Your mind is your greatest asset. The better you understand it the more you can do with it to help you with every aspect of your life. This is worth investing time in. After all, it is the most powerful tool that we have.
One thing we want to avoid doing with the mind is to confuse the subconscious aspect of it. Here’s a common way that people do so.
I often hear people say, "Running is my meditation," or "Painting is my meditation." Some sit cross-legged, close their eyes, regulate their breath, and say, "This is my meditation." But how can one word describe so many vastly different things?
When you use the same word to refer to multiple, unrelated actions, you confuse your subconscious mind. And when the subconscious is confused, it becomes ineffective in serving you.
A well-trained subconscious thrives on clarity. If meditation, for you, is the act of sitting in stillness, closing your eyes, turning your awareness inward, and seeking higher states of consciousness—then reserve the word meditation solely for that. Don’t call running, painting, or playing music meditation. Call them what they are. Running is running. Painting is painting. Playing music is playing music.
Now, I feel when people say painting is my meditation, what I feel they are trying to say is that it is their time of reflection, relaxation, “zone out” ,etc. And all of these are fine but it certainly is not meditation.
Here’s a simple analogy. Imagine training a dog to sit. You give the command, "Sit," and it lowers its hind legs. Over time, the dog learns exactly what that word means. Now imagine that you use "Sit" to also mean "Run." The next time you command "Sit," the dog won’t know whether to stop and lower itself or take off running. Confusion. Ineffectiveness. A breakdown in communication.
Your subconscious mind functions in the same way. If you use the word meditation to mean vastly different things, your subconscious won’t know what meditation actually is. And a disorganized subconscious creates unnecessary obstacles on your path to focus and clarity.
This applies to every word in your life. Clarity in language leads to clarity in thought, which leads to clarity in action. Consistent, precise language empowers the subconscious mind to function without confusion, fostering greater clarity, focus, and intuition. And when the subconscious is structured, organized, and free from confusion, it allows intuition that originates from the superconscious to effortlessly flow through it into the conscious mind. This is something we must all work toward.
So, let’s be intentional with our words. Let’s use them precisely. Let’s give our subconscious the clarity it needs to serve us powerfully.
“Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.” — Rudyard Kipling (Writer & Poet), from a 1923 speech. This highlights the extraordinary influence words can have on the mind—precision is crucial to avoid harmful “side effects.”
“The map is not the territory... the word is not the thing.” — Alfred Korzybski (Founder of General Semantics), Science and Sanity (1933). This reminds us that language is a representation of reality; when we blur that representation with sloppy or inconsistent usage, we distort our understanding.
