The Power of Words

One of the practice of psychosynthesis is to contemplate words, to see how they affect us, what they inspire in us and how they expand our general understanding of the language we use.

Per example, Roberto Assagioli, the founder of psychosynthesis, would suggest to contemplate words such as JOY, WILL, or SILENCE among others, to increase our perception and sensations of those words. This exercise is beautiful and relaxing, and it is always a surprise to find new subtleties during a time of reflexion.

On the other hand, when we find ourselves in situation in which we might commonly say that “the shit hit the fan!”, contemplating words such as joy or silence might look trivial, if not downright anger provoking.

The other day, while speaking to a friend about how indeed the shit had hit the fan, I found that that common expression brought up my anger and a sense of doom even more. I could feel that sense of emptiness, dread and hopelessness inside of me, that particular feeling of churning and waterfall. But all of that changed when she told me, “Oh! It looks like your whole life went KERFLOOEY!”.

It was the first time I had heard that word and I was so startled by it that we had to look for its definition. It means that things stopped working, that everything went KAPUT! In a nutshell, that “the shit hit the fan.”

What I noticed is that for me, kerflooey carried a sense of surrender, normality, and acceptance of a situation—an inner-knowing and understanding that life does what it does at times. There was sheer delight in discovering a word that means that something unpleasant, if not downright scary, is happening and, at the same time, can carry a sense of hope and the understanding that we belong to the natural circle of life.

For me, while the situation didn’t change, my perception of it did. One word can truly make or brake everything. In this case it allowed me to move on independently of circumstances, at least for a moment, and it is just what I needed to get myself back on track. This is what, I believe, Assagioli would also think as the power of evocative words.

Now I wonder, what words bring you back to your Self when everything goes kerflooey? I look forward to meeting with you again soon.

I wish you a delightful rest of the day.