How would you like to improve how you relate to others and become more energetic at the same time without having to purchase anything? Here's a surprising truth - one of the most powerful weapons to enhance your life is your own tongue! A powerful pep zapper is distress over troubled relationships! Worrying about them can quickly siphon off needed energy. So why not try a more effective way to resolve these problems? Here's a simple five-point plan for improving relationships and increasing your energy level at the same time. 1. Practice speaking encouraging words instead of negative ones. Concentrate on the qualities in other people that you can affirm and dwell on those things instead of on their faults. This alone should do wonders in relieving stress in your relationships. Doctors know that prolonged anxiety harms you, but healing words can soothe stress and a peaceful mind leads to improved physical health too. What we say can have a permanent effect for good or for evil. Think back in your own life when someone encouraged you. You still remember what they said, don't you? We store in our minds in a kind of mental art gallery what others have said to us. What words of yours would you like to have permanently installed in someone else's mind? 2. Avoid fueling verbal fires. When someone starts to blow up all over you, be careful about your response. Why burn your relationship house down with your own mouth? Try spraying water on an argument with calm words instead of using a flame-thrower. How many marriages have been destroyed when in a fit of anger people spew out hurtful accusations to one another that are never forgotten. You might as well punch a hole in a feather pillow and let the feathers fly all over the place and then try to collect them one by one! You can't get back the damaging effects of those hurtful words either. Want to free yourself from an entrapping verbal situation? Practice waiting a while before answering someone when you're angry. Then carefully choose what you are going to say. Your reply could well be remembered for the rest of the other person's life! "A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger" (Proverbs 15:1 NKJV). 3. Don't be a motormouth. Listen more than you talk and think about what you're going to say before you say it. Don't just blurt out whatever is on your mind. People who constantly chatter on and on about themselves and their opinions strain their relationships. If you enjoy monopolizing conversations, think about what other people may be experiencing when they're with you. Also, the more you talk, the more likely you'll be to put your foot in your mouth. That's known as "foot-in-mouth disease!" So think before you let something out that you'll regret saying. 4. Nip hurtful speech in the bud by carefully choosing your thoughts. If you could put what you're thinking on a CD, what would you entitle it? Thought patterns will come out sooner or later in your conversations. Abraham Lincoln is remembered as being one of the United States of America's greatest presidents. But he experienced many failures along the way. These failures were in the areas of formal education (which was very limited), business, farming and in obtaining desired political offices. If Abraham Lincoln had thought of himself as a loser when he failed so many times in life, he would have been unable to fulfill his destiny. 5. Pray for healing words to tap the Source of wisdom. Consider praying about what you are saying. Here's a to-the-point prayer: "Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips" ( Psalms 141:3). Want to have a better life? Choose better words! Start afresh today to create beautiful art-word exhibitions in other people's minds with loving and caring words. |
