“If you don’t have something good to say, do not say anything at all.” How many times, while growing up, did we hear those words from our mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers? Maybe we listened or maybe we walked away, rolled your eyes and thought, “yeah, whatever.”
Is it possible that once again, there is truth in the old adages?
Like many of you, I turned to the Internet for more information and first entered “the power of words” with a result of 15,400,000 hits and then entered “the effect of words on the brain” with a result of 27,900,000 hits. Goodness knows, “I read it on the Internet” certainly does not make it so, but it is true that in the past 20 years amazing research on the brain has been conducted by highly skilled scientists and professionals.
According to an article posted on Psychology Today written by Andrew Newberg, M.D. and Mark Robert Waldman; the authors of Words Can Change Your Brain:
If you were put into a fMRI scanner-a huge donutshaped magnet that can take a video of the neural changes happening in your brain – and flash the word “NO” for less than one second, you’d see a sudden release of dozens of stress-producing hormones and neurotransmitters. These chemicals immediately interrupt the normal functioning of your brain, impairing logic, reason, language, processing and communication. Angry words send alarm messages through the brain.
Negative thinking is also self-perpetuating, and the more you engage in negative dialogue the more difficult it becomes to stop.
However, according to the authors, the right words have the power to transform:
Positive words and thoughts propel the motivational centers of the brain into action and they help us build resilience when we are faced with life’s problems. If you want to develop lifelong satisfaction, you should regularly engage in positive thinking about yourself, share your happiest events with others and savor every positive experience in your life.
Their advice for all of us:
Choose your words wisely and speak them slowly. This will allow you to interrupt the brain’s propensity to be negative, and as recent research has shown, the mere repetition of positive words like “love,” “peace,” and “compassion” will turn on specific genes that lower your physical and emotional stress. Positive words strengthen areas in our frontal lobes and promote the brain’s cognitive functioning. They propel the motivational centers of the brain into action and build resiliency.
This information is just one of the 27,000,000 plus articles posted on-line and is shared in this Let’s Talk to encourage thought in considering our words.
As we enter the holiday season, with all it entails– joy, stress, anticipation, sadness, disappointment, excitement, family, travel – let us all remember the words of our mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers:
“If you don’t have something good to say, do not say anything at all.”
Wishing you peace.
Each month a local mental health therapist will discuss an area of mental health. This month’s contributor is Jodi Yuhasey of the Violence Prevention Center. If you need to talk to someone confidentially, call 218-387- 1262.
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