The power of words through positive affirmations is one of the greatest agents of change. The word affirmation means; the action or process of affirming something or being affirmed.

In the 1990’s, Dr. Masaru Emoto performed a series of experiments observing the physical effects of words, prayers and music on the crystalline structure of water. 

Basically, if positive Life Giving Words are spoken to water and viewed under a microscope, beautiful brilliant images emerge. Negative words have the opposite effect showing contorted dark images. Our bodies are made up of 60% water with the brain and heart being made up of 73% water! Our words and "self talk" matter.

Our words carry energy and that energy is either helpful or harmful. Our words are the most powerful tool that we have to effect positive change for our lives.

Let’s be honest, life is stressful and hard. To ease our mind and settle our soul, we need to be speaking Life Giving Words over ourselves and our families.

Our program intentionally and purposefully reminds us to speak these Life Giving Words three times each day to heal our mind, body and spirit.

Change Your Words to Change Your Life

“Language shapes our behavior and each word we use is imbued with multitudes of personal meaning. The right words spoken in the right way can bring us love, money and respect, while the wrong words—or even the right words spoken in the wrong way — can lead a country to war. We must carefully orchestrate our speech if we want to achieve our goals and bring our dreams to fruition. — Dr. Andrew Newberg, Words Can Change Your Brain”

Words have led countries to war and have inspired nations. “Ask not what your country can do for you…”, “I have a dream”, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”, “I can do all things through Christ” and many more. These words spoken by others literally changed our physical world. Our own ability to use words internally will most certainly change our own lives for the better.

What Science Says About Meditation

Some research suggests that meditation may physically change the brain and body and could potentially help to improve many health problems and promote healthy behaviors.

• In a 2012 study, researchers compared brain images from 50 adults who meditate and 50 adults who don’t meditate. Results suggested that people who practiced meditation for many years have more folds in the outer layer of the brain. This process (called gyrification) may increase the brain’s ability to process information.
• A 2013 review of three studies suggests that meditation may slow, stall, or even reverse changes that take place in the brain due to normal aging.
• Results from a 2012 NCCIH-funded study suggest that meditation can affect activity in the amygdala (a part of the brain involved in processing emotions), and that different types of meditation can affect the amygdala differently even when the person is not meditating.

Characteristics of test anxiety among medical students

Abstract

INTRODUCTION:

Medical students may experience test anxiety associated with ‘high stakes’ exams, such as Step 1 of the United States Medical Licensing Examination.

METHODS:

We collected qualitative responses about test anxiety at three points in time from 93 second-year medical students engaged in studying for and taking Step 1.

RESULTS:

Causes of test anxiety as reported by students were related to negative self-talk during preparation for the exam. Effects of anxiety had to do with emotional well-being, cognitive functioning, and physical well-being.

Self-talk in a basketball-shooting task

Abstract

This study examined the effectiveness of two different types of self-talk on the performance of a basketball-shooting task. 60 physical education and sports sciences students were organized into one control and two treatment groups which used self-talk. During the experiment, the control group performed with the general instructions, whereas the self-talk groups used the cue-words “relax” and “fast,” respectively, Analysis showed that only the participants of the self-talk group who used the word “relax” improved their performance significantly as compared to the other two groups. It appears that self-talk can positively affect performance if its content is appropriate for the task performed.

Self-directed speech affects visual search performance…

Abstract

People often talk to themselves, yet very little is known about the functions of this self-directed speech. We explore the effects of self-directed speech on visual processing by using a visual search task. According to the label feedback hypothesis (Lupyan, 2007a), verbal labels can change ongoing perceptual processing—for example, actually hearing “chair” compared to simply thinking about a chair can temporarily make the visual system a better “chair detector”.

If saying “Chair” can help us find a chair, increasing visual search performance, what can speaking things out loud that we don’t see bring us? The answer is, those things that we speak!