I binged an entire mini series on Netflix on Wednesday
night called, Dash + Lily, an adorable romantic comedy about teenagers in the city at Christmas. It is the sweetest teenie bopper show and I'm not ashamed to say I loved every second of it. Go watch. At one point, Lily said, "Abracadabra comes from an Arabic phrase, "avra kadabra," meaning, "I create as I speak." We make our own magic."
This struck a chord in me.
Yes, we create what we speak. We believe the things we say to ourselves. Our words are meaningful. Not just the words we say out loud, although spoken words are incredibly important to the way we understand ourselves and imprint ourselves on the space around us, but also the words that make up our thoughts, the thoughts that shape our behavior and emotions, and the words we use to observe and describe ourselves.
It seems so simple. Just tell yourself wonderfully fantastic things about yourself and you'll be happy and positive and have amazing self-confidence, right? Not quite. Positive affirmations are incredibly helpful and powerful, yes. I personally love them. I also genuinely believe the positive things I attempt to affirm within myself on a deep level. What if you don't genuinely believe the good things you try to tell yourself? We need to start at an achievable level, speaking small truths about ourselves until we believe those genuinely. Then building from there. Speaking slightly bigger truths and cultivating that sense of belief. It is just like the time or mileage goals we set for ourselves. We can't go from zero to "I'm going to run 75 miles next week." Nope, doesn't work that way. Everyone is also not capable of going from having the thought, "I suck at everything," to "I'm strong and capable." That is far too great a leap.
I do believe that we create what we speak. It shapes the way we see ourselves and the world around us. But the magician says abracadabra KNOWING she will pull a rabbit from her hat. She is not merely hoping, though hope is necessary. She's also prepared and practiced. We need to prepare and practice in order for hope to even be possible, and for what we want to believe to become reality. We can prepare and practice by building our confidence little by little. And when our confidence builds, so does our willingness to try. And when our willingness to try builds, so do our real, actual abilities. Then, when our abilities and confidence are aligned, and we put ourselves out there to give ourselves a shot at something that once seemed unattainable...we hope.