IMAGINE WORDS COULD...

Photo by Ana Dominguez Ruiz 2017. "Ma'at's Feather"

IMAGINE WORDS COULD CHANGE THE WORLD

Yes, sing it. Come on! I know you know that song ;)

Beatle-maniac, scream, your time has arrived and yes, she loves you. Yeah! yeah! yeah! - well... that's another song.

Imagination is what happens when you describe something to someone and they can perfectly see it and hear it without the need of any outsourced image, podcast or video, instead they use what appears elaborated within themselves.

Congratulations for having that ancient App installed already in your brain! It is called MEMORY and is inevitably linked to your IMAGINATION.

Such an ART - the awakening of imagination- is of the utmost importance for those like me who teach languages and their literature, and coach people to manage themselves in the organic process of acquiring a second language, giving light and life to a second voice.

It is an honest process as hard, patient, frustrating at times and committed as playing the piano can be. With the aim to speak fluently enough and be able to read poetry from the authorities of that language, the eager students are prompt to memorise the poetic words becoming necessarily ONE with them.

The consequence of learning lyrics, texts or poems by heart is the strengthening of your own voice either written or spoken.

Those who have enjoyed and drunk the pure water of literary fountains will sooner or later experience its power and say their own words, sing their own songs.

That is why imagination is the faculty to show what is not present to the senses. That is its tremendous power; a rhetor is who uses the imagination orderly manner in words and is able to produce the articulation of a good speech and impact someone's soul with the submission of accurate words in the precise suitable moment.

To know how to manage it, it can save our lives. Such magic is being guided and it has an order.

My coaching consists partly in showing you the stages of it and helping you cross your limits by exposing you to greater voices, for instance in my CluB!; there you will hear about Virginia Woolf, Henry David Thoreau, Elisabeth Jennings and Shakespeare... among others.

I will mention here the importance of recovering somehow the programme of the Renaissance:

first, with the TRIVIUM (Grammar, Rhetoric and Dialectic) where the language is essential and prepares the basis for a logical thinking, polishing that main instrument -the word- for the discussion of different topics with others.

and later, with the QUADRIVIUM (Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy or Astrology -for it is a language not a belief!-, and Music) where a more analogical thinking is needed to discover, experiment and enjoy the process and fruits of the studies made with others in this adventurous and transformative journey to reach the pursued Knowledge.

This path is shown in the frescos of the Library in the Royal Places and Monastery of my current village, San Lorenzo de El Escorial. (1)

Be aware of the impact of your own words in others and in yourself.

This healthy habit reminds me of the teachings of a great therapist called Dr. Pat Allen and her precise alignment -inspired by the Upanishads, the philosophy of Vedanta- which says:

"WHATCH YOUR THOUGHTS, FOR THEY BECOME WORDS. WATCH YOUR WORDS, FOR THEY BECOME ACTIONS. WATCH YOUR ACTIONS, FOR THEY BECOME HABITS. WATCH YOUR HABITS, FOR THEY BECOME CHARACTER. AND WACTH YOUR CHARACTER FOR IT BECOMES YOUR DESTINY"

This is a simple but truthful way to express what is happening in our lives once we get the courage to express ourselves freely enough over and above rhetorical trends.

For instance, in the context of studies, courses and seminars when giving a presentation, why do we hide ourselves behind the screen? why isn't enough the power of our own voice anymore?

These lines are written to claim that our voices are pure light, capable of awakening someone's intellect.

It is a thrilling experience when someone plays so beautifully the full potential of a language. Many times I can recall those days at University when I was being lifted in the air, like a thoughtless feather in the gentle breeze by just the power of my professor's words, and suspended there weightlessly in silence, full of love.

Do not underestimate the power of your own imagination at listening someone's words.

Keep singing out loud!

"Because she loves youuuu! Yeah, yeah yeah, yeaaaah!"

(1) See this video of Jaime Buhigas to understand this idea better:

Ana Domínguez Ruiz

Language Coach

www.analanguagecoach.com

analanguagecoach@gmail.com

622 90 18 06

San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Madrid

Ana Language Coach