The Power of Language
I like to talk to people. I like to talk about things I know about, like myself. Myself is made up of a whole bunch of things that have come my way through other selfs. I gather these things through spending time with other people that also like to talk about themselves (which is almost everyone). I also gather ideas and wisdom from reading about their thoughts, which they have written in a manner that requires attention to detail and a dash of entertainment value. Even non-fiction writing (if such a thing exists) is penned and edited and explained by people. Between the exchanges of verbal language and the reception of written language, I can take other people’s thoughts and create my own unique thoughts from them. If I relay those thoughts verbally or in my own writings, the cycle can go on perpetually, with both me and others as beneficiaries.
Language is the key to our existence as human beings. Without it, each of us would be feral and animalistic. Language occurs primarily in letters, words, sentences and paragraphs, and also has purpose in non-verbal communications and other forms like mathematics and code. Language is the ability of one person to pass information to another person or group of people with intent and meaning. Limited ability to communicate that information means a limited quality of message, and ultimately a weak connection.
In my opinion, there is no other way a person can improve their personal image, self-worth, quality of belief systems, self-actualization, valuable relationships, purposeful vocation, and societal status (and an infinite number of other qualities) than by improving their ability to both understand and convey ideas in ever higher levels of language.
The more limited the ability to communicate effectively, the more difficult navigation through the complexities of life will be. Having the ability to communicate effectively isn’t just valuable for a job. It is integral to every single interaction a person will have with every other person for their whole life.
There are many reasons why a child has to be under the constant supervision and protection of trusted adults. One of those is their inability to understand and convey communication at an adult level. In their innocence, they can easily be convinced of incredibly outrageous tales of manipulation, and never question it. Part of childhood innocence is not having the rough experiences that life hands us, and with that, being unable to communicate those experiences in a clear and concise way. Just as a child doesn’t have the developed language skills to understand the intricacies and dangers of life, so too adults that have not crafted and practiced language skills will find themselves lacking in real-life situations. An absence of a command of language makes people susceptible to manipulation, uncertainty and ignorance. When chaotic circumstances come about, it becomes much harder to make determinations, communicate needs, formulate plans, and understand risk / benefit. The more language is available and useful as an instrument of thought, projection and correction, the easier it will be to deal with the chaos and calm that life brings.
The greater the level of language an individual can obtain, the better that complex thoughts and actions can be gathered, analyzed and formulated into valuable advances. As a person gathers more and more complex thoughts into their intelligence, the more those thoughts can be combined and formed into a wider range of unique complex thoughts. This cycle has no bounds, as long as language is not a boundary. If there’s a greater vocabulary, system of grammar and complexity of thought, then gathering new thoughts, deep comprehension of those thoughts, and intellectual progression can be equally enhanced. Again, there is no end to this cycle, and it all depends on the development of language.
Language development is not a difficult thing. It involves practice. If a person is not adept at reading, then the solution to that is to read more to the point of challenging their reading level. The more you read, the better a reader you will be. Even if you have to start by reading adolescent books and then work your way patiently from one level to the next it is an endeavor that will undoubtedly reward you. As more reading and comprehension is accomplished, reading will become faster and easier, and the level of vocabulary will increase. Along the way, if words or complex ideas don’t make sense, use that phone thing to look it up.
If a person is not adept at speaking, then the answer is to speak out loud as much as possible, in private at first if necessary. Developing proper speech patterns means actually listening to how you speak and what you say when you speak. The greatest way to do this is to speak to yourself and then practice the techniques that sound right, and practice against the bad habits that interrupt the flow and intellect of the message you’re trying to convey. It’s important to have an awareness of how you talk to understand what other people hear. Words such as “like” and “umm”, as well as frequent profanity should be eliminated. It never ceases to amaze me how often people can think with clarity, but then fail miserably in displaying those ideas through speech. The only thing I can use to explain it is that they don’t practice speaking techniques. As you get more used to speaking in a manner that you can be confident in, then it’s time to switch gears to speaking in public and display your talents at speaking. Continued practice in this way will pay dividends in social status, relationships and employment, among other things.
A third form of language development is writing. Writing can be focused on journaling, poetry, blogging, letters of conveyance or affection, blogging, the classic American novel, or any other way that puts thought to paper or screen. Writing goes hand-in-hand with reading and speaking. It rounds out the field. The talent to write ideas out means taking complex thoughts and turning them into permanent representations. Ideas are formulated in the imagination. The only way to pass these ideas along to another person is through language. The greatest form of descriptive language is through writing. The reason I prefer to write out articles in this blog is that the ideas I want to pass along have complexity, progression and need to be subdivided into compartments that each contain a separate idea that pertains to the whole. Writing out your ideas, or what occurs in the imagination, gives solidity and organization to what would otherwise be shifting and scattered in the mind. Writing also brings truth and realization of what hinders us, pains us, helps us, brings us joy and predicts our future. Just like reading and speaking, writing requires practice. If you’re not used to writing, write for 5 minutes a day about anything. Then over time, expand on those thoughts and increase your abilities. Being accomplished and proficient in reading, speaking and writing is key to beneficial development, and recovery falls right into that category.
Recovery requires thinking. It requires deep introspection. Much of this requires pulling memories into the imagination and playing through them. If those memories are traumatic or even uncomfortable, then emotions are triggered from an attachment to that memory when it happened. In order to contemplate, dissect, and analyze the nature of what pains us, the visual, audible and emotional elements of the memory need to be put into words. It’s of great benefit if those words can be provided to a trusted resource like a sponsor or therapist. The greater the level of language, the higher quality the account of the occurrence. This can only help when it comes to getting everything out on the table. While it can be painful, bringing those memories out and sharing them does wonders towards pacifying their influence. It’s rarely a one and done, and repeated recounts of influential memories have been proven to change their effect from controlling to controlled.
Along these same lines, using language to provide meaning and purpose to anything I’m concerned with in my past carries equal weight. A primary factor in my recovery has been turning negative impact on me into lessons. Obviously, the main character in all my memories is me, so how did I influence how that memory happened? What was my role in it, what caused the situation, and how do I prevent or repeat it in the future? In other words, what can I learn from each situation, and how can I use that knowledge to benefit me in the future? How can I pass that information along to others to take what is my learning experience and make it a teaching experience? Now, passing along my experiences so that others can relate to and learn from them further makes them valuable to me and of service to others. All of this requires enhanced communication, and that requires practiced and developed language.
Along the way, and equally important in recovery, language will serve us to fill in the voids left by the absence of emotional memory-based baggage. It’s obvious that the actual memories don’t go away, but the emotional effect that each has can be diminished. When that happens, the mind is freed up for a great deal more positive and rewarding influences. Now we’re developing new memories, ones that have an attachment to beneficial emotions, and are defined in more intelligent and complex terms. An enhanced ability to formulate and comprehend language is only going to make this process work better.
Taking language to the outside world and then using it as a tool of enhancement and benefit with others is another way of continual growth. Relationships thrive on open and honest communication. The ability to offer up my feelings with confidence and accuracy and without limitations is ideal. The alternative is interrupted thoughts, using power words like profanity, dipping into base emotions as an influence, and ultimately failing to communicate properly and ending conversations with frustration. The primary reason that people use alternative and extreme modes of communication is because they cannot formulate their thoughts into language and then provide that language in a reasonable manner.
Even language used in representation of yourself can go a long way to creating a genuine image of who you are and want to be seen as. Contrast that with limited ability communicate clearly and effectively, which leads to scattered thoughts and misunderstanding. The amount of confidence and enhanced image that comes from a greater control of language is monumental.
In sobriety, that heightened confidence combined with greater self-worth and presentation, goes a long way toward removing myself from the addicts’ lack of self-assurance, perceived value, and purpose. With greater language comprehension and utilization, I can have self-assured confidence in myself, I see myself as a valuable part of my relationships and society, and I have a purpose of providing my greatest and most genuine me with clarity and fullness. I can put meaning to who I was, who I am and who I can be with the accuracy of language.
One may question whether language proficiency really has that much to do with sobriety, recovery, or life circumstances in general? There’s no guarantee that any of this is going to make a positive change. But like everything else in recovery, the work I put towards something now combined with the sacrifice and surrender I give, the better my chances of success in the short, medium and long terms. If I consider the amount of work it took for me to maintain my alcoholism, with all its drunken emptiness and the ultimate sacrifice of everything else in my life that wasn’t drinking, I’d say that the improvement of language skills can do nothing but help anyone. The payoffs have the potential to be tremendous, but even if they aren’t, the increase in confidence and positive image alone will allow me to go to new places and new heights.