The Language of Your Words

There's nothing quite like eavesdropping
(On yourself! Please!)

Here’s where you really fine-tune your communication skills.

Depending on your personal awareness style, you may find it easier to initially recognize unhealthy communication with a feeling, like the feeling of being in a state of hopelessness or the feeling of your slouching posture.

But there’s nothing like words to get to the bottom of things.

• What do you say to yourself when you feel bad?
• What do you say to yourself when things aren’t going the way you’d hoped?
• What do you say when you're just too tuckered to pucker (or even wash the dinner dishes)?

To answer these questions requires that you learn to eavesdrop on your verbal language.

Words create matter (and your health)

It’s important to realize that eavesdropping is worthwhile – actually critical – when it comes to achieving the results you desire in life, including the result of radiant health.

As Napoleon Hill says in his now-classic book, Think and Grow Rich (page 55), “all impulses of thought have a tendency to clothe themselves in their physical equivalent.”

Your verbal language, whether spoken aloud or thought in the privacy of your own mind, affirms itself by attracting the circumstances you’ve trained yourself and the people around you to expect on your behalf.

Tip: Each subject chapter of Word Cures ends with affirmation suggestions to support you in choosing empowering verbal language.

Bring on your Inner Detective

For an extra shot of insight, try this experiment:

Carry around a little notebook with you for a week. Make it a point to eavesdrop on your internal and external conversation. Every time you hear yourself explaining why you didn’t do something you believe you should have done – or explaining why you did do something you believe you should not have – jot that reason down.

At the end of the week, look over your list. Arrange your reasons into groups, noticing how some tend to repeat themselves. These reasons are part of your “default” communication with your world.

(Your list will come in handy when we get to Part 2 of the Communication Style Quiz: Explore Your Inside Conversation.)

You've always got options!

Then, explore your alternate choices and solutions. To play strong, demand that your brain produce a half-dozen options or more every time you feel yourself going down that same old “rabbit hole.”

Hint: Watch for old “rules” that are no longer valid, like “the solution has to be free” or “it can’t involve talking to any other human” or "I've never been one to pick food by what was healthy."

Temporarily suspend your rules during this brainstorming activity. Be willing to re-write outdated rules before you choose your best option.

Tip: The self-coaching manual Saboteur's Guide to a Productive Life: 7 Simple Steps to Freedom has 7 Success Strategies and 9 Troubleshooting Strategies just like this one to help you stay on track.

It may be helpful to enlist a support system as you create your new healthy living habits!

CONTINUE — read The Language of Your Posture