Love and labeling don’t go hand in hand. As tempted as we may be to label feelings, reactions, people or things happening into our life, we have the power to set them free from patterns that harm us. We have the power to free ourselves from emotions that don’t serve us. Criticism of others or ourselves can only be useful when it brings actionable thoughts. On your walks or talks today, keep an open mind about whatever might come your way. Nothing can touch you unless you let it.
Perception creates reality and the words we use represent what’s within us. It’s all a fairly straightforward manufacturing system starting with the raw product – the inner self – and finishing with the polished reality we adhere to.
The choice of words when expressing emotions shifts realities. The way Tony Robbins expresses it, words are molds in which we pour what’s within us. We all have a limited number of molds – hate, anger, sadness, under the weather-ness – that we use to express our feelings. An exercise I found useful is:
1. Find top three words that don’t serve you. Those words that, when used, distort your reality in a negative way. The molds that were broken to begin with.
2. Can you think of better words to replace them with? Maybe made-up words?
3. Stick to using the new words for a month
Eg. I feel like crap ->> I feel like creple (from the French crepe – pancake)
The point is making different neuro-connections and not adding weight to negative emotions by labelling them in a way that amplifies them. What are your three words?
I will start this off by saying that blame is not a helpful feeling because it doesn’t lead to a solution, it leads to anger which is a safe road towards losing sight of the bigger picture.
I will also not delve into the reasons why people may or may not do what is right by them to live a glorious life in its beauty. What I am trying to convey is the feeling of personal responsibility. I was raised to trust the systems around me and to rely on them. To question the people around me and expect them to betray my trust at any given point. To trust the professionals around me – teachers, doctors, police officers.
With the twisted mantra of ‘Trust people when they are at work’ this puts me in a lonely place. Not taking control of my life because I’m waiting to be told, picked, instructed by an expert. Trusting too much and not trusting at all. If you were taught anything alike, it’s time to know that you can undo these patterns and replace them with your own.
I get excited just thinking how much more our minds and spirits can grow in power as we take responsibility of our lives and we dare to trust again.
Work is a must to reach the fulfillment we are seeking and it’s never seen as the end result. We picture retirement or chilling on a beach for holidays. We picture doing nothing and we fail to see the void which doing nothing creates.
The truth is that work is in everything, including in the things we love and in the people we love. We work through feelings and thoughts and insecurities. We work towards balance in a dance that can get some times offbeat. We work in love, but we don’t often see it. It’s time to acknowledge it because work is not our enemy. Is what feeds us to grow, to gain depth, perspective and vision of the future.
Love works for us as long as we put work in it to make it so.
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