Words Have Power. What are Yours Saying About You?
Words matter…a lot! What you say to yourself is so important because your subconscious is listening. And your subconscious does not have a sense of humor. Let that soak in for a minute.
Your subconscious hears the words you say and takes them seriously. So if you’re in the habit of saying derogatory things to yourself— “I’m such an idiot,” “I’m a jerk,” or “I’m [fill-in-the-blank]”—your subconscious begins to look for evidence to prove that it is true.
Even more alarming, it may urge you to engage in habits to make it true. A 2015 study found that normal-weight adolescents who internally viewed themselves as overweight tended to engage in unhealthy eating patterns associated with weight gain and obesity.
When you use negative words to describe yourself, another person, or an experience, what ends up happening is that colors the experience. And eventually, those words become the experience. So, if you’re flooding your mind with negativity, your view of the world and yourself is likely to be filled with depression, anxiety, stress, and anger.
Words Can Lie
Using harmful words to describe ourselves is a type of ANT, the Automatic Negative Thoughts that infest your thinking. This particular type of ANT is called “Labeling.” Whenever you label yourself or someone else with a negative term, you lump them with all of the people you’ve ever known that were idiots, or jerks, or whatever nasty term you came up with. And you are no longer dealing with that person. You’re dealing with all of them at once.
When Thinking Patterns Hold You Back
On an episode of The Brain Warrior’s Way podcast with Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen, Tana recalls a time when labeling really hit home. When her daughter Chloe, who is now 15, was about 8 years old, she was fussing with her mom about something. “All of a sudden, I heard her outside my room, not yelling, but talking pretty roughly,” Tana says. “She was saying, ‘I hate you. You’re so stupid.’”
Tana thought Chloe was aiming the remarks at her, which irritated her. Chloe had never said anything like that to her mom before. But when Tana walked out of her room, she found her daughter standing in front of a mirror in the hallway. Chloe was saying these hateful things to herself.
“Instead of being annoyed, I just was heartbroken,” Tana remembers. She sat her daughter down and explained to her that “the only thing worse than you saying that to someone else, is you saying that to yourself.” The whole incident made Tana want to cry and motivated her to help her daughter develop healthier thinking patterns.
In a special 4-part series on “The Power of Words” on The Brain Warrior’s Way podcast, you’ll find out how Dr. Amen and Tana helped their daughter change her thinking patterns. And you’ll discover how you and your family members can change the words you use to go from feeling bad about yourselves to feeling good.
In addition, you’ll learn how the words and labels you use can:
- Make your relationships amazing or a nightmare
- Shape the behavior of your partner
- Haunt you for the rest of your life—unless you take control of your words
- Empower or disempower you
- Instantly change your neurochemistry to make you feel great or feel awful
- Help you keep your cool when your teenager is throwing attitude
- Completely change your mindset to eliminate a victim mentality
Amen Clinics has helped thousands of people learn to kill the ANTs that infest your thinking and make you feel bad, mad, sad, or anxious. We take a comprehensive brain-body approach to help you change your thought patterns to minimize depression and anxiety and to help you feel better fast.
Learn how we can help you by speaking with a specialist today at 888-288-9834 or schedule a visit online.
