“Be impeccable with your word…Your word is the power that you have to create…It is through the word that you manifest everything,” writes Don Miguel Ruiz in The Four Agreements. Words are extremely powerful, more powerful than we realize. Words give form to our beliefs, which develop our thoughts, and result in action. Whatever our circumstances, they began with the words that we speak to ourselves.
The nuances of words are subtle. Look at the phrase I AM. In English we say, “I am hungry”. We literally say that we are hunger. In German it is, “I have hunger.” To have hunger is not to BE hunger. Better to BE loving, to Be compassionate, to Be truthful.
To be impeccable with our words is more than being mindful of the words we choose to speak aloud. Of critical importance are the words that we use in our minds – our deeply held beliefs that become our self-talk. Our minds declare that we are not young enough, not educated enough, not strong enough to pursue our dreams and manifest the life we love to live. Negative thinking sneaks up on us easily and can quickly escalate to worry, doubt and self-sabotage. What shows up in our lives mirrors our deepest beliefs.
Vigilance is needed when creating awareness around self-talk. Using affirmations such as I AM Love, I AM Compassion, I AM Truth can lead to the discovery of a great new vocabulary when speaking with ourselves, gently replacing the erroneous beliefs with new ideas and certainties about who we are, and who we will become. Being impeccable with our words is important when speaking with others, but it is essential when talking to ourselves because we can only create the reality that we believe.
