Episode 4: Weapon within Us

On today's episode, I discuss the power of words. This video also includes a YouTube video from @SpiritualMecca. The video is called 

Dr Masaru Emoto’s rice and water experiment shows how your thoughts and words create your reality and can be found here:

https://youtu.be/Oatnnvj-k4U?si=fzwrVtIaeg-1MRqL

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Welcome to this week's episode of Unapologetically Imperfect. I would like to begin by acknowledging the Darek people, the traditional custodians on the land on which this podcast is filmed. I pay my respects to Elders Past, Present, Emerging, and offer respect to those listening today. Welcome to episode 4. I apologize it's a bit late this week. Sorry! Life has happened back at work, but hopefully in the next week or so I'll be able to get back on track and get our content out on a Monday. So here we go. I'd like to start with a riddle. I have no blade, yet I can cut. No flame, but I can burn. I leave no wounds, you can stitch shut. Yet hearts and minds I turn. I build up kings, then bring them down. I start wars and then make them cease. I'm whispered soft or shouted loud. I shatter or bring peace. I am your words. I've called this episode Weapons Within Us, and I want to talk about the power of words. The average adult speaks anywhere between 7,000 and 16,000 plus words a day. It's a huge amount. But a child aged between five and fifteen will speak approximately 20,000 words a day. Maybe not so much for teenagers these days with their phones and eh, eh, whatever. But regardless, that is a lot of words. But how often do we stop and do we think about the power that these words actually hold? In my personal opinion, words are as powerful as a weapon of mass destruction in both good and bad ways. And I want to explain that a bit this morning. Through years of research, scientists have delved deep into the impact that words have on our brains. I'm going to show you a quick video clip. This is a visual representation of the power of our words and the words of others. With positive words, things thrive.

SPEAKER_00 2:23

Japanese researcher and healer Dr. Masaru Emoto proved how human thoughts, words, and intentions can alter your reality through his famous rice and water experiments. The results are astounding. Dr. Emoto labeled three beakers of cooked rice with water as follows. Beaker number one was labeled with the words thank you. Beaker number two was labeled you idiot. And finally, beaker number three was ignored. Every day for a month, Emoto spoke the words on the label to the rice. After 30 days, speaker number one, which was labeled thank you, began to ferment, giving off a pleasant aroma. Speaker number two, which was labeled you idiot, turned black. And lastly, speaker number three, the ignored rice, began to rot, turning green. Many others around the world have repeated this experiment using different words, such as I love you and I hate you. The results are shocking. The rice with negative words spoken to it always rots. IKEA UAE also conducted a similar experiment with plants. IKEA had school children speak with two identical plants for 30 days. One plant was spoken to with positive words and the other with negative words. Both the plants were kept in identical conditions. However, after 30 days, the results were astonishing. The plant which was showered with positive words thrived, and the plant which was spoken negatively too wilted and had drooping leaves. To watch the full IKEA UAE plant experiment, see the link in our description box. Both Dr. Moto's and IKEA's experiments demonstrate that all words hold a vibration. These studies conclude that thoughts, feelings, and words affect the molecular structure of water. Given water was used in the rice experiment and also the plant experiment, since plants are made up of up to 95% water. With the human body also being made of 70% water, these experiments demonstrate the power of thoughts, feelings, and words in creating our physical realities. So, have you been paying attention to your thoughts, feelings, and words?

SPEAKER_01 4:36

This video shows a representation of the power of words, both ours and others. Positive words make us thrive. Mediocre words do some damage with a little bit of growth, while negative words do irreplaceable damage. I've had my fair share of being on the receiving end of other people's words, and they've always had one or two effects. They either make me feel great or they make me feel horrible. Unfortunately, more often than horrible. Some of the most hurtful words I've received have come from those close to me. My dad's always made comments about me ending up looking like my mum or my grandmother, my mum's mum. But my grandmother, my dad's mum, right, family, would often make comments about me being a big girl and occasionally call me fat. As a little kid, these did some pretty nasty damage. I've even had some of my closest friends make comments about clothing sizes, which, even though they weren't talking about me directly, they still had an impact, and I was kind of sucky. Some of the words that I have heard being said to me over the years you're fat, you're ugly, you're a mistake, you're stupid, you're a loser, you're a waste of space, you're hideous, you're useless, you're an idiot. No doubt you guys have probably heard some of the same things, right? But the biggest problem when negative words are constantly spoken to us is we start to believe them. And then it becomes hard to hear and receive compliments and positive words. So, how often do we hear them? And how do we get past the negative words we hear? Well, in my experience, with great difficulty, but the important thing is I have learnt to get past them somewhat. One of the hardest things to get past is my own self-negative talk. These are the words that I speak to myself when I'm feeling really bad. Oh man, you're such an idiot. Like, you know, you're a loser. Why'd you do all of that? It's those internal words that can do just as much damage. I want you to think of a piece of paper straight out of the packet, it's fresh and it's clean. Someone says a bad word to you, it's like the piece of paper gets scrunched up, but then it kind of opens up again. Every time a bad word gets said, that piece of paper gets crunched up again and again and again and again until it starts to look not like the piece of paper that you started with. It's shortened, it's disheveled. And what happens over time is even though we try and brush these words off, the damage is still caused. It remains. Eventually that piece of paper starts to tear, it starts to break, and it can be irreplaceable. We can't fix it anymore. This is the impact that words have on people. There is no denying that words hurt and leave a mark. We can forgive those that say things to us, right? But the damage is done. The tongue and the words are kind of like a wildfire. One tiny spark can wipe out an entire community. That's a pretty big thought. Here in the Blue Mountains, we're prone to bushfires every summer. But one tiny spark could wipe out an entire community. That's pretty nasty. One bad word could wipe out someone's life. Because you don't know what battles they're fighting. For me personally, I believe that the wounds that negative words leave, they never disappear, but they do become scars to remind us. I haven't forgotten the horrible things that have been said to me, but I have learned to move past them with some help and a lot of brain training. Has it been easy? Heck no. And it took me a long time to hear and accept positive words. One thing I have learned as a teacher, and I hear it quite often, and I try and now transfer this into my everyday life, especially my mental vocab and my mental talk that I have of myself, is the one to five ratio. Let me try and explain that a little bit to you this morning. For every one negative word, counteract it with five positive ones. So, for example, there's no way you'll achieve your dreams. You're nothing. I'm gonna counteract that. I am unique, I can achieve anything I put my mind to. My dreams are mine and no one else's. If I believe I can, I will. I am something and I'm worthy. Far from easy, right? And it's gonna take time. It's gonna take time for your brain to start to compute all of those positive words, but it will happen in time. The memories and scars of harsh words, they'll exist forever. But by replacing them with positive words, they won't hold as much power over your life. And this goes for probably the most important sort of talk, which is our self-talk, right? I don't know about you, but I am definitely my own worst critic. And I have to admit, I have been known to indulge in some super negative self-talk. It's usually stuff I've heard others say about me that I've then been led to believe, and then I've repeated to myself. Really helpful, right? Sometimes our self-talk can be even worse than what others say about us, and that's not okay. With my photography, I my own worst critic, and any of my friends who know my photography side will agree. I can take a photo and be like, oh my gosh, it looks so terrible. Like, I'm just it's awful today. I'm such an idiot. Like, why do I think I can do this? And they're like, dude, it's like one shot out of thousands. You're a great photographer. I don't always hear that. The thing is, you know you best. Don't believe what others say unless it is actually true. So my challenge towards you today or this week, the thought that I want you to think about is what words are you speaking? Think back to the video about the rice. Now imagine that you're the rice. The words you hear and speak have a lasting impact. Too often than not, we listen to and believe the negative because it's just easier. But it's time to change the narrative, it's time to start hearing the positive. And if you're anything like me, it will take a while for those positives to sink in. So until you're ready, take the compliment, say thank you, and pocket it for later. All right, tuck it in the back pocket of your jeans. Remember, negative words hurt and do immeasurable damage. Like a wildfire started by a tiny spark. A practical activity that I have been a part of in the past and I find it's beneficial, I want to share it with you today, is I've gotten a piece of paper and I've written down every negative word spoken to me, over me, all the ones I've even thought about myself, especially the ones I've thought about myself. Once I've written them all down on a piece of paper, I then throw it into a fire. I let it burn. If I don't have a fire handy, I just shred it, tear it up into little tiny pieces, and I shred it. Then I start documenting on a different piece of paper, a nice, fresh, clean piece. All the positives that I've said or that have been said to me, the positive words I've thought about myself. Damn, you look good today. Damn, I'm having a good hair day today. Anything. Hey, I got off on time today. Sweet. It's positive. Write them down and then watch the change begin. It won't happen instantly, I can assure you of that, but it will happen. Before we finish today, I want to say a heartfelt apology and sorry to each and every one of you that has had negative words spoken about you, to you, or even the negative thoughts that you've said about yourself. I'm so sorry that you have been through this as well and that this has happened. I want to remind you that you are amazing. You are strong, you are unique, and you are capable of doing anything you set your mind to. You can achieve great things, big or small, as you continue your own journey to becoming unapologetically imperfect. Till next time, guys.