(49) Think Positively
VIDEO
Norman Vincent Peale, Power of Positive Thinking
A closer look at your words
Health
Without question, our words have a profound impact on our health. For example, imagine that a group of us sat down to what seemed to be a perfectly wholesome and delicious meal.
Then, two hours later I called and told you that every person who ate with us had been rushed to the hospital and treated for food poisoning! Suppose that you felt perfectly fine before I called. How would you react after hearing my information?
Most likely, you’d clutch your stomach, get pale, and feel very ill. Why? Because my words instilled a belief in you which, in turn, your body started acting upon.
This same bodily reaction would have occurred even if I was playing a cruel joke and was lying about the whole situation! Your body responds to words it hears you and other people say.
That’s why it makes absolutely no sense to keep repeating that you have “chronic back pain that will never go away” or that you get “three or four bad colds every year.” By uttering these statements, you are actually instructing your body to manifest pain and disease!
Please don’t misunderstand. I’m not suggesting that you deny pain or disease-or that you can overcome any illness - but there’s certainly nothing to be gained (and much harm that can flow) from using language that reinforces suffering and incurability.