Words Make Worlds

When I told people I was going to India alone, the questions came quickly: Alone? What about the patriarchy? The rapes? The poverty? The pollution? The…? The…? The…?

I couldn’t blame them. I once had similar thoughts—until something in me shifted, and She started calling me. I wanted to go to the source, to see where yoga—this practice I love—was born.

So I went.

Standing at the gate in Abu Dhabi, waiting to board my flight to Mumbai, I felt a familiar unease creep in. I looked around and felt like the only white person in the room. As if I had never traveled before. As if I had never stepped outside my own narrow-mindedness.

Suddenly, the voices of others echoed in my head, their fears becoming my own. I found myself projecting their stories onto the women, families, and strangers around me. I felt privileged and afraid—both at once—all because of our perceived differences.

And then, I woke up.

I saw the illusion for what it was: a veil of conditioning, a story I had unknowingly absorbed. Beneath all of it, we are the same. Just human. Just trying to be happy.

The world is vast—too vast for our small minds to fully grasp. In our struggle to make sense of it, we create categories, divisions, and fears that keep us separate. But awareness dissolves fear. Compassion creates unity. Openness makes space for something greater than our preconceptions.

This was my reminder: Be mindful of the words you use—with yourself and with others.

Because words shape perception. And perception becomes our reality.

♡