Labels
What exactly is a label? A label is something you tag yourself with, a way to advertise, identify or warn others of who you are or your intentions. Labels also reflect our beliefs about ourselves. It is a way to communicate or think about ourselves. It is also a way to teach others how to communicate with us and how to treat us.
A label usually doesn’t define you completely and not al labels are placed correctly. Other people often label us and not always correctly. We put labels on people ourselves too no matter how much you may dislike being labeled often we all do it all the time. Whatever comes after I am or you are is a label. We often have labels that we are not even aware of most of the time. Not only because we haven’t placed them ourselves or identified ourselves with it but because they are so common and we grow unaware of it as an automatism/
When I go to the baker I am a customer. That’s my label at that time and only defines the reason why I am there. and with that comes a certain expected/wanted behavior and you can expect certain behavior in return. So in short like all relationships can be said to have labels.
It’s useful to discuss sometimes what label fits us in our relationships. I personally like things being clear and know what is expected of me and what I can expect from another person. It makes me feel safer in my relationships. I can only imagine this not being useful for people who want to take advantage of the confusion when a label is not clear and therefore they do not like labels being defined. When my label/position is not clear with certain people when it is important to me I don’t feel safe which affects my relationship with that person.
Sometimes a label needs to be adjusted because situations change and this will complicate things if not adjusted. The more complicated a relationship with the other person is the more important I believe the right label is.
A very important label is the ones we give ourselves because not always those labels are correct not even when we give them to ourselves. Identifying ourselves with the wrong labels can cause a lot of problems and is not healthy so it’s very important that we are comfortable and can rightfully identify ourselves with the label given.
In communication, labels are VERY important. We cannot communicate at all without some level of conceptualizing or labeling the world around us and with that its is very important that the other person understand what the definition of a certain label is to us. A mistake often made is that one label does not define everything that we are and people take offensive often thinking that one label defines them when it doesn’t. It only covers a small part usually.
Since this topic is so big I tried to keep it neutral and to a point where it is clear what a label is and why they are important. Labels are often opinions and very personal so we have to be careful with them. Not only by placing them but also by understanding them.
Unfortunately, I don’t have the energy or patience today to write all I like to write and define my point of view even more. Just keep in mind that communication can solve a lot and rather try to understand the other person from their own perspective. Explain your perspective and understand that this is not always received kindly so try to be patient with the other person in this case too.
