My Language of Freedom…

In the Marino Centre we are continuously told and encouraged to change our lingo, modify the way we speak to ourselves, turn around the language we use, watch what we are saying, switch negative into positive, anchor certain situations and feelings with certain words or expressions, change negative anchors to positive ones…

In short: Learn the language of recovery, the LANGUAGE OF FREEDOM

I know Marie has frequently suggested, let’s write a dictionary of the language of freedom.

There will be taboo words, like: have-to, should, can’t…

There will be reframed words, like: gratefulness, acceptance, self-love…

There will be re-appropriations of words, like: defenestration, luni-tunes,

I think, I have developed a special interest in the language of recovery, the LANGUAGE OF FREEDOM, because my recovery and discovery of freedom is taking place in a language that is not my mother tongue. Moreover, I must admit, I am a latent linguist, and I was training to be an anthropologist, and I have found a special interest in linguistic (beside so many other interests, ah, will I ever learn to make up my mind :-D…)

I LOVE languages, I love playing with language, I am intrigued by the million ways to play with words, with the meanings of words, with the way the meaning of a word can change completely by the tone I use, the stance I have, the expression in my face while I say it, the volume, the stress, the melody in my voice…

Jeeny, how come it still took me so long until I also became aware of and understood the POWER OF WORDS, and the influence they can have on me and my well-being, and more so, the POWER OF MYSELF in using these words the way I was told to for ages, in fact, probably from my very first session in Marino, using the words FOR ME instead of against me…

I am amazed…I love languages, and the language of freedom for me is turning out to become more and more elaborate…and indeed incredibly multilingual. So what is my language of freedom?

I am German, I studied French in school, I live in the English-speaking society of Ireland, I am studying Spanish and Portuguese, I love picking up bits and pieces from any language I can grasp (if I can grasp it), and I remember accents from persons that have become important in my life…

And I am increasingly becoming aware that MY LANGUAGE OF FREEDOM is…

…GOBBLEDEGOOK… 🙂

“WHAT?!?!”, you might think here, “and who might be able to understand that?”

Well… I realise that, somehow and so far, everybody around me seems to understand it …it is not that I have started to ‘speak in tongues’, no no…

I have started to SPEAK…

I have started to USE MY VOICE…

I have started to VOCALISE MY NEEDS…

And, indeed, what is most important, I have learned to understand this language myself, and to SPEAK IN THIS WONDERFUL LANGUAGE OF FREEDOM to MYSELF, and, maybe even more important, to LISTEN TO MY VOICE!

And the most wonderful side effect of this might be:

Well, we humans are so incredibly adaptable; like, when we live in an environment where a certain language is spoken long enough, we learn to understand it and eventually speak it (for example: after a few years working as a nurse in Donegal everybody laughed about my Donegal accent. Now, sharing most of my time in the completely accentually mixed college community I have lost this a little, but still I have English with an Irish accent).

Therefore, the more I use this LANGUAGE OF FREEDOM around me, the more the people around me will learn about it, begin to understand it, and eventually use it for themselves as well!!

So… just like smiling is passed on from one face to the next, and sparkles are passed on from one sparkler to the next, so too is the understanding and speaking of the language of freedom…

Just imagine this, in a few decades everybody around me will speak …

…GOBBLEDEGOOK…

Love,