The way we represent things in our minds determines how we feel about life. A related distinction is that if you don't have a way of representing something, you can't experience it. While it may be true that you can picture something without having a word for it or you can represent it through sound or sensation, there's no denying that being able to articulate something gives it added dimension and substance, and thus a sense of reality.
Words are a basic tool for representing things to ourselves, and often if there's no word, there's no way to think about the experience.
If Bob never feels bored, and he doesn't have that word in his vocabulary, I had to ask further, "What's a word that I never used to describe how I'm feeling?" The answer I came up with was "depression". I may get frustrated, angry, curious, peeved, or overloaded, but I never get depressed. Why? Had it always been that way?No.
Eight years ago, I'd been in a position where I felt depressed all the time. That depression drained every ounce of my will to change my life, and at the time it made me see my problems as permanent, pervasive and personal. Fortunately I got enough pain that I pulled myself out of that pit, and as a result I linked massive pain to depression. I began to believe that being depressed was the closest thing to being dead. Because my brain associated such massive pain to the very concept of depression, without my even realizing it, I had automatically banned it from my vocabulary so that there was no way to represent or even feel it.
If an assemblage of words you're using is creating states that disempower you, get rid of those words and replace them with those that empower you.......
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