Unbound Summary

Unbound

A Woman’s Guide To Power
by Kasia Urbaniak 2020 288 pages
4.36
1.5K ratings

Key Takeaways

1. Recognize and Break Free from Good Girl Conditioning

Good Girls are chaste and selfless. They're modest, accommodating, upbeat, friendly, low-maintenance, and appropriate—while remaining sexually available to sanctioned partners, of course.

The Good Girl trap. Women are often conditioned to be "Good Girls" - accommodating, selfless, and non-confrontational. This conditioning creates a compression or "Smush" between being "too much" and "not enough," leading to incongruent communication and a lack of power.

Breaking free. To break this conditioning:

  • Recognize the invisible bind of Good Girl expectations
  • Understand how it affects your communication and power dynamics
  • Practice expressing desires and emotions without shame
  • Learn to ask for what you want without fear of being "too much"

2. Master the Power Dynamics of Dominance and Submission

Power isn't a mood, an outfit, a moment, or a pose. It is the ability to access your deepest desires, express them fully, and use them to influence other people and the world at large.

Attention as power. Power dynamics are fundamentally about the direction of attention. Dominance involves directing attention outward, while submission involves turning attention inward.

Key concepts:

  • Dominance: Attention out, leading, instructing
  • Submission: Attention in, connecting to desires and emotions
  • Congruence: Aligning your attention, words, and body language
  • Switching: Flexibly moving between dominant and submissive states

Practice exercises:

  • The Description Exercise: Practice holding attention on another person
  • Pushing Hands: Learn to seamlessly switch between pushing and receiving

3. Harness the Energy of Your Desires and Emotions

True desire is a fully embodied truth, an appetite for what makes you feel truly alive—a lust for the life force.

Embrace your desires. Connecting to your true desires is essential for accessing your power. Recognize that you have no control over what you want, but you can choose how to engage with those desires.

Exercises to uncover and harness desires:

  • Bad Girl Protocol: Explore forbidden or taboo desires
  • Book of Desires: Keep a running log of things you want
  • Emotional Alchemy: Transform suppressed emotions, especially rage, into fuel for action

Alchemize your emotions. Don't suppress difficult emotions like anger or shame. Instead:

  1. Locate the emotion in your body
  2. Approve of its existence (without judgment)
  3. Use it to influence yourself and others

4. Develop Legitimacy and Self-Celebration

Self-celebration dispels shame. It helps you trust that you are good.

Cultivate legitimacy. Feeling legitimate about your desires is crucial for powerful communication. Practice the Legitimacy Exercise:

  1. Imagine having what you want
  2. Note physical sensations
  3. Identify emotions that arise
  4. Explore mental implications

Celebrate your wins. Regularly acknowledge and celebrate your achievements, no matter how small. This reinforces your ability to create positive change and builds confidence in your desires.

Practices:

  • Victory Log: Daily journaling of wins and celebrations
  • Mistress Group: Share victories with supportive peers
  • Reframe "failures" as valuable information and learning experiences

5. Transform Relationships Through Strategic Asking

Asking raises people up and creates unprecedented opportunities for cooperation and engagement.

The power of asking. Strategic asking can create new roles for people in your life, deepen relationships, and manifest your desires. Overcome the fear of asking by recognizing its transformative potential.

Guidelines for powerful asks:

  • Be specific about what you want
  • Connect to the legitimacy of your desire
  • Consider both dominant and submissive approaches
  • Use the Three-Way Ask technique to find congruence

Create roles through asking. Each ask is an invitation for someone to play a new role in your life. Think creatively about how you can elevate and expand people's functions through your requests.

6. Navigate Resistance and Ambiguity with Confidence

Healthy conflict is where two worlds meet.

Embrace resistance. When faced with a "no" or resistance, don't retreat or attack. Instead:

  1. Keep your attention out on the other person
  2. Locate their resistance (what are they protecting?)
  3. Approve of their state (acknowledge without judgment)
  4. Influence by moving them from what they're fighting against to what they're fighting for

Cut through ambiguity. Use the location tool to clarify ambiguous situations:

  1. State your perception: "It seems like..."
  2. Ask for verification: "Is that true?"
  3. Follow up with questions to gain more information

Techniques for difficult moments:

  • Turning the Spotlight: Ask a question instead of answering
  • The Jason: Practice sustained attention out through rapid-fire questioning

7. Calibrate Your Responses and Make Outrageous Asks

Context determines calibration.

Master calibration. Learn to adjust the intensity of your responses based on the context and your desired outcome. Keep your attention out to read the other person's reactions and adjust accordingly.

Calibration spectrum:

  • Soft touch: Playful, curious, inviting further engagement
  • Medium touch: Direct, clear, maintaining connection
  • Hard touch: Firm boundaries, shutting down inappropriate behavior

Make outrageous asks. Don't settle for fixing problems - create something great. Push your asks beyond the tipping point where they excite and inspire you.

Characteristics of outrageous asks:

  • Transform relationships and create new possibilities
  • Invite others to express their love and admiration for you
  • Challenge you to step into your full power and potential

Remember: It's better to ask for too much than to silence yourself. The world needs your voice and your desires to create positive change.

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