Barefoot walking on an ordinary world

For years I have been distracted in the investigation of the use of language; the meaning of a word, how many different ways can it be interpreted in a particular culture and subcultures, how it is received and under what conditioning circumstances, how it is used and for what purposes, the deeper intentions behind words.

There is something about words that fascinates me; something inside me would get tight and uncomfortable, as if there was an inner radar for appropriateness in the use language. I would catch myself using words without a true intention, as if these words had power over others or me.

Sometimes I even feel and I can see so far beyond from the present conversation, into the interlocutor’s mind frame, and the roots of the use of a particular word. It is not used or analyzed as a judgment, but as material to investigate the roots of the illness of humanity. Language is used as a tool to keep the masses sleeping in a sick establishment that perpetuates a culture of violence and damages our inner more loving and compassionate true nature, our inner codes of innocence.

Violence has many faces, and language has been and is a vehicle to keep our minds busy with our little stories, revisiting and living in pain over and over like a vicious circle or a never-ending illusion.

Language has a powerful effect and violence is manifested mainly through patterns of communication, whether it is spoken or not. When we shout or blame, shame or judge, withdraw, despair, resent silently, and even use physical force to impose our will, all are masks of a system that generate more violence in the world.

There is a part of us that unconsciously uses this sequence of mechanical, imposed codes of conduct, as if this was who we are. A set of behaviors, that keeps us trapped in a low vibrational state, away from our true nature, away from nature’s loving codes. However within all of this, there is a memory that can bring us glimpses of beauty, as a reminder of who we truly are. Theses glimpses take us to a higher understanding in the experience of living and our search and enquiry for truth and love.

It is here, that we begin to walk ‘the edge’, and step into the fragility of beingness. This edge where we dare to experience the risk of falling into the same repetitive sequence of known patterns of violence, with ourselves and with others. We all go through moments of awareness, feeling what it is like to be fully connected, sensing the good in all and within, like we are not separate from anything and connection is all there is.

There are many practices that can help this transformation, this inner journey of going back home.

Nonviolent Communication has the strength and an innate potential to transform the sick codes of conduct and finally, in essence, the way we walk in life.

Marshall Rosenberg (founder of Nonviolent Communication) knew this, he knew the power of our words and how by transforming our way of communication quintessentially we could delete these sick codes and replace them by our inner codes of compassion, fully connected to our hearts and others. Making the ordinary living extraordinary and sublime.

About the author: 

Marta has trained as a social mediator, as well as in conflict resolution, community development and facilitation.

She will co-host a course in NVC in Galway in 2019 - for more details please see here.