At lunch with friends yesterday, I found myself in a rant. Yes, I’ve been a bit down and not feeling very positive about the world around me.

I do not like it when a cloud lingers around my aura. My thinking fogs-up. My feet shuffle instead of step up.  And my language slips into what one of my mentors would call “slow vibrating words.”  That’s not a good thing because the faster and more clearer that our aura vibrates, the better we can see truth and make positive choices.

It is well entrenched in my brain that using positive words when it feels as if I’m riding a random and not in control roller coaster, do make a difference toward a favorable outcome on that ride as opposed to negative words that bring on a challenged case of life-vertigo.

As a communicator, words are most important to my life’s work. The construction of a word and how it takes on a life of its own, reigns paramount within me.  It’s a construction project that appears endless.  It’s a construction project that I often must tear down and rebuild because of some sort of alignment error — or as a builder would say, “it’s not plumb.”

I’m not completely emerged from the mucky pond that fueled my lunchtime rant, but I’m at work accepting the truthful revelation that muck is, and that muck stinks. But like the muck that I have physically scooped from a fish pond that once graced the front of a past home, I can use that muck to fertilize my personal garden — both metaphorical and physical. Once again,  it’s time to let the muck become a positive that expedites glorious produce that feeds the ones I love and myself.

With that, I’ve extracted a few paragraphs on words from an essay written by Tony Robbins:

• If somebody asks you, “How’s it going?” instead of saying, “Okay,” what would be a word that might put a smile on your face to even say, that would break your own pattern? Like, “You wouldn’t even believe how I’m feeling!” with a smile, to be playful with yourself. Or a simple response like “I’m committed” or “I’m lucky” or “I’m grateful.” And then take a moment to think about what you are grateful for. We often lose sight of what’s beautiful in our life because of a few things that are out of line with our expectations.
• Write down three words you currently use on a regular basis that intensify your negative feelings or emotions. Maybe you use words like “I’m frustrated,” “I’m depressed,” or “I’m humiliated.” Come up with alternative words that will lower the intensity of those negative emotions. Maybe instead of “depressed” you say you are “a little bit down.”
• What would happen if instead of saying you feel “humiliated” you say you are “uncomfortable” with how the situation was dealt with? You can soften emotional intensity even further by using modifiers like “I’m just a bit peeved,” or, “I’m feeling a tad out of sorts.”
• Write down three words that you use to describe your experience that is somewhat positive. When someone says, “how’s it going?” come up with three alternative words that will amplify and intensify the positive feelings and inspire you. Instead of talking about how things are “all right,” replace those words with “incredible,” “outrageous,” and “spectacular.” What’s a positive word that if you really thought about your whole life, you could say and own congruently?
• By carefully and consciously selecting the words you are attaching to your experiences and doing it for a ten-day period, you’ll find an immediate change in how you feel and this becomes positively addictive. I can tell you for those who have lived this ten-day plan, the experience can be life-changing.