I’ve been thinking a lot about words lately, as the saying goes, words matter, but then again do they really!

First, words matter because words are the way we connect to the world. What we say and how we say it matter because it’s the way we convey our thoughts and feelings, they are the way we make ourselves understood. Words are the way we let people know us. It’s the way we either build relationships or erode them. It’s the way we allow people to understand us and get close to us or not. According to Freud, “Words have a magical power. They can either bring the greatest happiness or the deepest despair.” And what we say and how we say it matter because words can hurt.

However, do words really matter? I guess if I take all the words uttered by the people I care about seriously, then words matter. However do I really want to take their words seriously. When someone disagrees with me, do their words matter? Or better asked do their words matter enough to get upset with them. Their words matter, because the person matters to me, understanding them better matters, and their words help me do that, but because the person matters, maybe their words shouldn’t matter so much. Maybe when their words are not my words, instead of getting upset we should acknowledge them, not let them upset us and move on. Here’s where I sincerely believe words shouldn’t matter so much.

If at the end of the day our thoughts, which are made up of our words are just beliefs we make real, if our thoughts are just basically a string of words we’ve put together, then should words really matter so much? I guess the answer is, depends on who is saying the words and what words they are saying and how we choose to receive these words. Words matter because they can hurt, but words can only hurt if we choose to let them hurt us. Words matter, depending on who is saying them, how they are saying them, to whom they are saying them and how we choose to interpret those words. So maybe words matter, but not always.

Starting today what can you do differently? Well first you can start by being careful with your own words. Then you can learn to not take other peoples’ words too seriously. Then you can learn by not taking your own words, uttered to yourself, too seriously.