Sophie Baxby

Can you remember when someone’s words have made you smile or even frown? Negative words have the power to ruin someone’s day but does a positive one has the power to make someone’s day? Compassion international says ‘’words have the power to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate, and to humble.’’  

I spoke to Edie Watson, and she said that these words: “It’s endlessly, unfathomably better to be the girl who had her heart broken than the girl who broke someone’s heart” that a student at xaverian college told her really had an impact on her when she was going through a personal heartbreak. I also spoke to Sophie Leung, and she said that when she’s feeling down, and someone says something nice to her or even if there just friendly and say: “hi” then that makes her feel better and takes away the initial awkwardness of being around someone you don’t know. Whereas, she also said that she had an experience when she was at prom, where she was having a great time and enjoying herself but then someone managed to ruin that fun in less than a minute by telling her to: “move out the f****** way.” I feel the same. People who speak negative words may not know the effect of those words and how twenty seconds of speaking to someone can stick in your mind for years and defeat your confidence, and with this article I aim to remind people of that fact.  

However, when someone says something positive to us, it can make us smile. SCL health tells us that “smiling can help us recover faster from stress and reduce our heart rate.’’ It’s so easy to say one nice word to someone whose sat on their own or needs cheering up, so why don’t we. People need to be nicer to each other and we could do this through changing our words from negative to positive. Don’t talk behind that persons back say you like their outfit to their face, and if it’s something negative take advice from the old-fashioned saying, ‘’if you’ve got nothing nice to say don’t say anything at all’’. I spoke to a xaverian student Pippa Alsop, and she said that when someone said to her: “you’re such a kind person” it not only made her day, but it made her smile throughout a tough day.  

Negative words can hurt like a knife to the back, medium.com says that ‘negative words can make people feel tense, nervous, and even fearful as they try to figure out what you want and how to respond to you.’ When speaking to people I noticed a pattern, even though the words could have been said to someone years ago that doesn’t mean that they’ve had the power to let them go! Negative comments can degrade people’s confidence and affect them for years. I found an online statement from Columbia university saying, ‘the persistent recall of negative memories might be an evolutionary defence mechanism, but it can also lead to psychological impediments, like depression or anxiety.’  

I think we should always try and be careful about what we say to people. And try to be a little bit kinder to everyone we meet.