Trading language
Trading language
Blunt & beautiful framing for clean transactions
Our language is who we are. Since you’re reading this in English, you should know that our language is a TRADE LANGUAGE. English is a creole blended of several other languages for the sake of effective trade and governance - take it from a former English teacher. English is direct, blunt, and descriptive. It’s flexible patterns are illogical unless we are describing things by opinion, size, quality, shape, age, color, material, and purpose in that order. Why would we describe things in that order? To buy and sell things.
Ours is a language of transaction. Transaction isn’t a bad word. Transaction only becomes a problem when we put it on the axis of hierarchy, which we do frequently (thanks white supremacy and extractive capitalism.)
When we combine hierarchy and a trade language, we culturally practice and reinforce mindsets of comparison - of “better thans.” Getting a “steal of a deal” wouldn’t be as problematic if we weren’t (being) our language. Now we have become a thief - and that’s a better thing to be than someone who pays full price - right? Nobody wants to “be a sucker.”
“But what if we used our descriptive, flexible language to BE something different together, Candis?” GREAT QUESTION. Let’s find out!
Money Mindsets Change Language
Changing our mindset allows us to dream and become more of whatever language we use. It’s an organic process that unfolds in eloquent layers as we become more and more of ourselves together. I love it. That’s why I’m a financial wellness coach. I find it deeply satisfying to witness truth unfold in another person in ways that empower and enrich each of us. When we examine our language around money, we can choose more powerful language, grow in love, and make it easier to nourish ourselves and our communities.
It’s the difference between “I got a steal of a deal” and “I was able to afford something I really wanted because it was on sale.” Don’t those feel different to you even though they’re describing the same thing? One is ranking language, the other a powerful language based on nourishment.
We, who were once subconsciously proud of being thieves, have become powerful enough to create, receive, and share our own wealth and have no need of thievery. Thievery is only necessary when someone isn’t getting enough. As I remember our ability to ship novelty socks with space cats on them all around the world, I become increasingly confident that there are “enough” resources to nourish and maintain healthy communities. A healthy Money Mindset can make that change happen one infinitely valuable life at a time, and its powerful effects ripple into our communities in measurable ways.
Take these measurements, for example: We can measure access to healthcare. We can measure food movement and hunger. We can measure logistic access and estimate our collective capacity to respond to disaster. It’s what humans are gifted at! We are resource management experts in the animal kingdom. That’s why so many indigenous communities manage their lands intentionally and trade with nearby groups to increase their collective joy and wellbeing. And as it turns out, colonizers, generally, didn’t need to steal anything to share and trade with them. So let’s cast off the need to rank each other by how much we degrade our integrity with theft, eh?
Human pleasure and happiness is a measurable thing based on access to resources. Those measurements require us to understand our transactions from a place of non-judgment…. without ranking each other. See where we’re going here?
We’re not too far gone.
Our ability to enjoy life together is our birthright. Restoring ourselves to this state can begin with changing your language, changing your mind, and oddly enough, examining your relationship to money. And honestly, it doesn’t even have to feel hard - it can be fun! Like children we can learn and play with new languages of sharing, create new trade practices, and dismantle the ranking process that keeps us addicted to the supremacy mindsets we inherited. We can reshape our hatred, discomfort, and judgments around our ancestors into loving what we have now in the present.
How? It’s simple. Think of your first memory of money and how it made you feel. What story did you tell yourself? Look your story in the eye and own it. You came by it honestly - there is no shame in the truth. The more clearly you can see our origin story with money, the more clearly our language will make space for love, forgiveness, and the creative capacity to move through the world financially in a way that just feels good.
There. You just did it. You just started your delicious journey of personal and communal nourishment. How would you like to celebrate? (and can I come too!?!)
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Candis Fox
Candis Fox is a Financial Wellness Coach, Consultant, and Speaker. They've combined their 10+ years in cognitive & behavioral science, spirit & education with radical finance to bring transformational experiences that impact our systems & communities - one valuable life at a time. Find out how much you matter.
Co-Conspirator Highlight: Annette Alfonsi, Empowering Education
Annette is dedicated to bringing real life experience into the realm of continuing education credits. Medical professionals often get stuck in a bubble and can’t access real life experiential learning from their community due to strange legal requirements. Guess what? Annette found a way to make it happen!
Now doctors, nurses, physical therapists and speech language pathologists can hire community members to give them a more rounded understanding of how to work with what they encounter daily. Wanna understand Indigenous communal healing practices and get professional continuing education credits? Need to learn how to support people with brain injuries as they heal?
SIGN UP FRIENDS. Annette is a loving, clever, brilliant human and has lent all her talents and skills to this work. Let her know you appreciate her as much as I do! I believe in her work so much that I asked to be on the board of this non-profit and she said “yes!” Incredible work. Incredible person.