Feeling Our Words - Words Have Weight

This is the Daily Om from a while back - like December 26 or something. But it's a good topic - one that I often spend time on with some of my male clients, often the ones going through or heading for a divorce.

I wonder if it goes back to the old "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me"? It's like guys learn to believe that words cannot cause pain, when sometimes a word uttered in anger or with hurtful intent can cause more damage than a rock in the side of the head.

But it's not just relational words that matter.

How we speak and the way we choose our words has an impact in all areas of our lives. Think about it, do you respect someone communicating with street language when he is planning your retirement future? Do you want to work for the boss who tells "dumb blonde" jokes? I don't know about you, but I don't.

Feeling Our Words
Words Have Weight

The more conscious we become, the more we deepen our relationship to the words we choose to use.
Words carry energy and this gives language its power and its potential to heal or hurt. Most of us can remember a time that someone sent a word our way, and it stuck with us. It may have been the first time we received a truly accurate compliment, or the time a friend or sibling called us a name, but either way it stuck. This experience reminds us that what we say has weight and power and that being conscious means being aware of how we use words.

The more conscious we become, the more we deepen our relationship to the words we use so that we speak from a place of actually feeling what we are saying. We begin to recognize that words are not abstract, disconnected entities used only to convey meaning; they are powerful transmitters of feeling. For the next few days, you might want to practice noticing how the words you say and hear affect your body and your emotional state. Notice how the different communication styles of the people in your life make you feel. Also, watch closely to see how your own words come out and what affect they have on the people around you.

You may notice that when we speak quickly, without thinking, or rush to get our ideas across, our words don't carry the same power as when we speak slowly and confidently, allowing those receiving our words time and space to take them in. When we carefully listen to others before we speak, our words have more integrity, and when we take time to center ourselves before speaking, we truly begin to harness the power of speech. Then our words can be intelligent messengers of healing and light, transmitting deep and positive feelings to those who receive them.