges that in the past would be overwhelming.
Like all skills, learning happens through practice, feedback and mistakes. You are building a new system within yourself, one based on love and kindness, not one based on fear and protection. It is why I design the Kind Power learning environment to support you to learn, practice, explore and discover what you can do. No pressure to perform. No external standard to meet. No exams. Just showing up and learning by doing.
Each person builds their personal blueprint for kind power in their own time.
In many martial art traditions there is a saying, “Better to be a warrior in the garden”.
Peace without power is weak. Power without kindness is brutality. Kind Power combines peace and power together to cultivate a powerful presence, filled with care, compassion and confidence.
I am offering a mother/daughter kind power class starting fall 2026. Kind Power is best learned in community. Sign up to receive updates on the start of class and future workshops.
https://mailchi.mp/kindpower/new-studio
You can also sign up for Kind Power somatic coaching.
https://www.kindpower.ca/1-on-1-sessions
