The Power of Words - Becoming who you want to be and having the life you want will become real through the words you use.
It is our words that describe and give meaning to the experiences we have. Words have enormous power because they name the feelings we attach to an event. Our feeling then determines whether the event is positive and uplifting or negative and depressing.
Let me explain. Have you noticed how the same experience can have different outcomes for different people depending on how they describe the event? Funerals can be a 'time of mourning' or a 'celebration of life'. The feelings of people that attend are determined by the words they choose to describe the experience.
When asking someone how they are doing, can you feel the difference between,
"I'm OK I guess" and
"I'm feeling fantastic!".
As my kids were growing up the word "hate" was 'a bad word' and not allowed to be spoken. Words create feelings. Feelings of hate, regardless of how unintentional are created when we speak the word in reference to someone or something. The word 'hate' links itself to feelings of frustration, anger and distrust - negative and depressing feelings.
We often don't understand the power of the words we choose because we mistakenly think that we choose words to describe what we are feeling, when actually the opposite is true. Words don't describe, they create. Words give our feelings meaning. Without words to tell us what we are feeling what we are left with is e-motion, energy in motion. Words turn energy into feelings. Words are labels.
Positive thinking and feeling positive are all tied to the words we use to describe the situation in which we find ourselves.
Being fired creates a different feeling than being laid off. The action is the same but the reaction and recovery time from the event is different because of the words that label our feelings.
Try this. What if the next time you were in a situation that you normally would describe as making you feel angry, you described as making you feel annoyed? Can you sense the difference in the feelings?
A good practice to make a habit is this. Continually ask yourself, 'Which feeling serves me better?'Do you describe certain customers as 'difficult' and 'a pain' or as a 'challenge' and an 'opportunity'?
Is your child or grandchild 'a little devil', or 'active and curious'?
The labels that we put on our experience become our experience. Choose your words wisely.
