The Power of Words

Think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flames within us. Albert Schweitzer

For many years I have been fascinated by studies proving the power of words.

Enjoy this story of Howard Hendricks taken from his book Iron Sharpens Iron.

“By the fifth grade, I was bearing all the fruit of a kid who feels insecure, unloved, and pretty angry at life. In other words, I was tearing the place apart. …My teacher, Miss Simon regularly reminded me, “Howard, you are the worst behaved child in this school!” One time I got so out of hand that she physically grabbed me, shoved me into my desk, tied me to my seat with a rope, and wrapped tape around my mouth. “Now you will sit still and be quiet!” she announced triumphantly.

Needless to say, fifth grade was the worst year of my life. You can imagine then, my expectations upon entering the sixth grade, where my teacher was Miss Noe. The first day of class she went down the roll, and it wasn’t long before she came to my name. “Howard Hendricks,” she called out, glancing from her list to where I was sitting with my arms folded, just waiting to go into action. She looked me over for a moment, then said, “I’ve heard a lot about you.” Then she SMILED and added, “BUT I DON’T BELIEVE A WORD OF IT!” From that moment, that turning point, my education and my life changed. For the first time someone saw potential in me. She gave me special assignments. She gave me jobs to do. She invited me to come in after school to work on my reading and arithmetic. She challenged me with higher standards….What made the difference between the fifth and sixth grade? The fact that someone was willing to give me a chance. Someone was willing to believe in me and challenge me with higher expectations.”

Do the words we SAY and the words we THINK have power? Absolutely.

Neuroscience facts recently reviewed report:

Complaining and gratitude are cognitive training regimens pulling the brain in opposite directions. Complaining rehearses threat detection: it fine-tunes the nervous system to scan for what’s wrong. Gratitude, by contrast, trains attention to integrate, to notice resources, relationships, possibilities. Over time, one mindset narrows our field of vision, the other expands it.

Complaining, judging, or criticizing doesn’t just drag others down it literally rewires your brain to make you less focused and less effective. WHY?

1. Hebb’s Law: Neurons that fire together, wire together. Complain often and you train your brain to see more problems while missing solutions.
2. Chronic negativity shrinks the prefrontal cortex. This is the part of your brain responsible for focus, decision-making, and emotional regulation.
3. You weaken your problem solving center while strengthening your problem spotting one.
4. Research shows complaining makes you less attractive. Not just socially but neurologically. Because negativity narrows. Positivity expands down to the cellular levels.
5. Gratitude and optimism strengthens the prefrontal cortex. Every time you speak or type, you are training your brain. Training it for abundance, or lack…
6. We don’t get what we WANT in life, we get what our brains are wired for.

Citation: Servaas, M.N., Riese, H., Renken, R.J., Marsman, J.B., Lambregs, J., Ormel, J., & Aleman , A. The effect of criticism on functional brain connectivity and associations with neurotisism. https://lnkd.in/e87zcWyV