Category: words

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What Words Describe You

Now that’s a thinker of a question.

When I asked myself this, it was hard to get started. There’s so much ground to cover to choose specific words to describe a person, any person, let alone myself.

The temptation for me is to begin with words that describe what I do like, writer, bookkeeper, walker, artist, cook, reader. Or perhaps, labels I could easily apply such as male, ‘more than’ middle aged, liberal on some things, conservative on others, spiritual vs religious. The lists could go on and on.

But I find these are not the words that express who I am or who I want to be in this world. I have to go deeper.

I lean into a few, dreamer, creator, visionary. I check myself to be sure I feel they apply to me. I ask for confirmation. Have I dreamed something into existence, created it and brought it to life, followed a vision into reality?

I take my time before I answer.

I look into my heart and ask a second time because these are big words to use. Big words to apply to myself.

Perhaps like me you’ve been trained by our culture to question your contributions and their value, as if we need to constantly measure up to someone standards. Many times, the bar is set pretty high, higher than we think we can reach.

I decide to be a renegade and toss the bar aside. I trample it and choose to give myself permission to use any word I like the sound of and any words that I feel suits me.

I accept dreamer, creator, and visionary. I open my mind and see all the things I have experienced in my abundant life. They spill out onto the page, and I treat them reverently.

What are the words you would choose for yourself?

If you decide to play along with me in this adventure, please give yourself full permission to use any word(s) you’d like. Let them flow out as easily as you can.

I wish I could see your list. I hope it’s filled with awesome, happy, healthy, adventurous, wonderful words.

I wondered what else I could add to my brief list of three. I stretched myself and decided to allow anything that wanted to come out to jump onto the page. To do this, I released my need to conform to any societal standards.

I am loving, giving, a loyal and faithful friend, an old soul, resourceful, lover of music, sci-fi and action movie enthusiast, organizer, planner, To Do list operator, and heart centered.

I am also a channel, able to communicate with the divine, to receive insights and inspirations to pass along to anyone who feels they speak the truth to them. I am an ‘inviter’, who never asks to be believed, because that is not up to me. I speak what I hear and what my heart tells me, but I never expect, demand, or anticipate anyone else accepting anything I say.

My aim is to pass along what wisdom I come into contact with and invite others to decide for themselves whether it speaks the truth to them.

I trust that each of us has an internal spiritual navigation system which offers us the choice of what to believe. There is no system which speaks to everyone, so it falls to us all to decide for ourselves.

If you decide to choose some words that describe you, remember that you are the one in charge. You get to pick what feels right to you. One last bit of advice, if you move ahead with this exercise- choose words that lead you in the direction you wish to go.

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Adjectives

If you were offered the opportunity to choose a set of adjectives to describe yourself, what would they be?

Maybe like me, you’re a little foggy about the meaning of the word, adjective. Here’s a bit of help.

An adjective is a word that modifies or describes a noun (a word used to identify a person, place, or thing) or pronoun (identifying a specific person, place, or thing).

Adjectives can be used to describe the qualities of someone or something independently or in comparison to something else. For example, my sister is older than me (not that she admits it freely) or Einstein was smarter than the average scientist.

So much for the grammar lesson (not my favorite, and maybe not yours either).

So, back to my original question. What words did you choose? And, perhaps even more interesting, why did you choose the words you did? If you were asked, are they words you believe currently apply to you or maybe they are ones you’d like to apply to you in the future.

I remember once in high school, I found a long list of adjectives and decided to ask several of my friends to check off which ones they felt described me. I’m not sure if I tried to choose the ones I thought applied to me or just reacted to the ones they chose.

It was enlightening to run through their lists and compare them with each other and with what I thought about myself. As I recall, not all of them were ‘positive’ words, meaning I didn’t like the way they felt to me. Some of them were downright objectionable, but most I thought were pretty nice and I came away feeling good about myself.

I wonder what would happen if I repeated this exercise today?

Would I take it personally if I didn’t like all of the words they chose? Would it alter how I felt about them? Or how they felt about me?

How prepared would I be to accept their view? How prepared would they be to give me an honest assessment?

Sometimes we don’t want to know what other folks are thinking about us. It could be too threatening, and it could expose our vulnerabilities, bringing them to the surface. I think very few people would willingly choose to want that.

If you’ve been with me for a while, you know I always do whatever I’m asking you to do, so here’s my list.

Self-reliant, resourceful, loving, caring, helpful, creative, organized, funny (both intentional and unintentional), devoted, headstrong, resistant to authority, driven, too concerned about what others think, a dreamer.

I realize it’s a mixed bag and probably always will be. Notice I didn’t add the word, ‘perfect’. I acknowledge that there will always be room for me to improve (in my eyes and others) and grow and learn. I accept this as the truth.

What do you think your list says about you? Are there some hints available to you? And, now that you’ve done this once, might you want to repeat it and see what changes?

It dawned on me that my list contains words that came out of traumas in my life, especially the first two (self-reliant and resourceful). Something about my upbringing and adaptation to my cultural training encouraged (or the word could be, ‘forced’) me to look inward for my own guidance and support. I felt I could not entirely trust that I would be taken care of in all the ways I thought I needed, so I decided to be my own ‘boss’ and resolve whatever problems came my way, largely without the help of others.

It’s funny to me how, taking a good look at the adjectives I chose, they shed a great deal of light on how I live in this world and the decisions and choices I make. I wonder, is the same true for you

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Limited Words

I have a question for you. If you let it, it could be a really important question, because your answer may end up guiding your life.

Here it is.

If you could only speak one hundred words from now until the end of your life, what words would they be, when would you speak them and to whom would you say them?

I ask you to avoid the temptation to answer right away. Instead, pause a moment to reflect.

Sit still and let the essence of this question take hold of you. Breathe in and out a few times.

Give your mind some room to consider.

One hundred words is not very many, so you may need a few minutes or a few hours to decide which ones are the most important to you.

Not only which words to choose, but who to say them to and when.

Would you spread them out, speaking only a few now, in order to save some for the years to come?

Or would you gasp a little and spill some words carelessly?

Stepping back like this could provide enough distance to take full measure of the importance of the words you use.

A while ago, I asked a variation on this theme. I asked that if you only had seven words you could use, what would they be? This time I’ve shifted, but the intention is similar because there is a limit. Whenever I feel the weight of some heavy limit upon me, I find it forces me to go deeper. I sense a need to clarify who I am and what is important to me.

The idea that I could only speak one hundred more words in my life is incredibly challenging and feels overwhelming.

I don’t like it at all. But the truth is, I know there is value in my asking.

One idea hits me. Maybe I could be clever and find ways to save some words. I could learn sign language or develop my own shorthand of signs. That way, I could still communicate, just not using words.

Still, being limited to one hundred words would be very difficult for me. Maybe for you too. Especially considering that a fairly common sentence could easily be seven to ten words. That’s only 10-14 sentences for my life.

If this situation was real and I truly had this limit, I believe I would want my family and friends to know I love them and that I care about them and their future.

I would want others to know how important they were to me and how much I hoped they would succeed and experience their dreams as reality.

I think I would skip all gossip, judgements, expectations, and admonitions. I would let others live their lives without commenting or giving my opinions because I would want to conserve my words for the good stuff.

I’m pretty sure my facial expressions speak volumes for me. I could replace my words with a variety of smiles and my body language could assist with conveying messages.

Even so, I think I would parse my words very carefully, which I see now that I don’t do at present. I take them for granted. I think this is a mistake on my part.

I think I will keep this idea in mind and let it guide my words for the future.

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Important ‘INGs’

I love words.

Sure, there are exceptions (like vomit or cancer) but on the whole I think words are magical, wonderful, and powerful.

Lately I’ve been drawn to words ending in the letters ‘ing’ and noticing how they impact my life. Maybe you have your own favorite ‘ing’ words.

I thought I’d share some of mine and see if they are already on your list, or perhaps they are words you’d like to add, because you see some value for yourself.

I’ll start with ‘sleeping’. Lately I’ve been paying much more attention to my physical being and realize now how dramatically important it is for me to get a decent amount of sleep and at the optimal time. Previously, I thought I could get by on 6 hours of sleep but have come to understand how this devalues and depletes me. Sleep sets the stage for everything else I experience in life, so I’ve decided to make it a priority.

‘Eating’ is my next word. For a long time, I’ve been wondering if there was a better way for me to eat. Not only how much, but when and what foods in specific. I suppose everyone shifts and changes over their life to some degree, but I feel I need to be more careful in the selection of what I eat. I’m not looking to stir up a wide-ranging conversation about what’s the best or most beneficial plan, just what’s best for me.

I’ve also been considering what forms of exercising are in my body’s best interest. I’m inviting my innate wisdom to help me decide. Is it stretching, strengthening or something else. Perhaps it is a combination of things. The important point seems to be, to do something to keep myself active and in shape. Fortunately, there are tons of people and resources to assist me.

Not everything I’m considering is about my physical body. I’m also aware of and interested in my feelings. Do I allow myself the freedom to feel or does my thinking mind take over everything? I don’t want to bypass my feelings because they are critically important to a holistic approach to my life. And they assist in guiding me and the directions I choose to take in life.

One of the most undervalued aspects of my life is resting. It’s a big challenge for me because I am such a ‘doer’. I seem to be in constant motion and often don’t balance that with replenishing rest. It needs to be more of a priority for me and I’d profit from allowing and encouraging myself to believe in the value of downtime and a good rest.

Dreaming is something I’m really good at. I have huge dreams and I’m capable and highly motivated to turn my dreams into my reality. I give myself permission to have creative dreams without limits, kind of a brainstorming approach where you allow everything to come forward without judgement or evaluation. This sets my dreams free and allows a birth to take place. What you are reading right now (this post and the website it comes from) came about as a result of one of my big dreams.

Of course, there are many, many more.

Working, thinking, writing, walking, believing, experiencing…the list goes on and on. Yours probably does too. Someday it would be fun to compare lists.

As I was writing this post I wondered if there was one ‘ing’ that tied things together for me and a beautiful word popped up…living.

It creates a host of thoughts and feelings. How long do I want to live? What sort of quality life do I want to live? What experiences do I want to have?

I don’t have answers to all of my questions…I’m still considering.

Fortunately, I don’t feel that I need to know everything. The day-to-day journey is so fantastic, I’m just happy to be along for the ride. I hope you enjoyed reading this

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A Diet of Words

I want to choose to use good words every day. Why is that so hard for me? Why am I so tempted to use harmful words to say to others and to myself?

According to one source on the internet, we speak about 7,000 words a day. These are the ones we speak out loud, so that others can hear them.

It makes me wonder; how many words do we say to ourselves in a day? More importantly, what are the words? What do they convey to us? Are they helpful, neutral, or hurtful?

I also wonder; what is their relationship to our physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual life? Does each word have weight? I mean this both figuratively and literally. Do certain words weight more than others?

Are the words we choose to say defining us and our experience here on this earth?

Suppose we decide to speak, outwardly or inwardly, words that offer us support and reassurance, would they weigh less than words that condemn or shame us?

If we made a list, what words would offer us hope and set us free? Once created, would we be able to say them to ourselves, and mean them? What would enhance our ability to choose and embrace them?

To me, these are all important questions, because they prompt me to consider my choices, knowing full well that my answers create my experiences.

If I want to produce great results in my life, the words I choose to speak matter. What I say reinforces my actions and what I want to have happen in my life, whether it’s releasing weight from my body, my mind, my heart, or my spirit.

What I say can make it easier or impossible.

I sense the dawning of another question. I wonder what would happen if I released all of the words that don’t support me? I recognize there are so many of these. I’ve already shifted away from one of the cruelest words I know…’should’. I don’t use it anymore because it hurts too much. It hurts me and it hurts anyone I say it to. Its destructive power is immense.

So, if you are game to try something with me, let’s take a moment and write down some words that best support us and our grandest vision of who we want to be. I’m aiming for seven words to start with, but you can pick whatever number seems best to you.

Okay, here are my seven and why I chose them.

  1. Yes (an affirmation of life and a word to be used with other words to accomplish and enjoy things in my life)
  2. Love (the most affirming word in our language, love for others and love for myself)
  3. Gratitude (for what I am experiencing in my life)
  4. Possible (as in, everything is possible, within reach, offering a sense of hope)
  5. Faith (in both things seen and unseen)
  6. Trust (that I am loved, safe, able, connected)
  7. Belief (that I am in charge of what I believe and can make changes when I need to, reshaping my world)

Now I wonder, what would happen if I kept this list of words in places where I could see them. What would happen if I used these words more often than any others? And what would happen if I spoke these words out loud?

What I believe is that it would make an enormous difference, both to me and to those around me. I would be healthier, happier, and lighter. This is what I would like words to do for me.

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Words Matter

Words matter, the ones you speak out loud, the ones you keep inside and especially the words you tell yourself.

Just the other day I was writing in my journal, and it struck me how differently the words expressed would be if I truly looked at each one.

Here’s a sentence I wrote.

Perhaps there would be some benefit to me if I acknowledged all of my concerns and accepted their potential outcomes, in advance.

There is a lot of meat in this sentence for me, but before I say anything about the content, I want to share that upon rereading it, I felt several changes needed to be made.

Here’s what the sentence looks like when rewritten.

There is benefit for me in acknowledging all of my concerns and accepting their potential outcomes in advance.

Can you sense the difference?

I certainly can. To me the shift is in its definitiveness. There is no ‘perhaps’ about it and rather than there being any question about the benefit of acknowledging my concerns, there is a sense of assurance about doing so. That is a big difference and it made me wonder how often my words reflect my true desires and intentions.

In this case, the content also changed. It shifted from being a question to being a statement that there is great value to me in allowing my concerns to surface, knowing that when I accept them in advance, I can discover their worth. There is power and strength where there had been concern and worry.

Words matter.

They each have their own energy and we are susceptible to it. If you are paying attention to them, you recognize their impact. You can feel them and some of them can elate you while others cause suffering and damage.

When you send your words into the world, they create waves. They ripple and ricochet because what you say to others can move far beyond them. And when combined with strong emotions, their expression and power are heightened.

Words when used with ill intentions cut and destroy and neither the receiver nor the giver are sparred.

Care with using words is a wonderful gift. Kind and generous words build and strengthen. Loving words add to the world. They bring joy and blessings. They open hearts and make the world a wider and more beautiful place.

The direction words travel, whether aimed toward our inner world or sent into the outside world, is important to consider.

What kind of life do you want?

It’s often reflected by the words you choose.

It feels to me that words have an inherent strength, and you can feel this while using them. Surely it depends on the circumstance and the manner in which they are used, but here are a few examples of what I mean.

Wishing feels weak because there is so much room for failure.

Hoping, wanting and desiring are stronger, but lack a sense of conviction. They hint at not being in possession of what you seek.

Intending and aiming are stronger still and more directional and will probably bring about greater results, if there is action taken.

Knowing, claiming and choosing strike me as more complete words. They are active, aware and directive. When used, they call into existence and create and become real in the world. They are the end result of conceiving, believing and taking action.

All words matter.

What we say to others and what we tell ourselves matters. Words create much of what we experience in our life and when chosen wisely bring joy and love into the world.

I am so grateful for words.