Your words define your story, choose them carefully

Take a moment and think of the words you use regularly in your day-to-day conversations and even with yourself

By Delna Mistry Anand

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Published: Thu 2 Jun 2022, 4:11 PM

Words have the power to change your life. Think back – has anyone’s words ever moved you to action, moved you to tears perhaps? Or can you think of a time when someone’s words crushed you? Look at the powerful words that have made history — “I have a dream”, or “Be the change you want to see”. Words have energy and power, and are remembered.

And that’s why they are significant.


Words not only impact those around us, they deeply impact our own psyche. Take a moment and think of the words you use regularly in your day-to-day conversations and even with yourself. ‘I look like such a balloon in this photo’, ‘It’s such a crazy day’, ‘Oops I am having a senior moment’. The energy of these words — even if you aren’t saying them out loud — has a profound impact. Studies have consistently proven that negative words release stress and anxiety-inducing hormones. Especially in the case of children, the way parents speak to children becomes their inner self-talk as they grow up.

Language is central to how we think. Its power is enormous and its influence can be piercing. So, if you want to take baby steps to awaken the power of your words, consider this:


1) Your words have meaning

When you speak words like ‘I am such a mess today’, you are creating that energy for your day. Flip the words and alter the meaning. Consider swapping a fairly rough statement such as ‘I’m not going to make it through this’ to ‘How can I take charge now/What can make this better?’. Manipulate your mind to empower yourself through your words.

2) Your words create your story

Your repeated words become your thoughts, and hence your story. Classic examples are, ‘I’m terrible at public speaking’. Your words are just an excuse for not wanting to change the story. Try new words and watch your story change.

3) Your words have vibration

Author Yvonne Oswald says in her book Every Word Has Power, that by focusing on powerful, high-energy words, such as excitement, joy, success, or love, we can increase our ‘feel-good’ vibrations. And we subconsciously attract high vibration people, events and situations.

4) Your in-built keyword search

Did you know that we have an internal ‘key word search’ scan? Consider this, if you say ‘I hate math’. Your unconscious mind scans through — and pulls out a list of all things you hate. Now you are subconsciously in the zone of things you hate. And this is a surefire way to slip into a low vibration.

Instead, try ‘I don’t like math much’, the key word here is ‘like’ and your subconscious will scan a list of all that you like.

Even the humble ‘No problem!’ gets our subconscious scanning a list of all our ‘problems’. (Note: the subconscious does not recognise negatives, hence the word ‘no’ is overlooked. It’s like what happens when someone says ‘don’t think of a pink hippopotamus on a beach’. Get it?)

Aside all the communication we have with the world, the most important words are the ones we use with ourselves. Our language has immense power — to make us our own worst enemy or to guide us toward our best self. Choose wisely, mindfully and consciously, till it’s normal and natural to use kind, empowering and supportive words only.

wknd@khaleejtimes.com

Connect with Delna Mistry Anand across social media @DelnaAnand


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