I think we are increasingly living in a world where words have little sincerity behind them.

I first observed this in a commercial dance class. I attended the class for a while and enjoyed it but overtime I would observed this and it would not align with me so I would choose to spend my time elsewhere.

Commonly in class I would hear hollering of ‘Yaass Girl’, ‘Slay Queen’ etc. Over the top compliments that in reality were not earnt. I would have previously said, saying nice things was a positive and affirming action. However, I think it is not actually affirming if it is not true. I think we as humans seek truth and mis-truth spoken act as a burr in our sides.

And in this case, this form of gassing someone up would not ring true. The urban dictionary has many description for the term gassing someone up. One that speaks truth to me, is “to inflate someone’s ego” and the other is: “Disingenuous motivation, in which the motivator tries to convince the motivatee that they can do something that eternal or external factors won’t allow”.

As a seeker of truth, this cultural phenomena sits ill with me. As it set the person up for a failure and it also degrade the person of the real reward of earning those words, as it make the words meaningless.

Positive words have their place, but we should be affirming the truth. Here an exercise, scroll through social media for a timed duration of 5 minutes and write in the comment a true and positive affirmation on content that inspires you, delights you etc.

Let’s makes truth and sincerity the way forward.