Frame Your World With Your Words

“The words I say create my reality” anon

Detox Step #2

"It’s not what happens in my life, but how I react to it.”  Have you begun to see the power these words can have in your thinking?

Speaking of words, my opinion is that we don't treat our words as if we believe they hold much power.….it's almost like we think they are unimportant, meaningless and insignificant.  If we should carelessly spew out unkind words, we sometimes behave as if we can just call them back inside like a mother hen gathering up her brood.  We hear people saying things like this to erase the sting of their words, “I was just kidding.  I didn’t mean it.  You took it the wrong way.  I didn’t say I promised. You didn’t think I was serious when I said that, did you?” 

We even teach our kids early on that their words do not have any power.  We’ve all heard this familiar childhood saying, “Sticks and Stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” We too often treat our words as if they were separate from us, and surely not our responsibility, after all we can just change them later, or take them back...right?   But what if our words are not simply an external commentary on how we feel, but they can actually create our reality. Dr. Caroline leaf says, the spoken words are life forces that can actually frame our lives.

I’ve been studying the Old Testament this year. A realization that keeps coming back to me is the importance of the spoken word.  We learn early on in the Bible that it was God’s ‘word’ that created all living things. The perfect example of how words create reality, wouldn’t you say? The Gospel of St. John begins with these fascinating sentences in Chapter 1, verses 1 and 14: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us”.  Stop here for a minute and repeat those verses out loud. 

Jesus' spoke words of life and healed Jarius daughter, a parapalegic and many others.  He told his disciples if they had faith the size of a mustard seed then their word could heal the sick, and raise the dead. Kind of gives you 'word' for thought does it not?

Let's think about a few stories in the Bible, and how those folks regarded the importance and power of the spoken word.  In Judges 11:30, Jephthah made a promise that if God would give him the victory over Ammon, then when he returned home whoever met him at the door, Jephthah would offer up as a burnt offering.  God did give him victory, and it was his only child, his virgin daughter, that met Jephthah at the door.  You might think that Jephthah would say, “I take my word back, God, surely you’re not going to hold me to this", or he might have said..."Give me a break, God, I didn't know what I was thinking when I said that.  Can I rephrase my words and say I will sacrifice the pet dog instead...”  Nope,  Jephthah honored his word and he sacrificed his precious daughter. 

There is also the familiar story of Isaac and the blessing he was tricked into giving to his son Jacob.  I always wondered when he found out that his son Esau didn’t get his rightful inheritance, and Jacob conned him into receiving it instead…why Isaac didn’t just say, ”Wait a minute, that blessing I spoke didn’t count because I was lied to by my son Jacob.  Those words of mine don't mean anything because I was duped, so I can take them back and start all over with another blessing..”  But, no…. Isaac had spoken the words, so that was that.

In a survey done several years ago, Native Americans were asked about things in the ‘white man’s’ culture that confused them the most.  A large number of respondents wrote that the ‘white man’ doesn’t seem to regard his word as important.  "If you want to make a deal with a white man," they explained, "you must hire a lawyer, draw up a contract,  get both parties to sign it and get it notarized." They wondered,  "Why isn’t their word good enough?"

In this political season of dissecting every word each potential candidate speaks, it appears that we consider their word to be important, but we find them constantly going back to explain or rephrase the words they speak. And do any of us actually believe that the words they are speaking are what they really mean, and that they can be trusted to fulfill the promises they make? Do you think our political candidates would take the same kind of responsibility for the words they speak as did Isaac and Jephthah? 

Once we begin to see and explore the seriousness of our words, don’t you see how they then hold more power?  God tells us that if we believe, our ‘word’ can move a mountain.  If that’s true, then why is it so hard for us to believe that our word can move a negative thought to a positive, that our words can move a bad day into a good one, that our words can give us strength when we are weak, that our words can change our pattern of thinking.  Our words are not just sounds coming from our mouth, but our words define who we are.

Studies have been done to show that the life energy of words can actually be measured.  They found that when a person says positive words such as; 'love’, ‘heaven’, and ‘angel', then the scan showed a high peak on the meter. If the person used words like; ‘fear’, ‘stress’, and ‘worry’ the measure of energy was very low.  But we don’t really need research to tell us that, do we?  We can just observe what a person looks like as they sit around and complain about how pathetic their live's are.  We can actually see the lack of physical energy in the posture, tone of voice, lack of eye contact....not much life force there, would you agree?

If we are going to control our thoughts and change our minds, we must control our mouths. The words we say frame our world…they create our reality.  There is no question about that.  If we want to change our reality, if we want our reality to be happier, healthier, more fulfilling... we must first change our words. 

Do you see how important our words are, and the critical part they play as we begin to detox our negative thoughts/minds?

One last thing to think about: If you can use your words to create your reality, what do you want your reality to be?  

Homework:

Read Chapter 6: Detox Step 2 (Framing your world with your words)

Awareness: Listen to the words people say this week and how those words are creating their reality. Here are some examples you might hear: “It’s windy today, and the wind always makes me grouchy”.  "I hate Mondays.  Mondays are always bad days."  "I never say anything right in a job interview." "Every spring I get sick."" If I can just get through this day...this week...this month...this year."  Here's one I heard someone say this week...."My life is a pile of sh..t!"

Now pay attention to the words you speak.  Again, act as the observer looking on…writing out some words that you say.  Notice how you feel when you use positive words, when you use negative words, when you use optimistic words, when you use pessimistic words? How might your own words affect your thinking? If the words are negative, write about why you think you say those words.  Do you treat the words you say with respect, responsibility and with power? 

Answer and reflect on these questions in your journal.
1. Write about what you've learned while observing others this week.

2. Do you intend to make any changes as a result of today's topic?

3. If you can reframe your world with your words, what would that new reality look like?  Be specific.

4.  Try this out.  Experiment to see if yours words can create your reality.

5. Put some money in your pampering pot.

6. Listen to a song by Bonnie Tyler called ‘Words can change your life’. It can be heard on Youtube, but the visual is poor.

Please share some of your 'aha' moments or observations on the blog or  email me at smallsteps4bigresults@yahoo.com