Sloppy Language and questionable ownership

We are very careless with the words “I am” and “I have”.

Those are words of identity and declaration that are very powerful. And we use them so haphazardly, identifying ourselves as or with things that if we stopped to think about it we certainly wouldn’t want to identify with.

“I am angry.” Do I really want to put that out into the world as my identity? This is who I am! But that is actually what we are saying when we use “I am”.

“I’m currently experiencing anger” has a much different impact on us than “I am angry”. The former references a passing experience. The latter is a statement of identity.

“I have” has us take ownership. “I have money problems.” “I have a lousy relationship.” “I have a chronic medical issue.” The chances of us changing any of those are very slim because we have made them our identity through our ownership. That is just who I am – the person who has that issue.

We can say these things in a different way like: I’m currently experiencing some money challenges. The doctors say that I have something going on. Etc.

This may sound trite – after all they are just words. But, our word choices are how we create our experience of life. Right now say out loud, “I’m sad.” And notice that your energy goes down and you feel some sadness even though you were not sad just a moment ago. That’s the power of words. Now say, “I am awesomely happy!” Same or different? The words do matter. They do have impact.

Much Love,

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