How often do you think about the power of your words? Maybe not that often even if we are told that words hold so much power, because they do. In today’s new episode, I share with you a little realization and reflection I had recently about the power of words and how people carry different words. It’s an interesting thought bubble to marinate on so if you have thoughts about it too, feel free to send me a message on Instagram and let’s talk about it!
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
Maddy:
Hey Betsy, and welcome to the living in sunshine podcast. I’m your host, Maddy fry. And around here we are all about encouraging, inspiring, and giving you the tough love that you need to hear to get out there and live as your best self. Each and every Wednesday, you can expect to learn tangible tips to help you find your bigger purpose. be given simple action steps that you can take in order to make progress toward your biggest dreams. And hear how you can purposely pursue joy on the daily. So sit down, grab your favorite drink. And let’s have a girl chat. This is the living in sunshine podcast. Good morning. Good morning, my friends. And welcome back to the living in sunshine podcast. I have a very thought bubble marination kind of episode for you today. Probably makes no sense. Anyway, hi. Welcome to the living in sunshine podcast. My name is Maddy fry. And I’m so excited that you’re here tuning in for another brand new episode. I think I say that every single intro. That’s not a purpose. It’s just a habit. But welcome to the living in sunshine Podcast. I’m super excited that you are here. Like I said, we have a pretty interesting episode for today. And this is a mix between like a storytime. And just like a Chitty chatty with me kind of thing, where I had my own kind of like brain blast, thought process, food for thought words for food for thought, whatever that phrase is a couple of weeks ago that I wanted to talk about on the podcast because it’s something that I feel like we don’t always think about on a deeper level. And I kind of just sometimes like to take the podcast and just like a really chatty conversational type thing. So as you listen, if you have any major takeaways feel free to send me a DM at a demon, a DM or on Instagram. My handle is at living the letter N sunshine, my face will pop right up and send me a DM with your thoughts because I think that today’s conversation is really interesting. And I would love to hear your feedback and your reactions and kind of your thoughts on this. So for today’s show, we are going to be talking about the power of words, and how everyone perceives them differently. Because I feel like words are one of the words. Okay, hold on, let me back up a second. I gotta collect my thoughts. So prior to this internal exchange happening, I saw words kind of like I see numbers, right, very black and white, like this is what it is, this is what it means. This is the value of that word, or letter or whatever. Same with numbers. Numbers are very concrete. Two equals to two means to have something right, very black and white. There’s the it is what it is. But after I had this kind of reflection, which I’m going to tell you about in a second. I was like, this is very, very fascinating to me, because clearly my thought process is inaccurate. So let me tell you kind of what sparked this idea about how words carry so much more weight than we think that they do. And a reminder that everyone perceives and holds words differently in their heart. Okay. So a couple of weeks ago, I was on threads because I love being on threads. I love threads so much. It’s like my favorite thing to just like sit and scroll, which is not good, because there’s so many other things I could be doing. But anyway, I saw this thread from a woman. I’m assuming they identify as that. But they the thread the context of the thread was essentially, I don’t appreciate when people use the term girly in their marketing, because I am a 32 year old woman and want to be respected as such. And so I am no longer supporting these accounts, who use the phrase girly in their marketing. And I was like, huh, I use the term girly in my marketing, and in my stories. And it’s a completely different energy when I use that word than how this person is perceiving it. And I just it made me think and it made me wonder, Am I unintentionally harming other people? When I use the term girly or girly ease in my marketing. And it was one of those things where like it really kind of just sat with me. I talked to a friend about it. I talked to Mary about it my therapist Mary in case you’re new here and you don’t know who Mary is. I talked to my husband Lucas about it. And I was like, this is such an interesting thought process and thought experiment to go through. And I would love to hear from you. How do you feel about the term girlies or girls? Because it’s a very topical A commonly used word in today’s vernacular, especially online, right. And to me, that word means fun and cute, and carefree and feminine, and happy. And like all of these positive things, right? But to this person, that word means childish, and lack of respect, and immature, and young, and all of these negative things that clearly put this person off. And so it just really made me think about the term girly, but also the way that we use our words. And this is such a bigger conversation about words that we use and how we use them. And, and the biggest thing that kind of comes to my mind is the way that we use gender identities and how for some people, that means a lot to them, which I love and respect and honor truly to my core, but to other people, it’s no big deal, right? It’s not something that holds the same amount of weight to them. And it just is always so fascinating to me to think about these things, because it just reminds me about how different we all operate and how different we all are. Right? So for me going back to using the term girlie because I really thought I really sat with this, you guys really gave this a few days of thought, and I’m committing an entire podcast episode to this thread that I was thinking about. And I was like, Why do I like to use that word? And I came to the conclusion that using the word girls, or girly, right, like your girls girl, like or, you know,
this book is for the girlies who like this, this isn’t this right? Like whatever it is, we’ve seen this all over the place. If you haven’t seen this, I would be more surprised than if you have seen this phrase use on social media especially. But for me, using the term girls or girly, it was like reclaiming a part of my childhood that I lost. Because I was forced to emotionally grow up very, very, very, very, very quickly. Right? Like the earliest I can be I can remember being called Mother Maddie. Right? A very old maternal mature, you know, name, which was given to me in love and kindness, right? Like this is not me crapping on that term of endearment, but it still mentally impacts you was probably like eight, nine or 10 years old, right? Very, very, very young. And I went through a lot as a kid to where I had to emotionally mature very quickly, to where having a standard childhood is not part of my personal history. Yes, I ran around without my shoes on and rode my bikes until the light the streetlights came on. But like, when I went home, it was you need to be mature, you need to act like an adult, you need to suck it up and get over like there was no true childhood experience like that you think about when you see a movie or read a book or whatever. And so me as an adult, as someone who’s almost 30 me using that term girlies it’s kind of reclaiming a piece of my childhood that I didn’t get, right. And the other piece of this is growing up, I was never the stereotypical girly girl, right, I was never into makeup. I never like to do my hair, like my mom literally had to rip my hair out of my head to like, into like forced me to sit down to like brush my hair. Because I didn’t want her to brush my hair, I would wear ratty shorts and ratty T shirts and run around without my shoes on and play in the dirt and all these things like I was very much a tomboy until probably end of high school, mid college. And even as an adult, like even now as I get older, I’m reclaiming some of my femininity, and like really leaning into being feminine, which I love. I love this journey for me. But again, this term girly, kind of allows me to reclaim part of that and actually heal part of my inner child. But for this other person, it’s very degrading. And it’s very, it undercuts who they are, and where they currently are in their current season of life. And under their, you know, real their thread made it sound like it made them feel very undermined, did which again, just I just, I think it’s fascinating the way that people perceive words, and give value different varying amounts of value to the words that they speak or the words that they read. And I just want to use this example and I share this example with you today. To give you that reminder that we as online business owners, online voices, as people who interact in the online space, but also in real life, and also within our own homes. need to be very mindful about the words that we speak and the words that we use because I just gave you a person act in real life example, I felt internally, right. And again, this is I’m not upset. I’m not if you are a family member and you called me, Mother Maddie, that’s fine. This was just me self reflecting. Even as a small child, even as a young girl being called Mother Maddie carried implications with it that I’m sure the adults in my life didn’t realize that it did. But it did to me, right. And while it this kind of goes back to that you aren’t responsible for the things that are done to you, but you are responsible for how you handle those things. Definitely goes back to that that’s part of it. But I think that we are in an age where we’re all trying to be a little bit softer. And we’re all trying to be a little bit mindful. And if you’re listening to this podcast, you more than likely are one of those people who’s just trying to be a little bit more intentional. And so as we go forward, I want to encourage you to think about the words that you use and say, both online and in real life and in your home and in your relationships because they do carry weight, and they do carry a lot of power. And everyone is going to hold those words differently. And so I just wanted to share this little thought challenge with you. I hope it makes you think a little bit more intentionally and a little bit more deeply like it did to me. And it was just a really fascinating kind of thought experiment to go through on my own to sort of see how a word that holds so much joy and childness childlike joy and happiness and just carefreeness carries a lot of baggage and weight in a not so great way for another person. So this was kind of a random structured podcast episode. I don’t know how I’m gonna label this probably a storytime but it’s more just like a chit chat with me kind of thing. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this conversation about the power of words and the meaning of words and how we all carry them differently. So feel free to send me a message over on Instagram. My handle again is at living the letter N sunshine. And I hope that this episode inspires you to carry forward with your words a little bit more intentionally and a little bit more carefully. So don’t overthink it. This is not something to like be anxious. Listen to me like oh my god, I just created so much anxiety to other people. That is not my point. Just pause before you write pause before you put things out there and just really think about the words that you choose. So I’m gonna go before I give anybody else anything else to hyper fixate on or overthink about. I love you all so very much. We will be back again next month in October which is crazy to say. With more brand new episodes. I hope you subscribe, like share online all those good things. Send me a DM if you have any questions, comments or concerns. And until the next one. I’m sending you all the sunshine, good vibes. And I hope you make it a great day girlfriend. Thank you so much for listening to today’s new episode. If you loved it, please send it to a friend share it on Instagram and tag me so I can see and consider leaving the show a rating or a review. Ratings and reviews are kind of like sharing or liking a post on Instagram and they really help the show grow and reach new women just like you. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss a new episode. And until next week, I am sending you all the sunshine, good vibes and I hope you make it a great day.