Chapter 1.2: What's In A Name? Liberate Yourself From Negative Names & Limiting Labels

 

Names and labels, they can be named, but they are not a constant, abiding name.  Without labels, anything and everything can begin; Labels are a mother that gives birth to all sorts of things.


Chapter 1.2: What's In A Name? Liberate Yourself From Negative Names & Limiting Labels

To walk the Way and experience life to the fullest, the first thing to address is the names or the labels that we place upon ourselves and others.  We all put labels on ourselves and each other.  Jock, stud, athlete, mathlete, beauty, beast, loser, failure, victim.  What are your labels?  Where did they come from?  Who gave them to you?  As the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) put simply, “Once you label me, you negate me.”  The worst labels of all, however, are the ones we place upon ourselves.  Any label that we allow to stick shapes our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about ourselves, others, and the world.  But they don’t have to.  Those earthly appellations, societal stigmas, and cultural constructs are not who you really are unless you accept them as such.  They are not permanent, transcendent, or inherent to you.  To borrow from American comedian W.C. Fields (1880-1946), "it ain't what they call you, it's what you answer to" that's important.  You get to choose who you are and who you want to be.  Let go of any labels that hold you back or keep you down.  Throw them out of your life!  Kick them to the curb!   Who are you going to be?  You get to decide – and you alone!  So only embrace empowering epithets about yourself.  You will become what you choose to accept and believe about yourself.  This is the first crossroads of the Way and the Power of Virtue -- looking at the limiting labels and negative names that keep us from moving like concrete boots that keep us stuck in our ruts or as the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) albatross hung around our necks (The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, 1798)!

When we are liberated and free of limiting labels and negative names, anything and everything is possible! That’s the beginning.  We can do anything and be anything we want to be.  We can pursue our dreams and set goals for ourselves unfettered by the binding links of limiting labels.  We can choose a different path.  So set yourself free and embrace your limitless potential!  Conversely, every label that we allow to stick to us, every label that we let into our lives creates something.  The labels we embrace or tolerate give birth to everything in our lives.  So choose carefully.  If you label yourself as a loser, that will create things in your life, it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy and your brain will interpret the world through that lens because our focus determines our reality and our experience.  So pick ennobling, inspiring labels.  Don’t be so quick to pass judgment on yourself or others.  Stay open-minded and leave your opinions unformed.  Eliminate negative self-talk.  Don’t define yourself by your failures, or the worst things you’ve ever done.  Don’t base your self-worth or your identity on your performance because that’s how we get stuck with limiting labels.  Choose to believe the best about yourself and others.  Let whatever label you embrace in your life be a guiding star, an ideal to strive for, not a club to beat yourself or others with.  You stand at the crossroads today, choose to see yourself in a different light, and then give others the same space. ~ DCB


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