Change the Record: The Power of Positive Words

Let’s talk about how we speak to ourselves.

Most of us carry around an internal dialogue we didn’t choose. Words absorbed in childhood, picked up from criticism, culture, or comparison. Over time, those words shape how we think, how we feel—and ultimately, how we live.

Here’s the thing: if we don’t change our habits, they will change us.

So many people I work with find themselves stuck in a loop—not because they’re lazy or broken, but because they’ve become unconsciously addicted to familiar emotional states like guilt, shame, or anger. These feelings become part of the landscape of our nervous system. They feel normal, even if they’re uncomfortable. Our body gets used to the chemical cocktail of stress, and before we know it, that becomes who we are.

Not just how we feel—who we are.

Our reality becomes our personality.

But here’s the hopeful bit: we can change the script. Not overnight, but with consistency. And one of the most powerful tools we have is language.

Positive self-talk isn’t about toxic positivity or pretending everything’s fine when it isn’t. It’s about noticing the tone you use with yourself and choosing kinder, more constructive words. Like reps at the mind gym. The mind loves repetition, and the subconscious is always listening.

Thoughts come from the mind. Feelings live in the body. When they’re out of sync—when we think one thing but feel another—it creates inner conflict. And emotion almost always overrides logic. That’s why we repeat behaviours we know don’t serve us. The subconscious is just playing old, outdated programs on loop.

Those programs need an update.

Imagine your inner world is running on dusty cassette tapes. They’ve been crackling away in the background for years. But you’re living in a high-definition, 3D world now. You don’t need to keep pressing play on beliefs that were never yours to begin with.

Changing the record means starting with awareness. What do you say to yourself when you mess up? What names do you call yourself? Would you say those words to someone you love?

Yes, it takes effort. Yes, it feels unnatural at first. That’s why therapeutic tools like hypnotherapy are so effective—they help bypass the gatekeeping part of the mind and speak directly to those deeper parts of you where transformation can actually happen.

Notice. Interrupt the loop. Choose different words. Ones that support, not sabotage.

Speak to yourself like someone you care about.

Because when your words change, your feelings follow. When your feelings shift, your habits change. And when your habits change—your whole life begins to transform.

It starts with language. It starts with you.

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