The Power of Words

soulspathreiki5
Mar 30, 2020
3 min read

Whoever said, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” Truly wasn’t thinking about the power that words have on us.

Words can build us up or destroy us from inside out. And even though sticks and stones may break our bones the bones will eventually heal, however the damage that hurtful and negative words do to us often takes a lifetime to mend...sometimes we never allow ourselves to heal from them. Sometimes, we bury the hurt of these words so deeply within that we do not consciously take notice of them and we go on hurting from these self sabotaging words.

The power that words have on us starts from the minute we are born, some would say that it starts from inside the womb at about 3 months.

To show you what I mean, think back to when someone said they loved you, gave you a compliment or said what a great job you did. How did you feel?

Now think back to when someone said they hated you or said something unkind to you. How did you feel?

Keeping those feelings in mind, now think about when YOU said something kind and positive to YOURSELF. Did you feel like you could be on top of the world? How did you feel when you said something negative to yourself?

The purpose of this little exercise is to have you think about words and the power they hold over us, so that we may begin to use this “secret” power to help bring more joy and happiness more fully into our lives.

This starts a conscious awareness of what we are allowing out of our mouths as well as what we are telling ourselves in our heads. Once we become aware that we can control our own mind chatter and start correcting it, the quicker we can start working on bringing more happiness into our lives.

This will take practice to retrain our way of speaking and thinking. You did not make these thought and speech patterns overnight and they will not be changed overnight. This is NOT an overnight “quick fix”, but with consistency and effort, reworking can be done.

Here are a couple of quick exercises to get you started with using the power of words:

When you catch yourself telling yourself something negative such-”I can’t do this. What was I thinking?” Correct your words to something like: “I’m out of my comfort zone but I CAN do this, one baby step at a time.” Or “I don’t have to have all the answers at my fingertips. I can use resources to help me get through this.”

Keep in mind resources could be a friend, family, books, the library, the internet or even a co-worker.

Try telling yourself positive words in place of beating yourself up such as: “ I can do this!” and then keep repeating this mantra until you start believing it.

The next quick exercise can be as simple as putting little sticky notes up where you will see them each morning as little reminders.

The notes can be something short and to the point like: I AM ENOUGH, Breathe, or I can do this!

Don’t be afraid to be creative with note leavings. A friend of mine left herself a reminder and used a bright red lipstick on her bathroom mirror that said “ I AM ENOUGH!” And I have put a sticker on my refrigerator that says “Breathe”.

Of course if you have others living with you perhaps these places aren’t really an option. So find places to leave yourself notes that will be prominent for you in your space like your sock draw or on the dashboard of your car.

Of course these are just suggestions and shouldn’t limit you to creative note leaving.

Have fun.

And if you catch yourself taking part in negative mind chatter that is okay, don’t offer it a cup of coffee. Stop and replace it with a phrase that is as positive as you can make it and then practice this phrase often then move on with your day.