“Let’s get out our leg warmers and dance our asses off.” –Vince Vaughn
“There is a path toward the light. The one that goes blink, blink, blink inside your chest when you know what you’re doing is right. Listen to it. Trust it. Let it make you stronger than you are.”–Cheryl Strayed
I just returned from a glorious 10 days in Peru. Visited Machu Picchu and Cuzco, stayed in a 350-year-old manor house where Simon Bolivar was living when he liberated South America, gave a workshop in Lima and had the best time with my daughter who is home from college for the summer.
Because there’s a Mount Everest of laundry and a to-do-list that nearly fills my beloved notebook, I decided to re-run a post from a couple years ago about the power of our words. And as some famous person (General MacArthur?) once said, “I shall eventually return.”
Enjoy!
I was interviewing a business owner a while back. We got off topic (imagine that) and she made a comment that made me consider reaching out and giving her an inappropriate bear hug. It was a simple comment, one I’ve heard (probably even said) many times before. She was upset about a particular issue that shall not be named and, in resignation, threw her hands in the air and said, “If it’s not one thing, it’s a thousand others.”
Her rant almost seemed like a foreign language to me. It wasn’t that I was offended, but it had been so long since I’ve thought that way or really even been around people who aren’t aware of the tremendous power of their words, that I sat there dumbfounded.
Now, I’m not this woman’s coach or counselor, but I wanted desperately to comfort her, to explain to her that every word that drops out of her mouth is sculpting her life experience.
I wanted to warn her, to help her understand that whatever she believes and yes, utters out loud, will be seconded by the the great universal energy.
I know. I’m probably like the annoying ex-smoker who no longer has patience for friends still practicing their former vice.
So instead of lecturing her, instead of suggesting that if she wasn’t more vigilant, negativity, like a body snatcher, could eventually take her over, I held my tongue and thanked the blink, blink, blink pounding in my chest for showing me a better way.
Pam Grout is the author of 17 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the recently-released sequel, E-Cubed, 9 More Experiments that Prove Mirth, Magic and Merriment is your Full-time Gig.
