How Language Shapes Your World and Relationships

Words are consequential,

And too often, we overlook them.

Watch this…

You’ll give me control, if you keep reading. 

I’ll steer your perception, I’ll move your attention, I will make you feel,

And all I need are twenty-six letters and a few symbols.

What do you notice in your shoulders right now?

How about your lumbar spine?

Did I make you move too?

Language changes how your heart beats, 

Whether your glucose is or is not used. 

“We need to talk.”

“I want you to take the last shot.”

Your emotions are defined by words,

Anger, grief, anxiousness, jealousy,

Love, mornden, waldosia, gnossienne.

Words make you feel—

“We’re looking for something different.”

“She’s distractingly gorgeous.”

“You can trust me.”

“How could you?! With a stranger!?”

A word, expertly used, can mold your mind,

“Believe,”

And change your life,

“Fired,”

And yet we often waste words, 

“You just have a bad back.”

As if they’re meaningless,

“What’s wrong with you?”

As if what we say has no effect on who we say it to, despite that being a primary purpose of language: to affect others. 

Anger changes us; expressing it can change others. I feel supportive when I enlighten a worry with the warm blanket of verbal reassurance, ameliorating the anxious thoughts of a dear friend. Maybe you speak to make someone’s heart beat faster. Whatever words you utter, our language has the unique power to change ourselves and others.

So practice your language skills. 

Read well-written books. 

Write regularly—one intentional line a day is better than nothing. 

Listen. 

No—listen—to the people who speak to you.
Most of all, become aware of the words in your mind and those that leave your mouth. Do they mirror your intentions? Are they true? Do you want them to be? 

The only cost is time and energy, but the upside is immense. If you improve how you speak, hear, read, and write, you’ll improve your relationships with yourself and others, you’ll more accurately express your intentions, you’ll understand yourself more clearly as you learn how to label and express your emotions, you’ll speak to your team better, your job application will be written excellently…you get the idea. Wordplay and practice let you live a better life.