by: Moira G Gallaga
28/08/2011
Power of Words: Talk Your Way to a Better Life!
Don’t you feel at times that words just slip your mouth or as if your tongue has a life of its own? Sometimes, those words come out sweet and bring about miracles of love and caring. At other times, they produce ruin and havoc in your life and in your relationships. Words do have the power to build up or to destroy, but we have the power to learn to control them and use them for improving the quality of our lives and of those around us. Here are some tips you may use to let your words become inspiration and key for your success and happiness.
- Check yourself to see how often you say: “I didn’t mean that.” Sometimes I sincerely believe that I did not mean what I just said, but words more often than not come out of the heart. They do not come out of nothing. So, the key to controlling the power of the words is in checking your heart and making sure you allow only loving and noble feelings to abide there. If something comes out of your mouth, then it lives inside your heart!
- The same can be said of your mind. Nurturing positive thoughts and ideas will ensure your words and your manner of verbal expression takes a positive tone too.
- If you are sure your heart and mind are alright then the next step to empower your life by your words is to let it out. Did you ever feel affection or gratefulness bubbled up in your heart and rose to be poured out through the words you expressed? Did you ever hold it back?
Sometimes, we might feel ashamed to express our tender feelings or our gratitude. Somehow, it feels embarrassing and out of place. Yet, it may be the very thing you and the people around you require. Sincere affection and thankfulness can do miracles in improving your life. It makes you want to live and be glad to be living. It also makes others more eager to do something good for you. Isn’t that an improvement? So, let it out. Do not stop it or keep it down. Even if you feel awkward at first, you may be sure that you’ve done the right thing.
- Positive words are capable of introducing positive changes. The world around us has too many negative words due to so much negativity in people. Even though you might say you are an optimist, thinking positive is not enough. You have to express those positive thoughts by SAYING positive words.
Positive thinking and feelings leads to positive forms of expression, including your use of words to connect with other people, and in some instances to touch their lives. It also works the other way around. If you constantly make an effort to use positive forms of verbal expression and words that uplift and make people feel good, it will ultimately develop a change in your mentality and feelings as well. It is a symbiotic relationship that feeds off each other.
So view the power of the words as a tool. By using this tool properly, you can bring about the positive changes you want and make your life enjoyable, empowered by your positive thoughts and words.
Overpopulation: Time to Step on the Brakes (The Need for a Reproductive Health Bill)
Filipinos who lead mindful lives make choices every day that embrace the power of an individual to change the world. To conserve the earth’s resources, they choose to recycle. To reduce pollutants, they choose to limit the number of miles they drive. To ensure that the smallest possible corporate footprint is left on the planet, they choose to buy from companies that are environmentally responsible. Indeed, Filipinos make all kinds of choices that affect the planet, but the one choice that matters most, the choice that has the greatest impact in our developing country, is the choice to reproduce.
Like all animals, humans want to be fruitful and multiply. That’s nature. Every living creature is designed to reproduce. Humans, though, have gotten particularly good at it. Too good, some would argue. Of course, there was a time when it made sense to make more people. There was plenty of everything. The world was brimming with resources to be exploited. Frontiers were there to be tamed. People considered it their divine right to exercise dominion over all the creatures of the earth. The world was humanity’s oyster and there were plenty of pearls for everyone.
Not anymore. Nowadays, the world seems to be running out of just about everything. In order to live a more and more comfortable lifestyle, people, particularly those living in developed nations, have become consumers on such a large scale that resources that once seemed inexhaustible are now disappearing. Clean water, fossil fuels, food, metals and minerals used in manufacturing, as well as countless other vital resources, are no longer infinitely abundant. And to make matters worse, alongside shrinking animal populations, there are more and more people competing for dwindling resources.
Take my country’s example, we are a country rich in natural resources but unable to attain sustainable and equitable economic growth. Income disparity and poverty are major issues, the rich keep getting richer, the poor keep getting poorer and the middle class is either disappearing or end up finding work overseas to give their families a better quality of life. A tenth of our population are based overseas. Our population increases annually to an equivalent size of the population of Singapore. Despite our abundance in natural resources, I fear that even if we get our act together, it is no longer enough to effectively address existing socio-economic problems.
The solution seems simple: use less and make fewer babies. Unfortunately, the problems of overconsumption and overpopulation don’t easily lend themselves to simple solutions. The Reproductive Health Bill needs to be passed. This isn't simply about population control, at its core it is about women's rights and our reproductive health and well-being. This Bill also tackles economic issues; poverty and even the spread of STDs. People don’t want to be any less comfortable than they are accustomed to being. And they certainly don’t want to be told they shouldn’t reproduce the way nature has hard-wired them to do. Fortunately, humans are different from the other animals in one important way. Despite seemingly overwhelming evidence to the contrary, people are thinking creatures. They have brains that are capable of processing information in a way that allows them to modify even their most instinctive behaviours. They are adaptable. Yes, human beings can be taught - most of them, anyway.
Make no mistake, the challenge of getting people to consume less is daunting, but getting people to change their reproductive behaviour is even more difficult. There is no more basic instinct than the desire to reproduce, whether by intention or not. However, civilization is built upon it. Political and religious institutions are devoted to encouraging population growth. The family unit, the fundamental reproductive structure, was the bedrock upon which stable societies are built. Having children is considered a measure of success in life. Having more children is equated with being more successful. And, while it’s true that there was a time when that made sense, when a large family was a hedge against higher mortality rates and a way to contribute to the labor pool both on the farm and in the cities, those days are gone in all but the least developed parts of the world. Now, thanks to technology, people live longer and fewer of them are required to produce more, resulting in what would seem to be two contradictory phenomena, an aging population and high unemployment.
If ever there were a time for those in power to stand up and lead, this would seem to be it. Unfortunately, politicians and religious leaders don’t lead when it comes to reproductive behaviour.
Filipinos must, through deeds and words, take the lead. People who choose to limit the number of children they have to two or fewer must become the rule rather than the exception and they must not be afraid to speak up about why they choose to do so.
David Attenborough had it right when, in one of his speeches at the Royal Society of Arts in London, he referred to the lack of public debate about overpopulation as a central environmental issue, “I meet no one who privately disagrees that population growth is a problem. No one - except flat-earthers - can deny that the planet is finite, so why does hardly anyone say so publicly?”
One simple answer to Sir Attenborough’s query is that people, especially politicians, lack the courage to speak out when they know that they will be roundly criticized by those who cling to old ways of thinking. Nowhere is this more true than in the Philippines, where some of those opposed to limiting population growth are perfectly willing to make personal attacks part of their strategy.
Aware that ripples become waves in a world that has become one big neighbourhood, Filipinos leading mindful lives can choose to be good neighbours. They can choose to set an example and, in doing so, can be seen as credible when they explain their choices in terms of their worldview. Then, when enough people make decisions based on what is best for the whole world they must speak up and be heard about the sound reasoning behind their choices, so those in power will see which way the wind is blowing and will themselves finally begin to address the problem of overpopulation. It is time to start acting responsibly and be more mindful of the world around us. Overpopulation, it is time to step on the brakes.
Like all animals, humans want to be fruitful and multiply. That’s nature. Every living creature is designed to reproduce. Humans, though, have gotten particularly good at it. Too good, some would argue. Of course, there was a time when it made sense to make more people. There was plenty of everything. The world was brimming with resources to be exploited. Frontiers were there to be tamed. People considered it their divine right to exercise dominion over all the creatures of the earth. The world was humanity’s oyster and there were plenty of pearls for everyone.
Not anymore. Nowadays, the world seems to be running out of just about everything. In order to live a more and more comfortable lifestyle, people, particularly those living in developed nations, have become consumers on such a large scale that resources that once seemed inexhaustible are now disappearing. Clean water, fossil fuels, food, metals and minerals used in manufacturing, as well as countless other vital resources, are no longer infinitely abundant. And to make matters worse, alongside shrinking animal populations, there are more and more people competing for dwindling resources.
Take my country’s example, we are a country rich in natural resources but unable to attain sustainable and equitable economic growth. Income disparity and poverty are major issues, the rich keep getting richer, the poor keep getting poorer and the middle class is either disappearing or end up finding work overseas to give their families a better quality of life. A tenth of our population are based overseas. Our population increases annually to an equivalent size of the population of Singapore. Despite our abundance in natural resources, I fear that even if we get our act together, it is no longer enough to effectively address existing socio-economic problems.
The solution seems simple: use less and make fewer babies. Unfortunately, the problems of overconsumption and overpopulation don’t easily lend themselves to simple solutions. The Reproductive Health Bill needs to be passed. This isn't simply about population control, at its core it is about women's rights and our reproductive health and well-being. This Bill also tackles economic issues; poverty and even the spread of STDs. People don’t want to be any less comfortable than they are accustomed to being. And they certainly don’t want to be told they shouldn’t reproduce the way nature has hard-wired them to do. Fortunately, humans are different from the other animals in one important way. Despite seemingly overwhelming evidence to the contrary, people are thinking creatures. They have brains that are capable of processing information in a way that allows them to modify even their most instinctive behaviours. They are adaptable. Yes, human beings can be taught - most of them, anyway.
Make no mistake, the challenge of getting people to consume less is daunting, but getting people to change their reproductive behaviour is even more difficult. There is no more basic instinct than the desire to reproduce, whether by intention or not. However, civilization is built upon it. Political and religious institutions are devoted to encouraging population growth. The family unit, the fundamental reproductive structure, was the bedrock upon which stable societies are built. Having children is considered a measure of success in life. Having more children is equated with being more successful. And, while it’s true that there was a time when that made sense, when a large family was a hedge against higher mortality rates and a way to contribute to the labor pool both on the farm and in the cities, those days are gone in all but the least developed parts of the world. Now, thanks to technology, people live longer and fewer of them are required to produce more, resulting in what would seem to be two contradictory phenomena, an aging population and high unemployment.
If ever there were a time for those in power to stand up and lead, this would seem to be it. Unfortunately, politicians and religious leaders don’t lead when it comes to reproductive behaviour.
Filipinos must, through deeds and words, take the lead. People who choose to limit the number of children they have to two or fewer must become the rule rather than the exception and they must not be afraid to speak up about why they choose to do so.
David Attenborough had it right when, in one of his speeches at the Royal Society of Arts in London, he referred to the lack of public debate about overpopulation as a central environmental issue, “I meet no one who privately disagrees that population growth is a problem. No one - except flat-earthers - can deny that the planet is finite, so why does hardly anyone say so publicly?”
One simple answer to Sir Attenborough’s query is that people, especially politicians, lack the courage to speak out when they know that they will be roundly criticized by those who cling to old ways of thinking. Nowhere is this more true than in the Philippines, where some of those opposed to limiting population growth are perfectly willing to make personal attacks part of their strategy.
Aware that ripples become waves in a world that has become one big neighbourhood, Filipinos leading mindful lives can choose to be good neighbours. They can choose to set an example and, in doing so, can be seen as credible when they explain their choices in terms of their worldview. Then, when enough people make decisions based on what is best for the whole world they must speak up and be heard about the sound reasoning behind their choices, so those in power will see which way the wind is blowing and will themselves finally begin to address the problem of overpopulation. It is time to start acting responsibly and be more mindful of the world around us. Overpopulation, it is time to step on the brakes.
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