How Negative Words Affect Everyday Life

Many people do not understand that negative words can create negative lives. On the Psych Central website, Ben Martin, Psy.D., reports that, "It's as though we have an internal voice inside our head that determines how we perceive every situation." This internal voice is called self-talk, and Dr. Martin further reports that, "Self-talk is often skewed towards the negative, and sometimes it's just plain wrong." Negative words affect everyday life in many adverse ways.

Depression

• Individuals that get trapped in negative thought patterns tend to increase their depression levels. The University of Miami conducted a study in which they observed both depressed and non-depressed individuals. One of the authors of the study, Jutta Joormann, reports that when depressed people were shown a sequence of three words, "The order of the words sort of gets stuck in their working memory, especially when the words are negative." Depressed individuals have essentially gotten "stuck" in negative thought patterns. Negative words can literally drag a person's emotional state down into depression, and this pattern of negativity can be broken by thinking positive thoughts on purpose, on a habitual basis.

Adverse Child Development

• Negative words that are spoken out loud have the ability to harm the people that overhear them, even if they are not directed at them personally. Child development specialist Deborah Wood, PhD, reports that toxic words can negatively affect children's overall sense of well-being. Some examples of negative speech that can harm a child's healthy development include: trash talk at sporting events, dishonoring one's parents in the hearing of your own children, or speaking without respect to your own husband or wife. Dr. Wood encourages parents to realize that their kids can hear the negative things they say, and that they can be adversely affected by these negative words on a daily basis.

Energy Drain

• When you speak and think negative words on a regular basis, you will likely discover that your energy level decreases dramatically. In addition, habitually negative people can also drain the positive energy of the people in their social circles. In her book How to Deal with Negative People, Catherine Pratt says that negative people can cause others to feel exhausted, or even depressed. This can result in a dwindling amount of friends, as people do not like to be around individuals that drag them down instead of building them up.

Lack of Motivation

• People that constantly indulge in negative self-talk or speak negative words out loud during the course of everyday life tend to lack motivation to capitalize on new opportunities for personal growth or financial prosperity. On the Pick The Brain website, author of the Horwood Motivation System, Shawn Horwood reports that, "Negativity can suck the motivation right out of you." If you assume that new opportunities will turn out negatively, you will find it difficult to muster up the motivation necessary to step out an take risks in your everyday life.