I’ve written before about the power of language, taking on words this year like unperturbable and dropping harmful words like should.
The words that we use in our internal dialogue are so important.
Imagine you’re listening to someone else speak. Consider the impact that a speaker would have on your body language, thoughts, emotions and feelings, if they were especially passionate, encouraging and motivational. Now imagine how this effect might differ if they were dull, particularly nervous or perhaps negative. Chances are that your mood after listening to this person speak would differ greatly.
The same applies to ourselves. After all, we spend more time listening to ourselves than anyone else.
Therefore, it makes sense to carefully consider what you say to yourself before you speak in your head. Just as you would (hopefully) before speaking to others.
The words we have carry connotations, meanings and power.
An an example, consider how your perspective might alter if you swapped ‘problems’ for ‘challenges.’ To me, the word problem has many more negative connotations. It’s something that’s bad or wrong and needs to be solved. Challenges, however, are things that excite me. They still carry with them the same pain, discomfort, adversity and struggle that a problem does, but for whatever reason, I just feel much more motivated to tackle a challenge as opposed to a problem.
Imagine the difference in your mood, if instead of repeatedly saying to yourself, “I’m so stressed. I have so much to do!” you instead said, “Wow! My life has never been so exciting!”
If you’re the victim of some kind of wrong-doing, imagine the difference in how you would feel if you said to yourself, “I’m annoyed,” rather than, “I’m so angry!”
Spend a little time today noticing the words that you use in your head and consider the impact that your inner language is having on your mood. If you don’t like what you see, change it!
What words would you swap? Thoughts welcome:
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