Una Palabra Sola Episode 12, descubrir
Doing the uncovering or discovery work can be tiring, but oh so worth it - as you find out more about yourself, your identity has a true chance to flourish.
descubrir: (v) to discover, find, uncover, take the lid off (pot, pan)
Related words: el descubrimiento, descubierto, descubierta
Antonyms: cubrir (to cover), esconder (to hide), saber, conocer (to know)
From the Latin “discoperīre”, to discover
When you do the discovery work about and around yourself, you learn - you start to feel a little more alive. With knowledge, comes clarity in purpose.
3:48: We all have a lot of roles in our lives: which can help us prioritize and survive in Information Overload. It can also be detrimental because there are a lot of unspoken rules and expectations that come with each of our roles.
6:08: Because discoveries usually only happen once, use el pretérito (the preterite verb tense) to talk about things that were discovered.
13:22: It's OK to carve out space and time for these descubrimientos- for things to drop off of your plate in order to do the discovery work. It's OK to do so, and some might even say it's necessary.
21:33: If you want to do A Thing, you've got to do the discovery work to get clarity around your expectations and reasons why... with the discovery, comes clarity. You can then slow down your expectations, so that your perspective has time to catch up.
For reflection:
What roles do you find yourself taking on in life? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________.
What rules or expectations are part of those roles (inherent or explicit)? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
When was the last time you did something that scared or frightened you? _____________________________________________________________________________.
If you had ~ all the time in the world ~, what would be the first thing you would do? What would be the most self-indulgent thing you would do? _______________________________________________________________________________________________.
When was the last time you learned or discovered something new, about or around yourself? _______________________________________________________________.
How can YOU cultivate love, joy, and peace in your life? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
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TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
Hola y bienvenidos, hello and welcome to Una Palabra Sola, where we get to learn Spanish, one word at a time. I am your host, Megan Miller, founder and teacher at Aprovechar Language Solutions. Empezamos, and let's dive in.
Hola hola otra vez. Hello mis queridos oyentes. Wonderful, beautiful listeners.
Hace un rato. It's been a while. Hace un ratito. I'm not going to lie, I've been taking some time away from the hustle and bustle of social media and podcasting and content creation, and. I've been kind of on this little journey, if you will, descubriendo cosas, which segues directly into our word. I think I am making records here, uh, because it is the first time, I think that I haven't had this really long tangent about the word, descubrir.
That is our word. Es un verbo, descubrir. It is a verb, and just jumping right into that definition to discover, to find, to uncover, or for all those chefs out there, to take the lid off a pot and pan, es descubrir. And when we talk about things that are discovered or things that are found, it's usually found for the first time. So I have here my lovely Maria Moliner Diccionario del Uso de Espanol and I looked up descubrir in my wonderful big book that makes me think of Belle from Beauty and the Beast.
1:57
The amount of times that I read ocultas, cosas ocultas o cosas desconocidas for descubrir, for this pinche definition. I mean, if I had to take a shot, I would be on the ground right now. Usually ocultas, cosas ocultas are hidden things; cosas desconocidas are unknown things. So this just goes back into finding things for the first time, uh, uncovering or discovering something, descubrir. And it can be used a few different ways. To be quite honest, it's not one of those verbs that is really found in the wild too much unless you're reading like scientific journals like por ejemplo, el científico descubrió una planta nueva. It could also be used in recipes, por ejemplo, Parte 3: descubre el sartén y añade sal. Like, uncover the pot and add salt. The first example, el científico descubrió una planta nueva, that is the scientist discovered a new plant: discovering it for the first time, oh my God, how did we not know that this was not here? You could also say like, oh, descubre el asesino en Capítulo 4, if you are in a lovely book club, or if you're talking about a book, that just means and translates to, oh, they discover who the assassin is, who the killer is in chapter four.
It's not one of those verbos para sobrevivir. It's not one of those survival verbs. However, it can be very useful, and it came to mind simply because we have a lot of roles in our lives, right? Those labels that we put on ourselves. Like, if they were post-it notes, we would be covered in them. The labels that society puts on us, right? So daughter, wife, business owner, worker, mother, father, son, community leader, whatever those roles can be.When we go on this journey of kind of self-discovery or discovering a new hobby, a new passion, that is a perfect time to use el verbo descubrir, because some sinónimos, some synonyms. See if you can take a hint and see where I'm going here. We have encontrar, to find. Averiguar, to find out. Enterarse, to learn. Or for once again, all those cocineros, cocineras out there, destapar, to uncover.
4:50
For example, when you go to Spain or you get tapas. Tapar is the verb to cover. Usually, like if you go to Spain and you get una caña, so like a little thing of beer and then you get tapas with it because you're supposed to cover your beer when you go to the bathroom because you've had too many beers and then you come back and somebody knows that that is your drink. So, destapar, that DES prefix means to “un”. And you can see that with descubrir, right? Cubrir is a verb that means to cover; descubrir, you take that cover off, so you uncover. Fun fact, when this verb is reflexive with descubrirse, it means to take your hat off or to unveil something, like on a wedding day, take your veil off, you unveil.
Otro sinónimo, hallar. Hallar means to find once something has been lost. Descubrir is really for those discoveries. In that first demo sentence, el científico descubrió una planta nueva, descubrió is in el pretérito. That is your preterite, past-tense meaning; they discovered it once, because once something has been discovered, it doesn’t need to be discovered again. Hallar is really used when you lose something and then you find it again. It's very similar to encontrar in that way. Like, you find it. Averiguar is like to find out; it's like using context clues to find out.
So some antónimos, we have cubrir, to cover; tapar, to cover. Esconder, to hide, and then saber and conocer, to know. Saber and conocer are two verbs that both mean to know, but you conocer, or you know, or you're familiar with, people and places. You saber or you know facts. Cold hard facts. For example, you're going to a party, you might saber, know, the address or la dirección, but you conocer, you know or are familiar with the people hosting the party. Saber, conocer, two antónimos.
7:20
So going back to roles here, because descubrir, otra vez, verbo to find something, something that's hidden, something that's unknown, you find it, you find it once, and you're good. Similar to an X on a treasure map, the treasure just doesn't keep moving itself around. Once you find that treasure, you know where it is. You saber, you know.
Going back to some of those roles though, so these roles in our lives, so the labels that we put on ourselves that, society puts on us like, oh, you should definitely care a lot about this thing. That can be exhausting. It can be exhausting, especially in this Protestant, driven, hustle, American culture that we talk about slowing down and we talk more and more and more about slowing down. But who the fuck is actually slowing down? No, kids got to go to camp. They got to go to school. They have activities and travel. People are traveling now. COVID is over..ish. Work is picking up. There's a war. All these things and all of these roles take on all of this. And, and within the roles, there are rules that we have predefined. Oh, I'm a mom; I can't do that. Oh, I'm a daughter. I can't do that. Oh, I'm, you know, this worker at this company, so I can't do that… Or I'm expected to. We have a lot of these inert, innate expectations and just general stories that we have used to create our identities. All well and good. Right? Roles are good. Having roles in in a predefined society is good, because they give us clear purpose. It is easy to prioritize and make decisions based on those roles.
9:22
Is this thing going to serve me? Is this thing going to help me? Is it going to hurt me? Like, I don't know, going to a PTA meeting or going to this coworking event, or going to this networking event. It's very easy and simple to kind of prioritize in your head where you have a bit of a Rube Goldberg machine on anyways going, okay, I have this input: bing bong bang, what am I going to do with it? That might sound selfish too. Maybe you've never thought about rules or maybe you're like, Hmm, Megan, I've been on this journey. You are preaching to the choir. Shut the fuck up. If that's the case, feel free to fast forward. But if this is new, if this is kind of turning the wheels in your head, think about it this way. When we talk about wise selfishness, and this is a whole concept from his Holiness Dalai Lama. He has this theory that a truly enlightened self-interest, uh, someone working and being truly enlightened working in their self-interest means that recognizing that acting in these altruistic ways, helping people, makes you happier than solely just being out for yourself, right?
This is why the roles are good. They're good in that we have the perspective. We have the expectation, and we can practice this wise selfishness. We can practice, okay, I have this thing, or this junior employee reached out to me for, you know, a networking coffee chat, trying to figure out what they want to do with their life. I want to help them. That is your wise selfishness. Because it's not just solely being out for yourself. If you're like, oh, what am I going to get out of this, quid pro quo? It's not going to give you as much happiness as what you would've had with that wise selfishness. Dan Harris did a whole article in the New York Times in January about it, so that'll be in the show notes. And it's not just New York Times. Psychologist Meg Jay calls it the Helper's High, which is just a social psychology word for when you help someone, you feel good. And that's in her book, The Defining Decade. So that just gives you a hint of what I've been doing instead of regular podcast recordings. I've been learning more about social psychology and how to be happy and how to be content. Where, you, the ubiquitous you, uh, I would assume. I'm going to speak for myself here real quick, and say I really want a life that's full of joy and contentment and peace and love, and it's taken me a while to figure out how that was lacking in the first place and what I can do to get that in my life now.
12:38
When all of these roles are kind of stripped away; when you take away who you are as a worker, when you take away who you are as a business owner, when you take away who you are in your family, when you take away who you are in your friend group, when all that is left is you… ¿Qué te llevas en tu alma? What’s in your soul? ¿Qué te llevas en tu alma? Hence, the focus on descubrir.
We all have things to discover about and around ourselves. It's what keeps us feeling alive, and it's okay to take and want to take some time to averiguar, or find yours out. I don't know about you, if I could get a show of hands here, when you get lost, when you're driving and you get lost, do you turn down your radio? I sure as fuck do. I'm like, no, thank you, Method Man. I need to focus. No, thank you Ray Lamontagne. I need to focus. I can't have time for your whiny sad songs Calum Scott. I need to focus, and that is kind of what I've been doing. Because, everything that we do takes up space in our lives. And usually that space is what we create and that we cultivate and that we invite things into. But with that space, sometimes you have to take a step back in order to move forward.
14:13
I mean that, that's cliche as fuck, right? That can be life. And this just reminds me of in episode five, Ya, with my friend Jenn. She had the wonderful point of you have to slow down in order to speed up. And that is very much the case with descubrir. I know that we all kind of want and eat, pray, love moment, right? We all want like an under the Tuscan sun. We just want Nicholas Sparks, at the end of the day. But there's life. There's work and there's kids and there's purpose, and there's rituals and things that we have done, routines that we have cultivated or fell into, and we can't just take three months out of our lives to have an eat pray love moment. Also, I did not realize that she was paid to do that, so if anyone wants to pay me to do that, just let me know. All of this means is sometimes you have to turn your music down in your life, because we all can't afford to get paid to go and travel and eat pasta and find some sort of religion and enlightenment through carbs. That sounds lovely.
15:31
I read a quote and I just want to read this quote to you because it really aligns with where I'm coming from.
If you do not learn to meet your needs directly, you will learn to meet them neurotically. You will develop routines and relationships and rituals that are designed to help you get just enough of what you want without having to ask for it directly, but never enough to feel fulfilled. To be fulfilled, we must go straight to the source. We must extract whatever it is that is fueling our anxieties and ego trips and neurotic compulsions and fears, and we must face that. Otherwise, we can waste a whole lifetime trying to understand what the soul at its core already knows.
That was from Heidi Priebe, it was found on Pinterest, so don't quote me on that. If that was your quote and you want to get ownership, send me a message.
At the end of the day, I think we all want to matter, and this is where descubrir really comes in. It's that constant uncovering and discovering things; things that have been hidden from you, things that you had no idea existed, things that you did not know. It's that constant learning with curiosity, and that is what keeps us feeling alive. And sometimes it's okay to take some time and edit the space, the mental space that you have for all of these things of life and family and social engagements and friends and work and purpose and self-care and self-compassion; self-indulgence.
17:22
It's okay to take the time to averiguarlo, to find that shit out. Because that is the engine and that is what I've been doing. That is what I would urge you to. I mean, granted, you're going to cry a lot. If your journey is anywhere close to mine, get some fucking tissues because shit's about to be uncovered. It is very nice though, to have those moments to be journaling and you're like, oh, that's where that neurosis comes from. Oh, I inherited this neurotic tendency. I didn't just learn it. I learned it by watching it. I learned it by mirroring it. Or, learning or reviewing verb tenses. That's why that goes that way. That's why that one song has this lyric instead of that.
Quick sidebar. Vicente Garcia, love, love, love his music. He has this song, Dulcito e Coco. And for months in the back of my mind, I'm like, but why is it E, you don't need E. You don't need the letter E for Dulcito e Coco. You need E, if the next letter starts with I; that's when you need E instead of y griega, instead of the Y. Dulcito e Coco. Well, I found out that it's just slang for dulcito es coco, so the little sweet, dulcito; es, is; coco, coconut.
So little things like that just keep popping up. And that is that magic. That is that magic that happens when you actually take the time and put the purpose behind learning and uncovering things. So, I mean, granted this is pretty pesada, that's pretty heavy, right? When have my podcast topics not been. With that descubrimiento, with that uncovering of things, it is necessary to partake in our journeys.
Otherwise, you are going to be feeling chained down by a mediocre routine, and where's the joy? I know that this is Spanish and English and not French, but it does remind me of the joie de vivre, the joy of life. That little like untouchable, intangible joy that happens when we, for a moment, take a beat and do more of what lights us up. If you're listening to this when it drops, school's about to start up again. We're about to get back into that routine. Winter is coming, or so they say, in a couple months. How are you preparing for it? What are you doing that lights you up?
20:35
I'm going to hit you with some related words, so el descubrimiento. Is the discovery, that’s a sustantivo, that’s a noun, so el descubrimiento. And if you are thinking or finding things that are descubiertas o descubiertos, that’s your past participle that means open. It means open, clear, cloudless, uncovered, bare. So, you can have brazos descubiertos, bare arms; you can have un cielo descubierto, a very clear and cloudless sky. You can have light when maybe before it was like a dusty murk.
And that's really the beauty of descubrir. It means if you want to do A Thing: pass an exam, learn a language, move abroad, lose 10 pounds, find the love of your life… Whatever that Thing is, when you take the time to descubrir, when you take the time to unravel the knot that is inside all of us, inside of all of our brains, around the roles and the rules and the predefined expectations of that, and what at our core lights us up. You can get even more descubierto or descubierta around that Thing. If you do the work, you reap the reward. That's what we've all been taught. Quite honestly, there's a reason why. There's a reason why that's cliche as fuck, because generally speaking, you do the work, you descubrir un poco, you find the little bit of magic. You learn, you start to feel a little bit more alive. The result comes in, all of a sudden, it's easier to fall asleep at night.
Maybe you have a clearer perspective about who you are and why you do what you do. And as they say, awareness is the first step. That's currently where I'm on. And with that descubrimiento, maybe you can have more ease in and around your life when you do hard things. Maybe you can have tranquility where before you would've been broken down and crying. So really going back to the first cliché as fuck, sometimes you do have to slow down in order to speed up. Sometimes you do have to take the space, clean out the dust bunnies between your ears, uncover some shit, and then move on.
23:36
It doesn't mean that you have to be here thinking about this seven hours a day for six days a week in order to have this really big revelation. Let's set those expectations a little bit smaller. It just means that you can have more ease, more understanding, and maybe a clearer path forward and actually how to succeed when you do this discovering. So really, more than anything, whether it means living slower or starting new things slower, I think more than anything, it's slowing down your expectation so your perspective has time to catch up.
I've been doing some work, as I've mentioned for myself, and helping clients with their razones y descubrimientos. The thing is, habit work, routine work, learning a language as an adult, learning a language needs to be defined. You need to know your goals. You need to know your reasons, and you need to do a little bit of that discovery to figure out why the fuck you want to do it. Spanish is hard as shit sometimes; there's so many verb tenses! You need some good reasons why, and that's where that descubrimiento can come in. And once you've kind of started to excavate some of that, and you're like, oh, now I know why. It's not just about this trip to Mexico that I make every year for two months with my husband. It's because I feel lonely and I want to meet people and talk to them and truly connect with them and build a relationship in a way that feels very organic and valuable. That's wonderful. Now, you know that reason. Or maybe it's I did international NGO work in college and then I came back to work in a gray office building where everyone just looks gray, and I want to get back to traveling. I want to get back to helping people. And I've completely lost all that shit, because I don't use it. Great.
26:08
It's doing that first step of that descubrimiento, of that discovery or uncovering some of your reasons, some of your expectations. And then we can personalize that into a goal. Into, okay, how do we support that goal with a habit? How do we support that goal with a routine? And yes, I know it sounds boring, but it works. If you do want to feel more comfortable and confident in Spanish, feel free to check out my monthly program called Deseo at deseospanishprogram.info. También, for all the show notes, the transcript, request a word be on the show, check out Aprovechar.me.
Before I completely let you go, think about it this way: something can be vale la pena, something can be worth the pain of getting it through, getting it across the finish line, something. Something also can be no vale la pena, where it's not worth it. Si no tienes ganas, no tienes que hacerlo. If you don't want to do it, you don't have to. But at the end of the day, we all want to matter.
And so, I don't really care if you join Deseo; if you learn Spanish. What I really care about is that discovery. That you continue to do the really hard, sometimes really shitty work of learning something new and of discovering something new. Whether that is a fact para saber, whether that is a person para conocer or whether that's something about yourself that you didn't know: las cosas ocultas, desconocidas. What really matters is that you continue that descubrimiento because that helps celebrate us. It celebrates us, and it celebrates us being alive. So until next time, un abrazo fuerte
Gracias otra vez and thank you so much for coming along with me on this ride to Una Palabra Sola. Be sure to check out the show notes for additional worksheets and materials. If you have a word that you would like me to review, please feel free to let me know at aprovecharlanguagesolutions.com.
Hasta la próxima vez; until next time.