Word Miasma

Besides air and water pollution, I believe we have another pollution to consider these days: “word pollution” or “word miasma.” Miasma is a new word I just discovered and plan to incorporate into my vocabulary. It means unwholesome atmosphere.

The last few weeks, I have stayed relatively quite, other than going out for errands, meeting clients, and establishing new friendships. I have also been meditating quite a bit and reading more. It seems that the quieter I become, the more I notice the amount of words people are using and the tone they use when they speak.

What has revealed itself lately is the obsessive talking going on – mostly done by women. I had never experienced the excessiveness. Perhaps, it was just LA. In any case, I wanted to get at the root of this behavior and find out why. So, I set out on an exploratory journey – and began to really observe.

One woman I had lunch with the other day, sat down and didn’t stop talking until we got up to leave. It was as if she had memorized a soliloquy and I just happened to be on the other side of the table listening. The one time I was able to slide in a few words, only because she took a drink of iced tea. She apparently did not hear what I said, and simply resumed talking.

Another woman I spent a few hours with, stated the “F” word 8 times and she wasn’t even upset. It was simply part of her vocabulary.  I could feel the energy of the entire conversation drop several notches after she said the word.

A conference I attended a few weeks ago, became a nightmare. Mostly women were at the conference. And 90% of the speakers were women. And they weren’t just from LA. The were from around the world. Much to my dismay, every one of the speakers yelled. Even though they had microphones in their hands. They were literally screaming their messages. There was no variation in their tone, nor did they leave space for pause. I tell you it was a battering of the senses. I left the conference early and it took me two days to recover from the verbal and tonal overload.

Two days ago I had lunch with a woman, and she too, had not been able to listen or pause during our conversation.

So, here is what I think is happening. Now that women have found their voices – many are experiencing a surge of power they never had before. Nevertheless, must we scream our thoughts from the roof-tops? Must we stop listening – to be heard constantly ? Must we become forceful, and overbearing to express the power and the shakti (energy) within us? Must the pendulum of equanimity have to fluctuate so severely before it reaches the mid-point? God, I hope not.

Our thoughts, our words, and the tone of our voices, play a significant role in the energy of our planet. Each and every word we utter and send out vibrates out into the universe and we are all affected.

As stated in the book, Creating An Abundant Practice, I share:

There is a term in the Sanskrit language called : matrika shakti.  It’s also my favorite expression, as it epitomizes the importance of how one word can have so much power. Matrika shakti literally means the energy of the word — the charge of the word. In the Shiva Sutras, a highly respected treatise based on the ancient Indian philosophy of Kashmir Shivaism, it explains how certain vowels combined with certain consonants create a vibratory response, not only in the person saying the word, but in the vibration that goes out into the air and is absorbed by another person, and by the creation itself.

So if we could imagine that every word we speak has this vibratory power and that this reverberation gets carried out into the universe whenever we voice a word out loud, we would get a glimpse of how important it is to be careful of every word we say. Not only that; but each vibratory response corresponds with a specific feeling.  It can be a feeling of happiness, a feeling of embarrassment, humiliation, depression. Every one of these emotions affects our subtle system, and becomes a part of our physical being.

Even when we say words silently to ourselves — like “You are such an idiot, how could you have forgotten that appointment?” or “I’m so proud of you for treating the patient the way you did” — these silent mantras we repeat to ourselves, which no one else hears, also carry a corresponding emotion. And those emotions get recorded in our soul.  They get lodged in our subtle body.

Carolyn Myss, the medical intuitive and author of many books, including Anatomy of the Spirit states, “Every feeling we experience,” she says, “leaves a deep impression.” Words with negative con- notations leave negative impressions. Words with positive connotations leave positive impressions. They both take up residence in our bodies and eventually, those negative impressions reveal themselves and we re-experience them — through illness.  Wherever we are at our weakest, our bodies will manifest those masked emotions.

Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, the Siddha Yoga meditation master, has said, “We are born into a state of bliss. The only reason we change from that state is due to matrika shakti.”

So wouldn’t you say we all have a responsibility to make sure the words we are saying — even thinking — are uplifting?

Perhaps we can think about “word miasma” as we go about our days.  Become minimalists: in the words we use, the food we eat, the things we buy and the way we live our lives. I think it’s a good thing.

This way of living, not only reduces our carbon foot-print, it could create less “foot in mouth.”

Believe me, I am working on my own advice.