The Power of Your Words

“Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much.” Blaise Pascal

One thing that I will forever be passionate about is the power of our words. I’ve been the recipient of encouraging words many times, and have therefore felt and experienced their power to break down walls I’ve been building or lies I’ve been believing.

But today I want to focus on the power of our own words to ourselves. A few years ago, my sisters and I started holding each other accountable on speaking kindly to ourselves. Whenever we said something negative, we would have to give ourselves 3 “words of life”, or things that we appreciated about ourselves, to replace the negative words. When we first started doing this, I felt so cheesy and stupid and even prideful for saying good things about myself, but after a few months, it became much more natural.

As a side note, I want to take a second to define what pride really is. It isn’t thinking well of or saying good things about yourself. It’s thinking that you’re better than the people around you – in other words, it’s rooted in comparison, which is just another form of insecurity. When we’re confident in ourselves and who we are, we don’t need to compare or feel “better than someone else” to feel good about ourselves. Speaking life over yourself is anything but prideful – it’s recognizing and loving who you are so that you can better appreciate the people around you.

These past few months, comparison has been a very real thing, and I’ve found myself on more than one occasion calling myself words that are anything but kind. So some mornings, the best thing I can do is to stand in front of the mirror and tell myself all the things that don’t feel true in that moment.

Because here’s the thing: your words have the power to build up walls around your heart, and to reinforce lies that may have been planted by circumstance or other’s words. You may not have been the first to say them, but continuing to repeat that you’re incapable, invisible, insufficient, not as important or a variety of other words will only make you begin to act on these false ideas. But your words also have the power to break down those walls and uproot the lies. Refuse to repeat to yourself what feels true in the moment, and instead tell yourself what you know to be true: you’re worthy, valuable, unique, seen, beautiful and important. You’re an amazing writer, you speak Spanish beautifully, you love to encourage people, your smile is welcoming, you can debate like nobody’s business, you’re determined, and the list goes on.

I just want to encourage you to give yourself permission to be kind to yourself. Build yourself up with encouraging words, because when you’re confident in who you are, you can begin to build others up as well.

-Rachel M.