Weekly Letter: T. Swift Wisdom

Dear Reader,

In my scrolling, I’ve come across 2 separate interviews with Taylor Swift at different times. In both clips she said that she doesn’t believe there is such a thing as a ‘b*tch or a slut’. She goes on to say a little more about that, but the idea struck me and I’ve been chewing on it as of late.

When I teach about nadis (physical or energetic channels), I invite students to raise their hand if they have ever been called either of those words.

Every single woman raises her hand, every time.

Our practice invites us to be sensitive to how we feel and to allow the practice to create associations or time for a deeper understanding of relationships of body and thought.

We develop language to better describe a feeling, idea or object. But we also have used language to create harm and disservice. In fact, by overusing certain words, what I call ‘lazy language’, the detail of our feelings get lost and sometimes we haven’t taken the time to be with the feelings to best understand them so we may describe them more accurately.

For example, it’s easy to call someone the B-word. But are they actually one? If we let ourselves take just one more step, maybe they’re not actually a B, but maybe they’re unpleasant and that’s what you don’t enjoy about the interactions with them.

Taking that extra step in unpacking lazy language gives us more space and confidence in understanding our own experiences. Not to change our mind, but to give our feelings the proper descriptives so we can process and move forward in a healthy way.

I invite you reconsider the language the next time you begin to name-call or judge and see if you can take it one step farther with better language.

Let me know what you notice!
~Carmen