Choosing your words

I am always been more of a "paint the picture" kind of a person. As a designer, it was the graphic that was truly important, that thing that draws you in, the words are just something to keep your attention on the image longer. They often are too plentiful, and choke that ever valuable "white space" that makes a design beautiful.

Lately, though, words have found a much greater significance in my world. I think one of the first areas that it really hit home was with Mike Dooley's "thought become things" in Notes from the Universe (www.tut.com). In essence, the things that you think about are the things that you attract into your life. In turn, those things that you say, have a similar effect.

The next book that I read that reinforced this was Hidden Message in Water by Masaru Emoto. At first it was a little "woo woo" for me, yet I was absolutely fascinated. The synopsis on Amazon states:

He found that water from clear springs and water exposed to loving words shows brilliant, complex, and colorful snowflake patterns, while polluted water and water exposed to negative thoughts forms incomplete, asymmetrical patterns with dull colors. Emoto believes that since people are 70 percent water, and the Earth is 70 percent water, we can heal our planet and ourselves by consciously expressing love and goodwill.

The book has beautiful images of snowflake patterns with their corresponding words they were associated to. For me, these words being transformed into this beautiful visual is something that challenges designers every day. How do you take a concept and create a visual which accurately represents the words and spirit that it entails. And the thought that your words can have an influence over the crystal structure of the water amazed me. Here is a link to the childrens book.

So how does that translate in our day-to-day lives? How do the words that you say, affect your own body? How does it influence those around you. Obviously if you tell a child every day of their life, that they are worthless, useless, brilliant, or special, over time they will believe it. As such, if you do the same with telling someone they are terminally ill, plagued with chronic disease, healthy or strong, will they become those things? Think about how you feel when someone pays you a genuine compliment, or says something cruel? How does that change your attitude and your actions, for better or worse?

The mind is a mysterious beast, I had once heard that if you blindfold someone and tell them they are being burned with a hot poker, and hold a pencil eraser up to their skin, they can form a blister in that spot. I have also heard that many people are killed by the diagnosis as by disease.

If that is true, what are things like saying, "I'm getting sick," or "I just know I am going to get the flu" doing to our bodies? Are we opening the door and welcoming illness in?

It makes me think of our food. As a child, many of us were taught to say a prayer of gratitude before eating, bless this food to our bodies, etc. Is that blessing actually changing the food? If Emoto is correct in his studies, yes. Regardless, I think I would prefer to eat food which was lovingly grown, prepared by someone who loved doing so, and served by someone who wasn't just looking for a good tip. If you are grumbling all the way through preparing dinner each night is the food the same as if you slowed down, were grateful for having food, and the ability that you have to make something wonderfully nourishing for your family? Even if it didn't change the food, would it change that 30 minutes of your life you spent preparing it?

In Emoto's studies, the words written on the bottle label influenced the structure of the snowflake if produced, so what does that say about packaging design? About the brand name you choose? Is your tagline even more important that you thought?

What about your refrigerator? What do you post on the door? Are they words of love and peace, or are they sarcastic cartoons, or a flurry of "have to do" or "guilt-lists?" If you are looking for less clutter in your life, maybe starting with your refrigerator is a good place. Mine was full of things, drawings from the kids, schedules, magnets, notes, etc. I removed it all, down to the school calendar, and some photo magnets of the kids and some affirmation magnets a dear friend gave me. I must say, having that visual clutter removed did help in some small way.

But, might we take that a bit further? Since your food spends much time in your refrigerator, holding your food, should we look to the inside of the refrigerator as your next DIY home improvement project? Would it change anything if the shelves and drawers in your refrigerator were labeled with words like; health, love, peace, calm, harmony, strength and gratitude? You could simply take a dry erase marker and write on the glass or plastic. Would it hurt?

Experiment, play with it, what do you have to lose? A project or a bill that you have been worried about, write positive affirmations on it, in your car, on your bathroom mirror, try to incorporate more positive words into your life. When decorating your home, fill it only with things you love or that make you truly happy.

And choose the words you say wisely because....... "I'm never gonna stop the rain (snow) by complaining..."