The dark side of language

The problem-solving tool applied to the internal world

Language and logical cognition are extraordinary tools for manipulating the external world. They operate under the rule of "if you don't like something, find out the cause and eliminate it."

If you are cold, you look for the cause (lack of coat) and fix it (by putting on a jacket). If there's a leak, you fix it.

This problem-solving logic is so effective on the outside that we mistakenly assume it must work the same way on the inside, in our psychological world.

When we feel sadness, anxiety or insecurity, our mind automatically applies this same algorithm: "This is an unpleasant feeling (like the cold or the leak), it's a problem, I must find the cause and eliminate it". We try to "fix" ourselves.

However, thoughts and emotions do not obey the laws of physics.

The more you try to eliminate a thought ("I don't want to think about my ex-partner"), the more present it becomes.

The more you struggle not to feel anxious before a talk, the more nervous you become.

Language, which is our greatest ally to build skyscrapers and cure diseases, becomes a trap when we use it to try to control our own internal experience, generating rigidity and frustration when we see that the "repair" does not work.

Verbal traps: rigid rules and coherence

Language allows us to create rules of behavior that we blindly follow, often to the detriment of our direct experience.

We generate internal rules such as "I have to feel like going to the gym" or "I can't go to that party until I have total self-confidence."

These verbal rules seem logical, but in practice they act like prison bars.

We look for internal consistency: if my mind says "you are shy," I will act shy to be consistent with that label, even if at that moment I would want to socialize. The mind weaves a web of arguments to justify inaction.

For example, a person might say to himself, "I'm not going to present my project yet because it's not perfect." The language disguises the fear of failure as the "pursuit of excellence."

We get caught up arguing with our own minds, trying to be right or looking for the logic of why we feel bad, instead of living.

We spend more time dwelling in our concepts about life than in life itself.

This disconnection from direct sensory reality in favor of verbally constructed reality is an endless source of life stagnation.

Summary

Language is an effective tool for solving problems in the external world, but it becomes a trap when we apply that same "repair" logic to our internal world.

Trying to eliminate unpleasant thoughts or emotions as if they were broken objects is counterproductive; the more we struggle to suppress them, the more present and strong they become due to the paradoxical nature of the mind.

The rigid verbal rules we generate disconnect us from sensory reality, leading us to live trapped in our mental concepts and arguments instead of contacting direct life.