Readers Respond: “What Makes You Feel Powerful?”

When you’re feeling down or unsure about what’s to come, everyone has something they do to empower themselves. Whether it’s doing yoga or getting dressed up, it’s important to take care of yourself and do whatever makes you feel ready to face the day.

In the heart of the spring semester, a lot of students are finding themselves drained of energy between studying, working, and maintaining their social lives. We decided to ask some students and staff at Kwantlen Polytechnic University what they do to feel empowered so that our readers can pick up some nifty tips.

“For me, it’s being frugal, saving money. Being a minimalist.”
– Aditya

“Mine’s the complete opposite [from Aditya]. Mine is spending money. It makes me feel great.”

– David Chudzinski

“I’d probably talk to my mom or something, because she’s really uplifting. I’d surround myself with people who … can uplift me just in general. I have this one friend, I call her at 3:00 am and it won’t matter, she’ll pick up. Things like that, you know? Being able to interact with people that really care about you, I feel that being loved in that way is just really uplifting for me. “

– Zainab Bokhari

“Personally, I’d probably do yoga myself. I’m a teacher, so it’s easy for me to get empowered doing my own practice. If I need to get empowered for this lab we’re about to go to, I’m not just going to get into downward dog. I’ll listen to music or even just talk to people.”

– Paige Jamieson

“I’ll listen to music. [In my music library] there’s a lot of $uicideboy$.”

– Rohin Bahi

“I’m all for beauty and fashion. If that means waking up extra early in the morning to get glam or get dressed up, that’s what gets me through the day. It’s the first thing I look forward to in the morning. A lot of people ask me, ‘Why do you take so long to get ready? Wouldn’t you rather sleep in?’ but if it makes me feel good I’m going to do it, you know what I mean? Taking care of yourself first is really important.”

– Vanessa Vergara

“We’re part of this club which makes us feel empowered. It’s called Young Women in Business.”

– Angeline Abinoja (right)

“We’re the executive team, so we do a lot of planning, boosting each other’s confidence and supporting each other, women in general.”

– Jasmeet Kaur (left)

“Dance. Bhangra. I’m part of the Bhangra club.”

– Jasmeen Kaur (left)

“I’ll talk to someone who knows about the situation. They’ve already done it, so they can tell me about their experience. I spoke to my friend, and she said ‘Chill, man.’ She was so confident!”

– Manjodh Dhillon (right)

“I’m always prepared. I feel most confident when I have a sense of what’s going on and what’s going to happen. I do as much preparation and review as I can, and then I get to the point where I let it go, but I do a lot of preparation. I moved out here about a year ago, and I come from a really small town where there was basically no traffic. One road took you everywhere. Suddenly I’m living in a city, and I need to drive to so many different places. Things like that throw me off, but if I prepare and check my maps, I feel more confident and I’m more ready and can let things unfold as they will.”

– Sarah Duncan

Share your own empowerment tips by tweeting us at @Runnermag.