The Language of "Serving"

I would love to stop hearing phrases like “Let go of what no longer serves you.” “Release what no longer serves.” “This isn’t serving me anymore,” without deeper nuance. Do we know what we mean when we say something isn’t serving us? Do we know what someone else means by it?

It’s so frequently used it’s become vague to the point of being only minimally useful. And what’s worse, the lack of specificity makes it easy to avoid honesty and/or introspection while still sounding guided by wisdom, because this phrasing is used widely across “wellness,” self-help, therapy, and mystical social media creators. 

I don’t really know how this phrase became so prevalent in recent years, but I don’t doubt the intentions were good. I’m just seeing it being used in ways that align with hyper-individualism and throwaway culture and that often assume privilege and ignore oppression. Who do those things serve?

Growing up, my idea of service was deeply rooted in religion. There was a great deal of talk about…