I went to a talk last week.

I mentioned the Human Garage earlier.  Those those guys are doing a lot of really good things for people.  Recently, I attended a talk that they hosted a talk with Mark England, co-founder of Procabulary, on the power that comes with the words we use.

For thousands of years we have known of the power carried by our words.  Words have the power to make people feel  happy and strong or the power to make people small or weak.  Words don’t only work on other people either, they work on ourselves too, even when living inside our heads.  The stories we tell ourselves are so powerful, they influence everything that exists outside our heads, including our opinions on news, our dads or our current situations.  For instance, physiologically, anxiety and excitement are the same process inside our bodies.  However, it is your experiences of the past that will determine whether or not you will see a situation one way or the other.  How you talk about the situation also carries that power.  “I am so excited to see my family this Christmas” as opposed to “I always get anxiety from thinking about being stuck next to my annoying Aunt at the Christmas table”.  See the difference?  How about when someone tells you that you have good taste as opposed to you have expensive taste.  Although, depending on who said it, both might be true, one will make you feel good about yourself and the other might make you feel shit.
 
Last week, I mentioned the quote about how the stories we tell ourselves and other people and can literally tear us apart.  This talk made me think even more deeply; what if some people don’t realize that the words they choose are changing other peoples perceptions?  What if my story sounds like a load of shit because that's how I'm telling it?
 
These are the questions that Procabulary makes you ask yourself and then teaches you how to change.  If you want to know more, watch the TED Talk above or go to procabulary.org.  Mark’s speech made me think a lot about how I want to be heard and how to make sure that my clients are being heard and spoken too as well.