I often hear phrases like “If we had more compassion for other people then the world would be a better place”, “You just need to meditate and do yoga more often and all your problems will be solved”, “Together, we can change the world”, “We are one” and so forth.

My language is an expression of my culture. All this ‘you’ language and ‘we’ language arises because I live in a culture overwhelmed with distinction and differentiation.

Both my culture and my language are saturated with distinction and separation. Don’t get me wrong, I think having distinction is amazing. It’s not the distinction itself, but the excess and mindlessness of my distinction that I am calling out.

I’m saying that I need to balance the excessive nature of my culture by addressing my excessive language of differentiation and separation. How do I accomplish this? Well—I start by calling myself ‘I’.

I have come to an amazing realization about my language that allows me to transform these ‘you’ and ‘we’ statements into powerful words of healing. I use my language to bring balance to my excess of distinction by changing the ‘we’ and ‘you’ language to ‘I’ language.

Watch how this works…

If I want to change something, I change myself first. I take the phrase “Together, we can change the world” and I transform it into “Together, I can change myself” What a great message! I get myself together and change myself, and then everything else follows. I change myself and then the essence of my being naturally ripples out into my world. Now that’s a message of healing that resonates with me.

Okay, let’s do another one.

I’ll start with the phrase “If we had more compassion for other people then the world would be a better place”. I transform this into my secret message for myself: “If I had more compassion for myself then I would be a better person.”

Oh, that’s what I am really trying to say!

As it turns out, most of the advice and judgments that I have for other people and for my external world are really gems of wisdom that are meant for me. The best way I can have compassion for anyone is to do this work of following my own advice and healing myself, first.

Otherwise, I’m just projecting my own flaws out onto the world I’m trying to help. Rather than trying to help, I change myself first and let my essence radiate out into my world. If I am really healing, my culture, and especially my language, will reflect my wholeness.

When I change my words of differentiation to words that unify, I create healing within my culture. Rather than hiding behind the masses of other people, I become mindful of my language and start owning myself. Rather than being co-dependent, I become self-empowered and self-healing.

Personally, I want to live in a culture of self-empowered beings, where each being balances and heals itself for the benefit of the whole. It follows then that I need to empower, balance and heal myself first. When I translate the words of my world into ‘I’ language, I become more whole and empowered, one phrase at a time.

Doing my translations is the most humbling yet empowering experience, all at the same time, because I realize that it is all me, or really, I am all me! I find material to translate everywhere. The good and the bad, the happy and the sad, the dark and the light and everything in between, it is all going on somewhere inside this big fractal of mine, which I myself am the nucleus of.

The repercussions of this realization continue to amaze me every day.

Yes, this is potent medicine for me. I am looking for myself and my language is my tool to find myself and rejoin me with myself.

The more translations I do, the more whole and self-empowered I become.

‘I’ language—I do my translations!

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Ed: Bryonie Wise