Remember the last newsletter when I said I had a root canal and I actually sort of enjoyed it because I got to sit in a chair with my feet up? Well irony slammed me in the face a couple days later.

Somehow that root canal set off an apocalypse in a tooth on the other side of my mouth. I didn’t enjoy any of that. It was two weeks of pain, chipmunk-like swelling, crazy amounts of antibiotics and finally the decision from the specialist, “Yeah,” he said. “That tooth is done.” What? My first ridiculous thought was, “How am I going to have sex with my husband with a missing tooth?” The movie in my mind doesn’t include me being toothless. But I had to admit that there isn’t much in that movie that’s actually like me anyway and I was in so much pain I was ready to pull the darn thing out myself! That and I hated the thought of something inside my body that was making me so sick.

The doctor said, “We have to get to the root of the infection.” I agreed. Once it was out and I got over my vanity attack, I thought of the many things we sometimes allow to infect our thoughts and our lives without even knowing it. I started to explore what I might be holding on to that is infecting my reactions, my feelings and my mindset. This idea has been really good for me-that there’s a mental cleansing that I should be doing that will make everything feel better. So I’m working on that..oh and I'm working on trying to stay OUT of the flipping dentist chair for awhile!

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“I could really use a break!” Those were my words to Nancy a few days before I fell and broke my arm. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with all I had piled on my plate. In hindsight I should have been a bit more specific when I said “break”. NOT that kind of break! It makes me laugh every time I think of it. But truthfully, our words are powerful and impact our lives tremendously.

I like to think of our thoughts as seeds that we plant which grow when we water them with our spoken words. This concept is supported by both social science and spiritual teachings. The more I learn about Positive Psychology, the more I realize its many parallels to both Eastern and Western spiritual teachings as well as teachings from many motivational speakers and new thought leaders. At the core, they all talk about the benefits of love and kindness, focus on gratitude and strengths, and tout the importance of speaking positive words.

I have collected many quotes about this concept. Here are some of my favorites:

• "If we understood the power of our thoughts, we would guard them more closely. If we understood the awesome power of our words, we would prefer silence to almost anything negative. In our thoughts and words, we create our own weaknesses and our own strengths. Our limitations and joys begin in our hearts. We can always replace negative with positive." ~ Betty Eadie
• "You can talk yourself into any condition, desirable and undesirable" ~ Christian D Larson
• "Words can not only create emotions, they create actions. And from our actions flow the results of our lives.” ~ Tony Robbins
• “Your words become your world.” ~ Nadeem Kazi
• “You can’t speak negative words and live a positive life.” ~ Joel Osteen
• “Langauge creates reality. Words have power. Speak always to create joy.” ~ Deepak Chopra
• “There is power in words. What you say is what you get.” ~ Zig Ziglar

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