ima, ima, ima . . .

…ima, ima, ima… may look weird at first glance!

But, it is the most powerful statement we can proclaim in any language. Of course, it would be written more like, 'I’m a . . . ', and what ever word we place after ima, is a determining factor in the formation of our identityand our life experiences.

What is identity?

From our friends at Dictionary.com we find one definition among a few; the condition or character as to who a person, or what a thing is; the qualities, beliefs, etc., that distinguish or identify a person or thing.

When we say I am a (insert word here), we are announcing to the universe, source, or what ever label you use, a quality, characteristic, personality trait and even, once we have repeated it enough times, a solid belief about our identity.

It really is an inside job

Who I am and how I see myself is a choice of identity that each of us gets to make; as RuPaul says, we are all born naked and the rest is drag, in other words, everything over top of our skin is dress up, regardless of what it is.

When our three sons were just little, their mom would dress them in matching cowboy shirts, jeans, and boots; of course, they looked so cute.

I too dressed my body in cowboy clothes in those days as well. I wore the Resistol hat, big belt buckle and played the part of a country music singer/drummer. As our boys grew, they decided to change how they dressed their body into a clothing style more matching their own inner identity; it has taken a little longer for me in that regard.

We are not born a cowboy, a truck driver, an engineer, a real estate broker or a teacher. These are professions and characters we choose to identify as such based on their style of clothing. I am not Char, that is a name; a label I give myself derived from the name my parents gave me at birth. I have a name, I am not a name.

When we see someone with a wood workers tool belt on and hammer attached, we might think, oh, that is a carpenter. When we see someone in a flashy suit we might think, there is a businessperson. But that is not who or what they are, that is a role or character they have chosen, at some level whether consciously or unconsciously, to play.

Most of us would say 'I am - a cowboy', a businessperson or whatever, because we identify as that character, but what about those negative identifiers we unconsciously throw around like confetti? Do they carry any power of creating?

For example, when we drop something and we say, ima klutz. Or we do something we judge as dumb and we might say I am an idiot. When I hear people say 'I’m just a dumb farmer' I cringe; what? Why would you give yourself that label?

The stronger the emotional charge on an identifier label, the faster it becomes a habitual way of thinking and identifying the self.

First, we make our habits, and then our habits make us

How about, if we repeatedly practice and do something very well, we say I am a master at this!

In the beginning of our adventure here called life on earth, we repeat these simple seemingly harmless Ima phrases countless times as we go about our daily living.

The I am a, phrase falls out of our mouth with such ease, but are we aware of how powerful these identifier labels are?

What we say we are after I Am, we become in time, every time.

This week just practice noticing each time you say Ima this or Ima that; replace the negative identifiers with empowering and strengthening ones.

Thank you all so much for reading Your Weekly Reset an dof course, thank you for being exactly who you are!

Namasté

Char