Hate is an Acid...

“Hate is an acid that harms the vessel in which it is stored more than the person on whom it’s poured”
-Ethel Giddings Short Reed (1873 - 1961) a direct descendant of Miles Standish.

How many times a day do you think that you use the word “hate”? For many of us, it is an unconscious act that erodes us deeply and undermines our ability to manifest love and beauty in our lives.

I received this quote in an email from my Green America business network the other day (thanks Steve!). When I read it to Sofia, my 6-year-old daughter, her immediate response was (gasp) “you should blog on that!”

The quote reminded me of how often I use the word hate and don’t even realize that I am using it. It has become one of those unconscious words that pepper our conversations and modify anything that is remotely unpleasant. I first noticed this when Sofia started using it all of the time, for everything. I couldn’t believe how much she said it and that she could possibly feel such a passionate and intense dislike for that many things. I reminded myself that children at this age mostly parrot what they hear the most and it hit me. Wow, I must use the word hate a lot. Not a personal revelation that I was particularly proud of, I set out to become more mindful of the words I chose and to help Sofia realize the weight of the word hate and how she simply could not feel that intensely negative about something like the sun being in her eyes or the dog looking at her when she eats her snack. We have been practicing rephrasing and renaming so that we both have a better understanding of our true feelings and emotions in a particular situation.

In meditation /or prayer, ask Spirit to help you to become aware of each time you use the word hate so that you can then have the opportunity to reassess and choose a word that better represents your feelings. After a short period of time, ask Spirit to help you to become aware of when you are about to use the word hate in conversation or thought so that you can make a different choice before you even use it.

Keeping our inner life clear of negativity and corrosive words and thoughts is more important than you think. These thought patterns slowly erode us in a way that hardens us from the inside and projects this out into the world, we then manifest and draw to ourselves more of the same. We simply cannot attract love into our lives when our internal dialog is always hate.

Be love.

Maria