The effect of words
You have to use the right words and phrases that are specific to you that help you imagine possibilities and solutions. The key here are the words that are specific to you! You need to choose words with care because words are capable of:
• Stimulating your imagination
• Distracting you
• Painting pictures in your mind
• Activating your senses
• Creating associations
• Linking two things that wouldn’t
normally go together
(eg. You’ve heard “cool as a
cucumber” right? Does it really
make sense? Cucumbers are cool if
they just came out of the
refrigerator but just touch one in
the summer out in the garden.)
• Changing your thought processing
and perception
• Physically changing the structure of
your brain (neuroplasticity)
Simply put, language holds massive, colossal power to manifest change, whether it’s good or bad. Words not only describe what we do, they paint a verbal picture of what we expect and envision. They can build you up or tear you down.
Words do not have a single, simple meaning
"Some words have a meaning to them that we don't often think about but yet still affects us, which has applications to bias in our judgments and decisions."
David Hauser,
U-M Department of Psychology
The relationship between words and meanings can be extremely complicated as you can already realize. For this article though, all you need to know is that words do not have a single, simple meaning. Professionals who study language traditionally refer to the meanings of words in two ways:
Denotation - a literal meaning of the word. Dictionary definition. Little to no emotional association.
Connotation - an emotional association (feeling) which the word evokes in an individual person.
The tip here is to use emotionally associated words because they can create connections and paint pictures in the mind. They’re the fastest way to stimulate the unconscious to create change because that’s the “language” of the unconscious. This is where your values, beliefs and mindset are deeply stored. Emotions trump facts.
Alongside that, understand that two people can see/ hear the same word yet have a completely different emotion associated to it or none at all.
Let me show you
“What sticks in your memory is far more abstract than the actual words or sentences spoken. We don’t remember words, just their meaning... language systematically influences how we perceive and conceptualize the world.”
Dr. Steven Pinker – Cognitive Psychologist,
Harvard University
Theories about the conscious, subconscious and unconscious vary within psychological circles. But all agree that the majority of process, actions and responses that go on in our brains, we're not aware of.
The Baseball Observer - Mental Skills Issue
14