The words we use to describe the world automatically frame the way we perceive it, and thus shape our experience of it -- which is why working with thoughtforms is such a powerful method for manifesting your reality more intentionally.
I was at a dinner party once, and an uncommonly spirited discussion sprung up about the "right way" to wash dishes. We talked about strategies of loading the dishwasher and letting things soak overnight, and at some point one of the guests, who did scientific work, said, "Water is a powerful solvent."
That single sentence changed my understanding and experience of the thoughtform of "water."
I think we all agree that water dissolves things (like food residue) over time, but calling it a "solvent" -- something more commonly associated with caustic chemicals -- had never occurred to me. And if you dive down that particular linguistic rabbit hole, you start to notice that we also talk about "solving" problems (thus making them disappear) and looking for "solutions," etc. There's a whole world of meaning contained within the words "solve" and "solvent" that we simply take for granted without ever looking at their effects on our experience.
Language is a sort of funnel for meaning. If I experience a thing, and I want to transmit/share my experience of that thing to someone else, I have to compress its meaning into sets of characters or sound vibrations known as "words" (or logographs, in some languages). The receiver of that language then unpacks it according to their own understanding of those words, which means that their perception of the thing I'm describing may or may not correspond to what I intended to share.
So if we never question our language (thoughtforms), we may not see where we have misunderstood our experience of "reality," or ourselves.
How does this apply to manifestation? What you believe and thus perceive, you continue to receive. We constantly use language to understand ourselves, both in our own minds and in describing ourselves outwardly to others. (My guided meditation "You Are a ThoughtForm," available here, helps you explore that idea.) Because I am always also a receiver of my own language/thoughtforms, I may well be shaping a reality for myself that is not at all what I intended. It's a continuous, self-reinforcing loop.
Many of the words we use to describe and understand ourselves were transmitted to us by others, beginning in childhood. We are born, and then the words start: "Your name is..." "You are a girl/boy." "Your religion is..." "You are a citizen of...", and so on. In the beginning, we receive them from our family of origin. Later, we begin to internalize all sorts of additional connotations associated with those words that come to us from friends, media, our educational experiences, etc.
And many of those connotations are simply wrong.
For example, I, Rishika, live in a female body. In my culture, the thoughtform "female" comes loaded with all sorts of rules and expectations about what I should or should not do with a female body in terms of work, family, self-decoration, movement, speech, ad infinitum. As my journey progressed, however, I clearly saw that my Consciousness is neither "male" nor "female" nor any particular state in between, it simply is. There are certainly ways that I can express myself via my "female" body that have greater utility than others given my environment, but those are only "real" to the extent that I believe in them. If I keep reinforcing society's ideas about "female" in my subconscious by behaving in alignment with them, I keep upholding and recreating that reality for myself.
If I question them, however, something magical happens. I begin to discover that my reality is only limited by my perception of it. The moment I begin to question whether "female" means anything at all, I understand that it can mean anything I decide it means. When I begin to behave in alignment with my new understanding, perhaps by trying a new behavior that I previously thought unavailable to me, I may then notice that nothing "bad" happens. Maybe I even succeed wildly where I had previously doubted my ability. A new space of possibility opens up.
My subconscious mind takes notice, and starts shifting to this new understanding of "female." And then the Vibrational Web, which is always in two-way communication with the subconscious, takes notice as well and begins delivering new experiences to me that correspond to my new understanding.
Take a critical look at the words you use to describe yourself both in your mind and to the world. Question them, unpack them, and notice all the ways their hidden connotations and "baggage" serve to frame and/or limit your experience. Plunge them into the water of your Awareness, and then watch them dissolve. ~Rishika
Awesome post!