Becoming Self-Aware – Mastering the Power of the Spoken Word

One of the most powerful things you can do to become self-aware is to begin taking conscious control of what you say. By becoming aware of what we say or what we tend to talk about, we can become aware of our own style of thinking. Words that make up the sentences that we speak have the power to shape visual imagery associated with them, which acts to program our subconscious mind to produce them as a physical manifestation or outer experience. What we talk about, and the attitude and stories we form by how we talk, reveal in very specific terms what our model of the world is, and how we use our model to fashion our realities and shape ourselves by way of those realities. Words that are spoken, bring the words as internal thoughts outward in a form of communication that elicits the same type of realities in whomever we’re speaking to. Words form the very basis of our thinking and act to shapes ideas as sound into realities internally, that are then used to express and call forth those realities externally by actively speaking them.

 While many people believe that what they think and talk about is an accurate depiction and expression of a factual reality, and that because of this they’re communicating truthfully, the fact is, nothing could be further from the truth. Our perception of life and reality outside of us is an interpretation that remolds it to be like us. Our mind as a paradigm or thematic pattern, takes in information from the outside world and translates it into a story-line as a personalization of it. We’re always within our mind’s paradigm looking out, and only see in the external world what matches our internal world and can be explained, described, and understood using our paradigm. We literally abstract or pull out of any situation the parts and aspects that resonate with our model, then recompose those aspects to tell a story out of them as a way of experiencing them. Because of this unique feature of the human mind, every single person that’s apart of the same outer reality or event, will form a unique and different experience of it. If five people participate in the same thing, you’ll get five distinct interpretations, all of which noticed different things, and created a story out of it by how they put those abstract aspects together in a cohesive way to experience them in a consistent manner so they make sense with all of their experiences. We never experience things or other people as they are, but as we remake them.

The words we speak are formed into internal imagery that gives life to them as actual and real possibilities. Our thoughts, which come as an inner voice, utilizes our imagination which forms them into possible outer realities based on what memories or ideas we’ve associated to they words themselves. Thoughts are the seeds for producing whole realities, first internally as reliving and recombining memories, forming conceptualizations and internal representations as our creative style for expression. Not only do we think the same type of thoughts repeatedly, but we imagine the same type of scenarios over and over, different only as the modifications necessary to apply them to various outer circumstances. While they vary in application, they remain cohesive and consistent in the theme that’s used to shape them. As we think we create. Our thoughts as internal dialogue are the active use of our will. What we think about we’re simultaneously in the process of creating as our experiences. What you think and speak is not an accurate account of your life, but your life is a direct reflection of your thoughts. All reality as we know it is subject to the individual experiencing it. The inner exists in relationship to the outer, and turns universal and objective reality into a personal subjective reality as the experience of it.

 As you speak you call forth the reality inherent in your words. As you talk to others, the words that you use and the attitude you speak them with, stimulate in them the same type of reality, and they become a co-creator in that reality. By telling them what life is like for us, we form an image of ourselves in their mind by how they think about what we’re saying. As they picture what we’re saying, they form a similar interpretation, and share in our beliefs about ourselves. This subjective reality as a personalization forms a belief system that’s projected and superimposed over our outer reality as a way of seeing, experiencing, and creating only what matches our belief about it. This is why beliefs are difficult to identify from truth, because they’re our own creation and form the very foundation for how we create our experiences as our basic outer perception.

 One of the best ways to begin gaining an in-depth insight into your own mind, is to simply begin the practice of objectively listening or witnessing what you say to others. As you talk naturally, periodically hesitate, and move out of the associated position of being in the experience you’re talking about, and listen to what you just said, and notice what you see in it in terms of the belief system or paradigm you’re living out of. Listen to the reality it indicates. Notice how you’re presenting yourself to others. And simply reflect on it, allowing a chain of associated ideas to take place as a way of following them back to their roots. Notice that as you objectively listen to yourself as being outside of the experience you’re talking about, without emotional attachments, that a whole series of memories as associated ideas will flash through your mind. And again, just observe them, and allow yourself to realize where they come from and gain insight into them, as self-realization. Simultaneously you’ll begin recognizing how your outer expression as verbalizing thoughts reveals what and how you tend to think. What perspective you take to create your own experiences, what it says about you, and who you become by way of it. Don’t judge it or try to explain and justify it, simply witness it as if you were observing or listening to someone else.

Once you gain the incredible insight listening to yourself brings, you can extend the practice by learning how to think about what you say before you say it. You can move from an unconscious position of automatic and spontaneous communication, to one of thoughtful and deliberate communication. You can begin asking yourself in any situation, what do I want to create by what I’m about to say, and how will what I say and the attitude I say it with, influence the person or situation I’m saying it too? What will they form in their mind based on what I’m saying? What mental impression or mood am I creating by how and what I talk about? What image am I conveying that will form their impression of me, and what type of ideas they automatically associate to me.

 By viewing words as cause that produces an equal and predictable effect, we can begin using our words to strategically produce a specific affect in others. We can realize that we have the ability to call forth and create whatever we speak as an internal image. We can begin realizing that it’s through communication that we naturally direct the mind of others. Whatever ideas we’re giving life to inside of us by thinking about them, become the thoughts of others by how we express them. We can begin directing other peoples mind by learning to direct our own mind. By becoming conscious of this dynamic process of creating through mental influence, we are provided with the means to begin taking control of our own thoughts, and becoming responsible for how we influence people in a direct and indirect manner. We can begin seeing things about ourselves that eluded us before and remained hidden from our direct awareness. We can begin realizing in very clear terms what our mental model is, what attitudes and beliefs govern our life and act to create our experiences, and through this realization we can begin working with them consciously and intentionally through the creative power of choice and will.

 Dr. Linda Gadbois

Transpersonal Psychologist, Personal Transformation Coach, and Spiritual Teacher

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