The Danger of Labels
Labels are great right? If you’re as OCD and organized as I am it makes it way easier to keep everything in order and to find everything you’re looking for. Storage boxes, papers, computer files, spices…but it’s more than just objects around your house. Labels are used to identify someone or something. They provide us with a sense of control and the safety of knowing what to expect. So often we as people are labeled, in almost all aspect of our lives; race, sex, religion, politics, stereotypes, interests, etc. Labels that define who you are and what you think about yourself and others.
Except we are more than just labels.
Labels change your perspective, influencing the way you think and feel. Our thoughts and words can either accomplish great things or create harm to ourselves and others. When we slap a label on something, that’s exactly what it becomes in our mind.
If you’re quick to label and judge someone else, it shifts your mindset and thoughts about them. It effects what people you choose to interact with. You've heard the saying, “don’t judge a book by it’s cover,” right? The people you’re quick to judge may actually have a great benefit to your life, possibly create an important relationship and allow you to learn and grow.
If you label yourself, you’re automatically limiting your thinking and behavior to react in a certain way and it can impact the opportunities you're willing to take. Maybe you want to make more friends, but you label yourself as an “outsider,” before you even begin socializing you’re already starting with the belief that you don’t think you fit in and most likely hurting your chances. Maybe you want to try new things, but think you’re a “scaredy cat,” how likely are you to go to that new event next week alone? You don’t have identify with every thought and feeling you have. Just because you’re feeling a little anxious doesn’t mean you have anxiety, or being sad doesn’t mean you’re depressed. That’s not to say that people don’t have very real mental conditions, I’m just saying that one way of changing your mindset comes from words you use and the way you use them. The other day I was completely stressing myself out over teaching a new yoga class and investing money into my business. I was talking to a friend and kept saying things like “I’m just so anxious and I keep having anxiety attacks” and he said, “well first of all, stop using those words.” It seemed so simple but he was right. By repeatedly saying how anxious I was I was working myself up and creating more anxiety. I had the choice to continue to have “anxiety” or simply accept the feelings I was having were completely normal and shift my thoughts toward excitement (and maybe a whole lot of nervousness too). It’s like creating a self fulfilling prophecy, when I label myself as an highly anxious, stressed out person, all my thoughts and actions are in alignment with that.
So often we drive ourselves crazy by our thoughts, but by simply recognizing the patterns and triggers you can slowly begin to shift them. I believe that by changing the way you label yourself and others in your mind, you can break free of self-set limitations and become a better, kinder, and more accepting person in the process.