Your words are powerful! I say this to every person that comes to my clinic. I also show them how powerful they are. We all have the power to choose our words and therefore alter how we feel. Did you know that according to a new study published in a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, simply reading positive words may 
help you feel as those words describe?
Psychologists Francesco Foroni from VU University Amsterdam and Gün R. Semin from the University of Utrecht conducted two experiments to see if emotion language has an influence on facial muscle activity. The first study showed that reading action verbs (such as ‘to smile,’ or ‘to cry’) activated the corresponding muscles. For example, reading “to laugh” resulted in activation of the main muscle used for smiling, but caused no response in the muscles responsible for frowning. Interestingly, when presented with the emotion adjectives like “funny” or “frustrating” the volunteers demonstrated much lower muscle activation compared to their reactions to emotion verbs.
The second experiment, found that that even when emotion verbs are presented subliminally, they are able to influence judgment and feeling. Volunteers found cartoons to be funnier when they were preceded subliminally by smiling verbs than if they were preceded (again, subliminally) by frowning-related verbs.
Tthe results of these experiments show that that simply reading emotion verbs activates specific facial muscles and can influence how we feel. The researchers note these findings suggest that “language is not merely symbolic, but also somatic.” In other words, the words we use and choose can actually have an immediate impact on our bodies, not just our minds.
I always tell my clients that the connection between the mind and the body is incredibly strong. Every word is associated with a feeling and every feeling associated with a picture. Every picture is associated or linked to a physical sensation or reaction. The two experiments I discuss here are “scientific prove†to what I’ve been saying all along.
If we surround ourselves with positive words, and use as many positive words as possible; we’ll experience more positive feelings. The ripple effect from here is unstoppable. We all have the power to create positive change our your lives.
Copyright Karinna Najera 2010