In the last Detox Your Soul post, I talked about Winning the Battle Against Toxic Thoughts. If you haven’t read it yet, you can check it out HERE.

In today’s discussion on toxic words, it’s important to understand:

• Where they come from
• What the effects are (when spoken to yourself or others)
• How we can eliminate them

Where do toxic words come from? Toxic words are the result of an abundance of toxic thoughts- and the majority rules. If you spend most of your day thinking about how every scenario could go wrong, your speech will begin to become a direct reflection of that.

What are the effects of toxic words? When we speak negatively about ourselves, we fill ourselves with feelings of more negativity. When we speak negatively about others, it’s usually a direct result of hurt, frustration or resentment.

If you’ve ever been depressed, you were constantly met with feelings of guilt, pessimism, hopelessness, irritability, etc.

Toxic thoughts can bring you to the point of depression, but toxic words will keep you there.

How can they be eliminated? Words have the power to manifest change, whether that change is positive or negative. For every toxic thought that you have, try opposing it with a positive statement.

I’m facing a difficult situation right now in my personal life. If I’m honest though, I don’t always feel like saying something positive about it-especially when there’s no visible improvement. It’s easy to speak what you see (particularly when it’s negative), but the real power takes place when you begin to speak what you want to see.

I challenged myself a while back to try to go a full week without speaking one negative word. Not one. Tuh! Listen, I barely could get through a full day without a negative word slipping out. If you’re not at a point where you can replace a toxic thought with a positive word, it’s best to K.Y.M.S.- (Keep. Your. Mouth. Shut.) Let’s just say that I was on mute for 96% of that week.

Girl, sometimes you have to tell yourself to hush.

And when you’re ready to speak again, make a conscious effort to start changing your language. The easiest way to do that is to write down positive affirmations directly related to the negative circumstances, and start confessing them out loud.

It sounds crazy, but you’d be surprised at how changing your conversation about a matter can shift your perspective on it. Pure facts.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue,

    and those who love it will eat its fruits.

Prov. 18:20 ESV

Until next time…

mjr.