Words have vibration. This is a fact.

Masaru Emoto’s pioneering work on how words affect the molecular structure of water, and Doreen Virtue’s research on the sound graphs created by the words we use, both suggest the power that our spoken language has on the way we feel and the physical world.

Such research, backed by years of literature on the power of positive thinking and affirmations has inevitably given negative or swear words a bad rap. Whereas I fully understand and acknowledge the truth behind this literature, I can’t help but notice how we’ve taken positive talking and thinking to an unhealthy extreme.

Negativity is Like a Glassful of Water

I realised this most potently when one of my coaching clients told me she wouldn’t allow herself to express her negative emotions in her journal, in fear that she would prolong her negative experience.

I’ve always encouraged people to cry their way to happiness, suggesting that crying doesn’t create negativity; it releases it. In a similar way to crying, using negative thoughts and words when you already feel negative emotion will only help you to express that emotion fully.

I told my client to visualize that negative emotion was like a glassful of water. Expressing negative emotion through crying, writing or swearing, only helps empty that glass. The uglier your crying and the stronger your swearing is, the faster that glass will empty, and you’ll be free of the negativity.

The very fact that you feel urged to use negative thoughts or words in the first place signifies that you already are in the same vibrational frequency as those words. Therefore, expressing them won’t lower your vibration any more than what it already is. Concurrently, withholding them will only fill up the glass with even more negativity until it eventually overflows through an emotional breakdown, or it manifests into a physical illness.

Swear Your Way to Happiness

Bestselling author of F*ck it Therapy, John Parking has created a revolutionary spiritual modality which invites people to F their way to happiness. In his workshops, he plays loud music and has the audience chant “F*ck it!” while visualizing a situation that they want to let go of.

Although I was a bit apprehensive when I first tried this, I was eventually swept over by the power of F*ck it and passionately F-ed off stagnant emotions and beliefs I hadn’t even known I’d been holding.

A similar way of expressing negative emotion is through mirror work. Your eyes are doorways to your soul. When you look into your eyes in a mirror you can’t lie to yourself. Your truth must come out and with it all the negativity you’ve been suppressing, offering a safe outlet for you to deal with them.

To release negativity through mirror work, follow these steps:

1. Look into your eyes in the mirror. Allow yourself to be present in the moment and notice any emotions that come up, as well as where you feel them in your body.
2. Have a mirror self-talk. Talk to yourself in the mirror about what you’re feeling. Be totally honest and have a real conversation with yourself, as if you’re talking to your best friend. If you feel like going negative, embrace it fully!
3. End in a positive note. After you empty your glass of negativity you’re given two choices. You can either replay the negativity, thus, propagate it, or you can choose to practice a more positive emotion. You’ll find that after having expressed the negativity it’ll be much easier for you to see the situation in a more positive light.

Do you feel guilty when you think or speak negative words? How do you deal with your urge to do so? Let me know in the comments below.