A promise is more than a promise

Have you ever had a birthday party?  

A special day set aside just for you every year is more than a promise of birthday cake and gifts. It is a way that others remind us that we matter. 

That promise creates something to anticipate. It creates excitement. It creates energy. It’s an intention of love in action.

I made myself a promise. One of these days, I’ll give myself a birthday party. That may seem odd since a birthday party is such a common thing, but I’ve never had a real one with my friends. 

My birthday is the day after Christmas; it’s not an optimal time for celebration.  Those who have birthdays around holidays know what I mean.  Your date of birth is not exactly a conscious choice, but you can choose how you treat it.

So, this year, I’m keeping my promise. I’m celebrating my half-birthday on June 26.  I’m in the midst of planning it right now, and I am so dang excited!

Words are powerful

I’ve been asking my friends to “save the date!” and they promise they will.  When promises are spoken, an energetic bond is created between two people that leads to action. 

Things are put in motion through our words. What didn’t exist before is now an anticipated event.

That’s how promises work.  We use words between us to create a promise. Words are powerful things. They are generative and creative.

Emily Dickinson wrote:

     A word is dead

     when it is said,

     some say.

     I say

     it begins to live

     that day.

Words are a form of energy. They create action. A promise is meaningless without action behind it.

If you think about it, our entire world is made of promises that generate action of one form or another. A marriage is a promise, employment is a promise, social structures are a promise. 

Promises kept build trust; promises ignored destroy it.

Promises are energy

I love the way one of my teachers, Dr. Maria Nemeth, author of The Energy of Money, puts it. She says that a promise is one way we extend our personal energy.

Your promise sends your energy toward an idea, like a light beam shooting outward from your heart. When you keep your word and honor that promise, it snaps back. The door on that obligation closes, energy returns and you feel joy at being made whole again.

The way we manage time and money can reveal how we keep promises. We prioritize our budget according to what’s important, but sometimes other obligations bump those priorities farther down the spending list.

As Dickens would name it, “pecuniary deficiencies” represent promises we have made that lost priority.  Our energy is now transformed into worry, or perhaps avoidance.

Looking at our schedule, we promise ourselves we’ll take a walk; do we or don’t we?  We promise ourselves to read this evening instead of binge-watching a sitcom; do we or don’t we?

Promises to ourselves matter most, it’s how we learn to trust our self-worth.  Our energy is depleted when we fail to keep our promises to ourselves. The life force is locked up inside the unfulfilled intention.

Keep your promises

Broken promises break hearts. Broken promises deplete our energetic stores and create gaps in our integrity.  We break our own heart.

And, like the vacuum cord whipping back into place when we push the button, a kept promise replenishes our energy.

It feels so good!

Will you keep your promises to others? How about to yourself? You get to choose every single day.   

My choice?  I’m having a birthday party!!