At first glance the words strength and power may sound like they go hand in hand. Since we live in a world where it has been programmed within us to see the strongest person, country, political figure, family member, etc. as also the one with the most power.

It may be harder for some of us to be able to discern the difference between the two things. (and strength can be defined by any number of things, such as physical strength, most money, highest position at a job, etc.)

“Power over others is weakness disguised as strength. True power is within and is available to you now.”

—Eckhart Tolle

Those living within the parameters of the third dimensional belief systems may still very much resonate with the phrase, “might equals right.”

And even on an emotional level, how many times have we heard someone say “I’m a strong person, I’ve been through a lot,” ?

Now, replace that sentence with the word power, and you can immediately feel the difference in the energy between the two.

A strong person needs an enemy or an opponent to reinforce his strength, whereas a powerful person requires no opponent.

Coming into alignment with power vs. strength is a direct result of coming into our own inner mastery.

Here are five ways to discern from a strong person vs. a powerful person.

1. Strength compares itself to others, power compares itself to it’s former self

Strength needs some level of resistance in order to keep getting “stronger”. A “strong” country needs “weaker” countries in order to compare itself to, a strong person needs detrimental circumstances to feed off of.

“Successful people never worry about what others are doing.”/blockquote>

And it is because of this fact that strength isn’t actually strong on it’s own accord at all, it needs comparison to others. A powerful person requires no one and nothing to align with power. And it is because of this fact that power doesn’t require others to be weak in order to shine.

2. Strength uses fear, power uses love

Anytime we see someone utilizing fear based tactics in order to manipulate or control the actions of others, it is a sure sign of an entity that doesn’t reside in it’s own power. A powerful person doesn’t need to scare others to earn their respect, it only loves them and empathizes with them because they know that there is actually no force more powerful than love.

“The humblest is the greatest. The best listener is the most powerful person in the room. The most selfless always wins (even if it looks like they don’t).”

—Robin Sharma

It’s not that powerful person won’t take appropriate action if for instance, they witnessed someone being abused or threatened by another, it’s just that power doesn’t need to live life in the threat of attack at any given moment.

Power uses it’s strength when necessary, but doesn’t live in fear of hypothetical situations or what if scenarios.

3. Strength needs “followers”, power needs no one

A strong person needs it’s image reinforced. It does this by attempting to gain followers, subjects, people to manage over as a piece of evidence of how strong they really are. Strength uses others as a commodity to promote it’s own image, while power is not interested in numbers.

It doesn’t matter if one person “follows” them or 5 million, their message is still the same. And that message has everything to do with themselves and their own inner integrity and nothing to do with winning popularity contests.

4. Strength looks outside for answers, power looks within

Strength always needs the external reality to rely on for it’s own image reinforcement and to sustain it’s position over others, while power always trusts his own intuition above anyone else.

“Stop looking for the answers from strangers. The answers to your life are within you. Only you know what makes your heart feel at home. Only you can hear your inner voice. The key is in asking the right questions.”

—C. Nordyke

Of course there will be times in our lives where outside reality gives us an answer to something we have been looking for or explains something to us in a way we hadn’t thought of, but a powerful person always tests all theories against it’s own inner guidance system, and chooses to follow that instead of blindly following or believing in anything.

5. Strength is loud, power is silent

Strength tells us how strong they are… a lot. Strength boasts of it’s external possessions or material acquisitions while power doesn’t require to do this in order to feel powerful. Since power needs followers, it requires others to “believe” in them at some level.

It uses all of it’s achievements to present the evidence of it’s strength. And achievements are not wrong, nor is being able to buy nice things, but power doesn’t need to talk about these things in order to gain some sort of admiration. Power finds the most confidence and security within their own inner silence.