I have talked how our reality is shaped by the stories we tell ourselves. This is also about how we use specific words to describe our reality. “The way we see the world shapes the way we treat it. If a mountain is a deity, not a pile of ore; if a river is one of the veins of the land, not potential irrigation water; if a forest is a sacred grove, not timber; if other species are biological kin, not resources; or if the planet is our mother, not an opportunity — then we will treat each other with greater respect. Thus is the challenge, to look at the world from a different perspective.” David Suzuki.
I’m not implying that we all turn into goddess worshipping animists, but we do need to see how our language creates an anthropogenic mindset of colonialism over the natural world with little opportunity for connection to occur. I explain in more detail about how our worldviews towards nature are moving towards being ecologically centered for a majority of us, but the world is still dominated by a utilitarian mindset through its economics and regulation (see post Richard’s Research on Worldviews and why he is optimistic about a transformation {June 2018}). The Suzuki quote above highlights how words themselves create much of the mindset and also the concept of separation and limitations inherent within it.
Fear drives our world. Our fear of others that might ‘take’ our limited resources is paramount in our utilitarian mindset. Think of the metaphors we live by (see earlier post Framing for Positive Communication and Interactions- How language creates our thoughts and frames our behaviors and well-being{Aug 2018}). Most things are described in war metaphors, whether it is politics, sports, shopping sales, etc., we primarily use audio and visual imagery of war. We always seem to have a war on drugs, crime, terrorism, hunger homelessness, or whatever, and we must fight to destroy the bad in the world because we are pushed into polarizing against the enemy, the others. We are conditioned to live in unnecessary fear. Fear keeps you out of your sovereignty. Fear keeps you from making decisions to change your life, because…. for rational people, think of the multitude of reasons you haven’t done something, or felt obliged to do something, that went against your inner thinking.
The most common end of life comments are nearly always about people lamenting things they didn’t do, and most are usually because they feared the path less travelled compared to the rut most known. Your fears are always about what will happen next. Yet, that future you fear does not exist yet. You haven’t had to make choices in that future yet, which is therefore imaginary. Imagine a different path from the one you fear, and then notice how different the choices would be. “If you are suffering the non-existential, then we call that insanity – People are always suffering what happened yesterday, or what may happen tomorrow” Sadhguru. You are lost in your imagination when you are in fear, so try imagining something better that isn’t fearful and live the thoughts and words that empower, not enslave, your inner sovereign self.
All too often, when we speak, we shortchange ourselves by using negative language. I had a colleague that every morning when asked how his day was going would say, “it could be better but I muddle along.” He has literally set up his day to be mundane and negative, so when it is then he can admit to himself that he was right. Life is about relationships, with others, and as importantly with ourselves. When we speak negative thoughts to ourselves, we literally get negative outcomes. When we speak positively to ourselves, things might go haywire during the day, but we can retain a positive outcome. If almost every moment of every day is packed with your own negative words and then you hear nothing but negative from words external to yourself, don’t be surprised that the world seems like a shitshow. When we listen to the negativity spewed out by the mainstream news and media in general, we narrow our consciousness to that negative focus and see only negativity, and what’s worse, we accept negativity as normal.
Look at the media language used to win our support of corporate driven programs. I recall an Exxon ad after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound (PWS) Alaska (1989). It was a wonderful collage of Alaskan wildlife splashing and frolicking to the news that Exxon had pledged to begin a study on how to prevent further spills. It wasn’t an apology or a pledge to make a great attempt to prevent future spills, just a comment to placate people into thinking that Exxon cared. A subtle use of words with a positive visual backdrop of wildlife to stir the positive emotions, but in the end to just placate everyone, and meanwhile the wildlife in PWS was being decimated because of the oil spill.
The corporate system uses mass media to skillfully use words that manipulate to our emotions and trap us into ways of thinking as individuals and as a society. We can change all of that by making a conscious effort to observe all our thoughts and then to deliberately make the choice to think about what we want to observe. I personally have stopped watching mainstream programing on the TV and when I do watch a film or documentary, I watch it consciously observing how words are used and what messages are being pushed to try and sway my thinking. Conscious discernment is your greatest tool in changing your worldview. Once you understand your worldview you can start living the way you want to live (within reason of course). Regardless of the circumstances of your life, you consciously can control your reactions to those circumstances. Perspective is everything. It’s the half empty glass versus the half full glass psychology quote, but more importantly, it’s the ability to say, half-empty, or half-full doesn’t matter, because the glass can be filled. Sustainable Living is as much a frame of mind as it is a worldview. When we change, the world changes with us.
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” Viktor E Frankl
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