Words are just words until you attach meaning to them

<p>Ep #133 - Your words are just words. Other people's words are just words. Once you hear yourself say them to yourself or others or once someone says something to you or around you - that is the moment you attach a meaning to the word(s) being used. We tend to say things to ourselves before we speak them out loud. Even when you say something and ask yourself, "where did that come from?" Oh, trust me, you thought it or something close to it before you ever said those words to someone.</p> <p>We filter everything we are going to say through our mind before it is spoken. Our thoughts are so plentiful during a day we are not consciously aware of a majority of them. Think about this, you have 50,000 thoughts a day, according to many studies I have researched, and other studies claim more than that - so when you doubt you ever thought something before you said it, I assure you, you weren't keeping track of all 50,000 thoughts you had today.</p> <p>The words you and others use are just words. They have definitions we as a society agreed upon at some point, even if it was just in their use in the proper context of the words definition. The feeling you attach to a word, that is all you. </p> <p>If you get offended, triggered, or otherwise negatively influenced by a word used around, near, or at you, well, that is on you because you choose to have the reaction to that word in the moment. If you give little credence to the person saying the word, then you are likely to care way less or feel way less emotional than if a person you respect, admire, or look up to says it to you.</p> <p>When we denigrate someone for using words we find offensive and ostracize them from the tribe we do not extinguish their use of the word or the feelings they desired to elicit upon their use of the word. No, no, no...what we as a society are guilty of is the ostracization of the offending person into the shadows where they will inevitably seek out others who will embrace them for using the perceived offensive word.</p> <p>That might sting to r