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Language has the ability to inspire, empower, heal, and elevate. It also has the power to degrade, subjugate, wound, and evoke despair. Words are symbols of meaning and those meanings, fueled by the intentions behind them, shape our experience of the world around and within us. Thus our choice of language, both internal and external, very directly shapes our the trajectory of our lives.
The good news is that power of language resides in our own hands. The bad news is that power of language resides in our own hands.
We aren’t always able to choose our circumstances or the obstacles we face or the events which affect us. We do have choice about how we react, respond, and speak to it all. We can empower or disarm ourselves more effectively than anyone or anything else through the language we use in reference to, and with, ourselves. We can utilize all those meanings as tools in our favor or weapons against us. The choice is up to us.
Self-deprecation can be well intended but if we are always depicting ourselves as lesser, weaker, undesirable, and unworthy then that is how we and anyone else who is listening will grow to perceive us. The converse is also true, to a point. If we speak of ourselves in positive, empowering, and confident…