Changing Our Relationship with Labels

Lately, I have been exploring the idea of how labels limit us. Language and words create visual ideas in our minds. So, when we label someone or any circumstance in life, we create a defining edge around it. We restrict it to the label's extent.

Unfortunately, this restriction becomes all that it is known for. It creates a limiting identity to it. And finally, there is no opportunity to grow around this.

The thing is, nature is free-flowing. It grows through the resources that are available to it. Even if it means to cling to something nearby. When we label something, we allow it no space to grow through. Instead, it creates a loop of repeating patterns and in turn, creates exhaustion to the perceiver, a feeling of - this is the end.

The illusion of the end is an aspect of the ego. It reflects the limits of the mind. The mind can only explore what it knows, not what it doesn't. So once it reaches the edge of the known, it experiences the illusion of an end. It feels like there is nowhere else to go.

The first time I had reached this end, I felt exasperated. I felt stuck in this world and there was nowhere to go. However now, having experienced these ends many times, I know that this end only symbolizes what I (my mind) know.

When you reach such a stage, the first thing to do is to recognise that you have reached the end of what your mind knows. The second thing is to experience the fear that comes with the end, and eventually, the grief that follows.

This is just one of the possibilities. When you go through this process, remind yourself there is more to this. And that this is just the end of what you know.

Another thing you can do is to focus on everything that you can control. Your daily rituals, creative process and progress, upskilling - and most importantly, learning to relax into the scenario. Never ever make a circumstance your identity. It is not you. The circumstances and your feelings are transient. Allow it to pass. Commit to your process.

When you use labels, as descriptions and not as definitions - you give them a transient nature. Descriptions are a process and are ever-changing.

Another thing you can do is change your relationship with how you perceive a scenario. Sometimes, unknowingly, we create an identity of ourselves through a circumstance. This is a natural response to what shows up in life.

In this case, remind yourself - that at any point you can change how you relate to the circumstance - by showing up and responding differently, and what it means to you. Consciously, shift your inner narration and opinions of the circumstance by being aware of it. Notice what you are saying about it now. Then decide to intentionally give it another meaning. And practise reinforcing this new meaning, every time the old interpretation comes up.

Labels, inconspicuously, create a weight of expectations on an individual and eventually move to the collective conscience. The more you free yourself from the labels, the more you free the collective conscience.

Transience is the essence of nature. When we label anything, it comes in conflict with this transience. However, allowing circumstances and people to be whatever they are, allows us to navigate them appropriately with what we deem true.

This naturally improves how we reinforce boundaries, how we communicate and express ourselves with others. To simply show up authentically - in what feels right to us.