“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.”

Do you remember that old saying? It’s something I use to chant every time someone teased me or called me a name when I was a kid.

As much as I’d like to think that words have NO power, the truth of the matter is that they DO!

When I was growing up an older family member use to compare my brother and I. My brother is 3 years older than me and from every scholastic measurement is considered “bright/smart”.

In this “innocent” comparison, he was the bright and smart one, and I was the one that wasn’t smart, BUT I worked really hard.

The power of those words have stuck in my subconscious for years. On a very basic, gut level, I believed (in some ways) that I was LESS than.

I believed that I was never that smart and that I always had to work really hard to prove that I was as capable as everyone else.

I still see glimmers of this mental attitude all these years later.

The good news about the power of words is that, while they can do much harm and tear us down, they can also build us up.

That’s why affirmations are one of the easiest and most effective ways to turn your thoughts around and establish a new way of looking at life.

Any time I feel not good enough or bright enough I can shift my focus and say to myself “I am smart and capable. And I don’t have to prove it to anyone else for it to be true.”

This affirmation stops that negative degrading thought in its tracks. With practice and repetition it shifts my thoughts away from feeling stupid and incapable, to feeling smart and self-assured.

The words we say to ourselves and to others have so much power!

The power to heal and inspire. Or the power to degrade and reject.

Choose your words wisely.

Be blessed Mamas