[CharactorAssassin]

Do the words we use affect our feelings? If so how can we get or use words better to affect our quality of life? For example this morning I was very nervous and anxious saying OMG OMG OMG, I NEED HELP, then I started saying relax repeatedly and it seemed to help a little. Any thoughts are appreciated.

[winter4me]

Interventions like meditation, yoga, relaxation,
cognitive behavioral therapy (replace that negative thought...) and others rely on just this---Yes our words can make a difference---sometimes it is much more difficult than others, or things happen and we only see afterwards
But yes, words help and need to be worked on----

[gracez]

Hi,

I've been wondering about this to. I think that they do, but I don't have the strength to retrain them. I've been thinking about this just the past couple weeks because in the past couple weeks I've started cursing, to myself. A lot. I never cursed before, or on very rare occasions. I think it's a good idea to use positive words to ourselves, just as we would to others, whom we love. It could only be helpful. But I can't say I'm able to do it.

[H3rmit]

Yes, that makes sense. Not that the words must be "positive" but that they are linked to something that puts you somewhere other than your rut. I learned tai chi, and I found remembering the poses and hand positions helped me when driving in rush hour, to be calmer. All kinds of things in the mind can help you resist or turn away from ruts.

[CharactorAssassin]

I was thinking about this, and often what happens is something bad happens, unhappy memory or future event causes us to feel a certain way. We react to it. We might be nervous and say OMG to ourselves. If we don't choose the words consciously we have a negative feedback loop influencing our feelings and our behaviour. If we take command of our words we bring ourselves into "the now" we can use "i feel" statements to chain these words to our subconscious mind replacing the negative ones that get in the way. At first this may not work. Your brain may not have anything associated with these feelings or the feelings are not familiar to your brain. If for example you are anxious, take responsibility and change your mantra. You can repeat the words till they even affect behaviour :

i feel relaxed
i feel calm
i feel confident

Don't focus on the negative and choose your program, replace your mantra:

i feel in control
i feel motivated etc.

[PurpleFlyingMonkeys]

They can definately make a huge difference.

I haven't seen it fix the problem just yet but if you would have seen me this time last year you would have thought I was a completely different person. I was completely petrified of everything. I couldn't stand to be alone, couldn't stand to be around people, couldn't stand to sleep, be awake... Everything about life freaked me out beyond reason. It was absolutely horrible. Waking up every hour shaking so bad it shook the entire bed and would wake up my fiance... It was bad.

Then I got into therapy and my t started working on positive affirmations and it's worked wonders. I still have anxiety pretty bad but it's much more manageable. I can sleep, I enjoy sleep, I'm still afraid of being alone or being around people but I can do it with force. I can talk myself up and give myself some confidence in doing what needs to be done.

It would take me 4-6 hours to fall asleep at night because I'd have anxiety attacks all night. I was in a 24/7 panic attack, full blown for months. But these positive affirmations helped so much. It eased the panic. It gets me out of panic attacks much more quickly and not instead of taking 4-6 hours to fall asleep I am asleep in 10 minutes at the most, typically 3-4 minutes.

The power of the mind is incredible. It wont always fix the problem completely but it will help it so much you will be thankful.

I went through all of that horrible anxiety for so long without any type of medication. And somehow I mad it through and am better than before. Positive affirmations is what really helped me.