The Power of Words…

The Power of Words

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.”

We all grew up believing this children’s rhyme. Yet, at a certain point, we realized that was completely untrue and that words can touch our hearts and souls just as much as they can bruise and agonize them.

Our lives are made up of words. Words we speak and listen to, and those we read. Spoken words and those words we read in books have the power to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble.  Those words literally have the power to change our lives drastically as they can lift us up or break us down.  

Over time, I’ve come to learn that withholding words – whether spoken or written – can equally tear souls apart. When we withhold words, we’re denying their power and disempowering those people we leave in the wreckage of those unspoken or unwritten words. When words aren’t spoken or written, they leave a terrible emptiness in their wake. And in that emptiness, insecurities flood in: the doubt, the anger, the grief and all “whys.”

Our thoughts impact what we manifest in our lives. But the real power lies in our words. It is our words that provide a bold affirmation of our innermost thoughts. They are a confirmation to the whole world of how we see others, our lives and ourselves. It is this powerful affirmation that our words provide which enables our thoughts to manifest into a reality. So why do we choose to misuse our most powerful asset?

If our words and thoughts are the very tools with which we create our reality, then surely they are our most powerful tool yet? Surely we should only pick the very best words in order to create our very best reality?

Using the power of words, we free ourselves and each other when we find the courage to speak our truth and honor our own feelings while recognizing that our truth and feelings aren’t the only ones in play. Considering the ‘powerful force’ of the words we utter, we must discipline ourselves to speak and write in a way that conveys respect, gentleness and humility.

After all, we must never leave stories unfinished or words unspoken, and most importantly, we must never underestimate the power of words.

It is no wonder, then, that at Cambridge University, I majored in linguistics and translation studies. I found languages to be fascinating, in all their components: the meanings of words strung together to make brilliant sentences and the meanings behind the meanings. And, again, it is not surprising that I have spent my life’s work helping others string together their own words into prose.

Throughout my career, I have always believed in the power of words. I have written about women’s feats in all fields and their real-life problems. Being a women’s rights advocate, I have always aspired to change the current stereotypical image of women as weak and isolated. So I have volunteered to write and translate articles about women, their empowerment and their well-being. My life goal is to empower them, help them make their voices heard around the world, by taking part in projects geared towards these causes, translating works of female authors, and writing stories that deal with Egyptian women’s issues.

I provide writers and students with a quote by Nancy Thayer to ponder about so that they can read between the lines, searching within themselves for their own strong meanings. This quote reflects just this very power, and my belief that I have created a meaningful life for myself, one draft at a time:

“It is never too late in fiction or in life to revise.”

Bibliographical References:

1. The Power Of Words: How Words Impact Your Life by Katherine Hurst
2. The Power of Words by Barbara A Jaffe
3. The Power of Spoken Words by HuffPost (Dec 15, 2014)

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