Our words are spells…
On Monday morning, I sat down with a cup of coffee in hand and sent a voice memo to a group of sister friends; a short debrief on how I’ve been feeling. Is “flailing” a feeling? Because flailing is how I have been feeling. Like a bird struggling to take flight, for me flailing feels like being suspended in mid-air and going no-where. Or maybe I feel flailing is falling, while flapping as hard as I can, yet falling further. My friends, who received this voice memo, have always been truth tellers holding me accountable with their love. They have taught me that one can be loved even when they’ve fallen and are struggling in their fight for flight.
Listening back to this voice message, I was struck by my choice of language toward myself and my life. I heard myself say the word “flail” over and over again and, like an incantation, I felt the word hypnotize my person. What if I changed my language? Would that, or could that, change the world around me? What if I chose different words to incant and cast a different spell on my life?
Words can completely shape our reality. In each class I teach I hear the words from my students, “I’m bad at yoga,” or “I’m not flexible enough,” or “I’m not strong enough.” Like a self-fulfilling prophecy we cast a spell with our words, and it can shape our experience. I have yet to meet a soul who is incapable of yoga; who is too inflexible or weak. Yoga is not just a shape; Yoga is so much more than the postures we create. However, I have seen students leave the studio so discouraged by their experience with their bodies, that they don’t come back. A student will tell me that they are not good enough, and the spell is cast.
I’ve been reflecting on language, on the words we say aloud, on the words that we abracadabra on ourselves. What if instead of using the word “flailing” I used the word “transitioning?” What if instead of the word “inflexible” we used the word “stable?” The Buddha said that “With our thoughts we make the world.” With our words, we give our thoughts form and we incant the contents of a spell that may or may not serve us. What if we said something different?
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Hakini Mudra
What: A gesture, an energetic seal, a symbol of intention
Where: In Meditation
When: The “dark” morning of sunrise or the sway of sunset when the veil is thin
Why: Tap into the 3rd eye, the Ajna chakra, the space of intuition, imagination, the mystical, the esoteric- all that is beyond sight and ordinary thought
How: Touch the tips of your fingers together in front of your heart
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