The Science of Positive Self-Talk
GUEST POST
BY: Sara Connell (my writing coach!)
It’s the halfway point in the year, which means it’s a wonderful opportunity for self-reflection.
A Japanese experiment by Dr. Masaru Emoto provides stunning evidence of the power of positive self-talk. Dr. Emoto took tap water and put it various containers, taping to the front words like, “Thank you,” “You’re beautiful,” “I love you,” and “You’re smart.” Then he took other jars of water and wrote things like, “I hate you,” “You’re stupid,” and “You’re never going to be good enough.” He then spoke those words to the containers for a period of time and examined the water molecules under a microscope and photographed what he found.
The pictures are astonishing. The words of affirmation created these gorgeous crystals, stunning art-like pictures. The negative messages created terrifying, chaotic images.
Our bodies are mostly made of water. So, this experiment shows that what we think and say to ourselves changes the chemical structure of our bodies.
The more negative self-talk we engage in, the more negative habits and behaviors will come from it!
ACTION: Choose a label for the container of your mind, a positive affirmation, and say it out loud to yourself every time you look in the mirror, stop at a stop sign, or take any sort of pause.
Click on the video below to hear me discuss this experiment and this action step to ignite our positive self-talk and propel us forward in our writing journeys for the rest of 2018!
Happy writing!
Sara Connell is an author and writing coach with a private practice in Chicago. She has been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, The View, FOX Chicago, NPR, and Katie Couric. She has presented to a wide range of organizations from Fortune 500 Companies to local and national organizations such as: Avon, Estee Lauder- Origins, Johnson & Johnson, Jones Lang LaSalle, GE, Northwestern & Northwestern- Prentice Hospital for Women, Unilever & the Young President’s Organization- Spouse Group. She received the Judith Dawn Memorial Grant for fiction and has presented at Printer’s Row Literary Festival, Open Books and teaches regularly at Story Studio Chicago. Her writing has appeared in: The New York Times, Tri-Quarterly, Good Housekeeping, Schlock, Psychobabble and Evolving Your Spirit. Her first book Bringing In Finn was nominated for ELLE magazine Book of the Year.