The Power Of Words

By: Evelyn Z. Ross

Sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never harm me!!! Remember that saying? I remember it

from my childhood days in the Bronx. What I didn’t know then and know now is: words have so much power.

Especially the words we use in our everyday conversations. About twenty years ago when I first read Hung By

The Tongue by Francis P. Martin, I was intrigued by his premise of what you say is what you get. It’s a

fascinating and informative book. This book launched my informal research project of listening to others –

myself included, and hearing what and how things were said. After many years of listening, I became intensely

aware that our words had the potential of becoming our mortal enemies in numerous instances.

Recently, I attended a workshop by Ron Watson and read his book: The Greatest Story NEVER Told. This

book deals with astrology, mythology, psychology and cosmic mysteries. So when I get to Chapter 7 which is

titled: The Word and read the content, I almost fell off my chair. Yes, here was a modern version of Hung By

The Tongue. The message: the word becomes manifest in the body. Speak negatively – your body feels

attacked. Speak positively – your body feels nourished and loved. Most of us have no idea how impacted our

bodies become by our everyday words. I thought that providing you with some examples would offer an

excellent education for all of us. Here goes.

Want to do some organ damage? Try some of these: it’s killing me; this job is killing me – leads to early death

attributable to stress; you scared me to death; I’m eating my heart out seeing them together; you almost gave me

a heart attack; my heart’s breaking over this; you broke my heart; what a heartbreaker! All of these fairly

common remarks contribute to heart conditions. Oops!!

How about – makes me sick to my stomach; I can’t stomach it; it nauseates me; I have no stomach for it. You

guessed it. These words lead to ulcers and surgeries. We proceed to our backs. Ever hear someone say: I can’t

stand it anymore; I’m bent out of shape; carrying all the weight on my shoulders; he’s a back stabber. We’ve all

heard these and they can cause balance disorders, back problems, disabling and disfiguring arthritic problems

and back pains – just to name a few. Let’s continue on our journey. I can’t bear to see it – creates possible

vision problems. As does: I can’t see my way through this. I don’t want to hear it – hearing disorders. I’m sick

and tired – and yes, many people indeed are. It makes my head swim – would you believe sinus and congestive

disorders? I need a little breathing space; I’ll breathe better when I get on my feet – welcome to breathing

problems upon lying down and sleeping. I’m fed up to here with him – hello to constipation. My heart bleeds

for you – really? Then there’s: It burns me up – and here comes a fever. He gets on my nerves – creates

nervous disorders. It aggravates me to no end – here come the challenges with our skin, rashes, allergies and

hives. And you can guess what the following will create: he’s a pain in the neck; he’s a pain in the a_ _ (rear

end – since this is a community publication, we shall keep it clean here)!!! Try this out: I’m petered out; it blows

my mind – want a stroke? He drives me insane; drives me up a wall – can you believe a car accident? He

pisses me off – urinary tract problems. I’ll be damned – no comment here. It pains me to see; I can’t believe it;

it’s too good to be true; I have no memory for names; my memory isn’t as good as it used to be; I’m always losing

things; I’m growing old; I’m not as young as I used to be; I’m getting senile in my old age; everything I eat turns

to fat; if I just look at food I gain weight; there’s going to be trouble, I can feel it; I can’t afford it; I love him to

pieces – ouch, ouch!!!!

Well, well seems we have succeeded in negating ourselves through life. Let’s change the channel and tune in to

some alternative language. Try these on for size: I never get sick; I never catch colds; I’m healthy as a horse;

money comes easy to me; I’m a winner; I’ve got the luck of the Irish; I’m just plain lucky in most things. As Ron

Watson so wisely wrote: choose your words carefully and guard the receptive subconscious mind from

defilement. Attention to these speech patterns will reap a fruitful harvest for your life and those you love!

HAPPY DAY!!!!!