The everyday language we repeatedly use shapes our behaviour. Habitually using the right words spoken in the right way can bring us compassion, respect and strength in life. The wrong words can all too easily bring us dislike, disrespect and instability. To improve our likelihood of achieving our goals and aspirations we have to improve what we say, not only to others but also to ourselves.
Whenever we feel sensations such as joy or sadness, those sensations are weighted emotionally by the word labels we attach to them. The labels that we attach to our experience become our thoughts and our memories of that experience. The phrase ‘I’m enraged’ leaves a very different emotional and biochemical memory pattern than does ‘I’m a bit miffed by that.’
Habitual self-language patterns are often not recognised, so people do not realise their influence. However you can begin to appreciate how they (words) affect you when you consider how we are spoken to by others. If somebody told you ‘I think you’re mistaken’, the phrase doesn’t create the same level of emotional response as somebody saying ‘You’re wrong’, and it certainly has nowhere near the same emotional response than if they had said, ‘You’re a damn liar’. All three phrases are essentially saying the same thing, but the level of emotional attachment is orders of magnitude different in each case.
A new study has shown how words in our environment, even on an unconscious level, can dramatically alter your behaviour
Inhibitory self control such as not picking up a cigarette, not having a second drink, not spending when we should be saving, can operate without our awareness or intention.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication and the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) demonstrated through neuroscience research that inaction-related words in our environment can unconsciously influence our self-control. Mindlessly eating nibbly’s at a party or stopping ourselves from over-indulging may seem impossible without a deliberate, conscious effort. However, the research indicates that overhearing specific language, even in a completely unrelated conversation, saying something as simple as ‘calm down’ might trigger us to curtail our junkie-like biscuit eating frenzy without us even realising it.
Subjects in the study completed a task where they were given instructions to press a computer key when they saw the letter ‘X’ on the computer screen, or not press a key when they saw the letter ‘Y.’ Their actions were affected by subliminal messages flashing rapidly on the screen (too fast to be consciously seen). Action messages such as ‘run,’ ‘go,’ ‘move,’ ‘hit,’ and ‘start’ alternated with inaction messages ‘still,’ ‘sit,’ ‘rest,’ ‘calm,’ and ‘stop’ and nonsense words ‘rnu,’ or ‘tsi’. During the test the subjects wore an EEG (electroencephalogram) device to measure brain activity.
The test was cleverly set-up so that the action or inaction messages had nothing to do with the actions or inactions volunteers were doing, yet the researchers found that the action/inaction words had a definite effect on the volunteers’ brain activity. Unconscious exposure to inaction messages increased the activity of the brain’s self-control processes, whereas unconscious exposure to action messages decreased this same activity.
The researchers said ‘Many important behaviours such as weight loss, giving up smoking, and saving money involve a lot of self-control’. ‘While many psychological theories state that actions can be initiated automatically, with little or no conscious effort, these same theories view inhibition as an effortful, consciously controlled process. Although reaching for that cookie doesn’t require much thought, putting it back on the plate seems to require a deliberate, conscious intervention. Our research challenges the long-held assumption that inhibition processes require conscious control to operate.’
This study further reinforces the concept of words having power; regardless of whether the interaction is on a conscious or an unconscious level.
A good idea (in general, not just in respect of this premise) is to expand your vocabulary. Find a new word to displace the words you usually use when you encounter a situation. Use the new words regularly to heighten the emotional intensity for the positive aspects of your life, and most importantly use new lower impact words for the negative experiences you encounter.
Gradually improving your habitual vocabulary is a wise investment. You’ll rapidly alter how you think, how you feel, and how you behave. Without question there will still be times, for example, when we feel justified in being incensed, but by controlling your language patterns, you will be able to control your emotions to direct and utilise them to better effect. Your choice.
Reference:
Justin Hepler, Dolores Albarracin. Complete unconscious control: Using (in)action primes to demonstrate completely unconscious activation of inhibitory control mechanisms. Cognition, 2013; 128 (3): 271 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2013.04.012
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