By: Misty Murph'Ariens

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Words are important.  They are the units with which we measure our experience.  They are the camera with which we capture our memories.  Words are so powerful they can move people to tears.  Many words are linked in our minds to certain emotions, so they set the tone of our day and of our mood. Most of our vocabulary comes from common coloquialisms and those coloquialisms are set by the paradigm from which they originate.  That is to say, you tend to use phrases you hear often and what you hear often is generated from your culture.  Not just American or Canadian culture but also things  like the culture of Tweens, office workers or Fox News watchers.  For instance, since moving to the farm, I tend to say "whoa there" when I want someone to slow down and I often talk about getting all my ducks in row.  On the other hand, despite its popularity I almost never talk about blogging or   'Tweeting', (except in the case of birds).  Although most of what we say is picked up passively, you can choose your own vocabulary, and all you need to do is to practise it to make it habit.  The unempowered may have hours to kill, but I have hours to live.  Some may want to kill two birds with one stone, while I liberate two birds with one key.  Some say, “no problem.”  I say, “my pleasure.” Time after time I notice, probably because I now look for it, that the people that seem really happy and are a pleasure to be around tend to say "super" a lot and might say "shucks" when they are especially flabergasted.  But, I have also noticed that quite a lot of people, when asked, "How are you?", invariably answer, "Not too bad".  It makes me wonder, are they just the right amount of bad then? Think about it, how many times a day do we get asked that?  Okay, I know it may seem like voodoo or a chicken and egg sort of thing—happy people use happy language because they are happy, not the other way around.  Well, consider this. Imagine your memory of events like a journal for every day.  Twenty times a day you register, "Not too bad.".  Each time you register the word "bad", your brain is signalled to produce certain chemicals that go with the feeling bad.  You stir up the same feeling as when you have said "Bad dog!" or, "What a bad day!".  So, when you sleep and you are reviewing your days memories, now converted into shapes and emotions, you review the feeling of bad amplified twenty times.  If you lived every day like this, imagine how you would feel when you woke up each morning.  Now imagine how twenty times good would feel.  If it sounds too good to be true, give it a try.  You are the author of your life, so write the story the way you want it to be told and remembered.