Words That Shape Our World and Self-Perception

Mind your words for anxiety relief because the words that you use everyday have a real impact on how you feel that day.
Have you ever wondered how speaking more than one language can shape your thoughts and perception of the world? Join us on this enlightening journey as we, a pair of bilingual speakers, unravel the mysteries of linguistic relativity and its impact on our lives. We discuss the advantages of having access to a diverse range of words to express ourselves and how not having the words to describe something, can limit our reality.
As we navigate through the complexities of language, we also share personal stories and insights on the power of positive self-labeling and how our words can influence our reality. We talk about breaking free from the cycle of self-pity that can be triggered by labeling ourselves with certain words like "widow," "orphan," or "pensioner." Additionally, we touch upon an eerie new show, “The Big Door Prize" about a machine that prints out cards revealing people's life purposes, and how this can lead to feelings of being conditioned. Tune in and discover how language shapes our perception of the world, and the power it holds over us.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Linguistic Relativity and Mindful Language
• 8:20 Positive Self-Labeling's Influence
• 20:18 Hypnosis Meditation for Anxiety Relief

Transcript

The English Sisters - Violeta and Jutka Zuggo: 0:00

Mind your language. Mind your language, yeah, linguistic relativity That's what we're going to be talking about today, and it's all relative to how you use language and what you do with your mouth. Well, that sounds a bit No, not what you do with your mouth. What comes out of your mouth, oh, okay. So I thought what are we going to be talking about today? Well, anyway, please do join us And if you enjoy listening to the English sisters and this podcast, please share it with your family and friends and follow us. Well, let's begin because it's all about language today. It is all about language, yes, so begin is the beginning of all.

The English Sisters - Violeta and Jutka Zuggo: 0:54

Welcome to Get Real with the English Sisters. Hello, everyone, hi, yeah, it's. My words have gone, your words have gone because you're looking at me with my glasses on, ha ha and normally we don't have our glasses on when we, when we record, do we? No, it's not because of that. It's because it's mind your language. So I'm thinking what language am I going to use? Yeah, well, yeah, it's interesting, though I mean this. We've always been aware of this. As bilinguals, we've always kind of intuitively realised that we have all the words. When in one language, one word is missing, for example in English, we can either pick up on the Italian version or the Spanish version. What are you laughing at? It's so true? No, it's true, it's true, it's true. We don't use just Spanish, the Italian as well. The Italian as well. A lot now, because, living in Italy for so many years now, yes, the Italian has become fluent in that. So, yeah, definitely, but still some words just come out in Spanish, Like the other day I was asking you know about my child?

The English Sisters - Violeta and Jutka Zuggo: 2:10

Well, my child, 25 now, he's still your child, he's still my child, yeah, i said can you pass me the pepinos? Well, it shows, you would probably say your son. Oh, yeah, sorry, yeah, my son, there you go, my son. I mean, every time I think of the word son, it's just sun for me. Well, sunshine, yeah, yeah, it's beautiful though, but it affects me, you know, son, ah, you know, i think, well, that's a nice way to think of the son. Yeah, i always think of son, yeah, as the son, but you don't call him son, you call him child. I know, i will call him more son, really, because it's very enlightening. I mean, i have two sons, yeah, and also, i think that's a good thing that you just said, because when you call someone your child, you You think of them as kids.

The English Sisters - Violeta and Jutka Zuggo: 2:55

Yeah, yeah, you're more likely to in your mind, mind, yeah, to think of them still as children. And yes, of course they're children. We know they're not children. I mean, they're not little, yeah, no. So when you say my son, it puts them into category of adults, doesn't it?

The English Sisters - Violeta and Jutka Zuggo: 3:10

Absolutely, yeah, you're right, yeah, yeah, that's already catching on the language, isn't it? It is catching on the language, you're so right, yeah, well, anyway, i asked my son to pass me the pepino, which pepino is cucumber, but that comes back for my childhood, because mum would always call them pepinos, because mum was Spanish. So I just pick up on the words I find, you know, easier to use. Yeah, obviously, the ones that are easier because, being bilingual, all the ones that you're more familiar with, maybe, yeah, maybe, yeah. But it is very, very interesting. What is this linguistic relativity, relativity that you were talking about earlier? Well, the linguistic relativity states that the way that people think of the world is influenced directly by the language that the people use to talk about it. The people, i mean, it's we. For, more radically, people could only perceive aspects of the world for which their language has words.

The English Sisters - Violeta and Jutka Zuggo: 4:17

So it sounds really complicated, but if you, basically if you have never seen a sight, the chicken thing, you've never seen a chicken, a chicken can practically walk right in front of you, and if you don't have words for you, don't believe it. Don't you remember there was a study done? Yes, but I can't really believe that if you have no words for something, that means you can't see that something. Do you think the mind may not delete it Because there is no word for it? Well, maybe, if you live in that country and you've never seen a chicken and there's no chickens around and I mean because I, if we, i don't know, because the chicken is still an animal, so I think the brain is clever enough to say, to categorise It's not a turkey. I don't know what it is, but it looks a bit like a turkey. So it's. Therefore, it's an animal. Yeah, it's a chicken, but if, yeah, it's a bird, perhaps of some sort a walking bird, you would think it's some kind of oh, what's that creature? You would think it was a creature, but I think you would probably still see it.

The English Sisters - Violeta and Jutka Zuggo: 5:24

It's like the way that people think a lot of people when they think of chickens, i think they've got four legs. You know that's. That's one of those myths, isn't it? But I wouldn't. But chickens have two legs. Well, they're birds. Birds have two legs, yeah, but, like a lot of you know people, if they are asked to draw a chicken, they'll think they've got two.

The English Sisters - Violeta and Jutka Zuggo: 5:49

This is not turning out to be a very scientific. It never is with The English Sisterer. No, it isn't. No, it's a bit of fun really. Yeah, i agree.

The English Sisters - Violeta and Jutka Zuggo: 6:03

Look at language. There is no doubt we do have to mind the words we use and the mind, the mind, the words that we think about as well, that we verbalize out to ourselves as well. I think, the words that you use. I take a deep sigh, because it's a very serious topic really, because the words that you use affect your reality without you realizing it. Yeah, it's kind of very potent. They can cause you so much anxiety and so much stress without you being aware of it. So once you do become aware of it, it's like it's like this, it's magical, because you suddenly realize oh my gosh, i'm keeping myself in, trapped in this, almost like a language prison, a prison of the words that you're using, absolutely yeah, the phrases that you're using every day, the keep you stuck, or the opposite. They can liberate you and empower you and make you feel wonderful and free and amazing. So it really is.

The English Sisters - Violeta and Jutka Zuggo: 7:14

So a practical example of that. What would it be like? What would a practical example be? Well, a practical example, for instance, if you're always saying to yourself that you can't do things. For instance, i can't do that, i'm useless at that, i'm rubbish at this, no, it's not in my, i've never been good at that stuff, or no, i'm not capable of that. So, true, that's a very practical example. And if you're putting on, yeah, so one of the examples could be you could be limiting yourself Yeah, yeah, yeah. So instead of saying, oh, i'm rubbish at that, i'm no good at that, what about if you say to yourself I've never tried that before. I wonder what it would be like. Yeah, or I tried that once in 1984 and I was not very good at it. I was rubbish at it, but maybe now, hey, i've changed, i may be good at it now. You know, allowing, i want to try with someone else. I want to have a new experience of that same thing with a more empowering experience. Exactly, yeah, so true, that's very, very true.

The English Sisters - Violeta and Jutka Zuggo: 8:20

Yeah, oh, it's like if you're maybe not feeling well or you've been diagnosed with something, and you keep on repeating to yourself, oh, i'm not well, i'm not well, i'm sick, i'm sick, i'm sick, i have this, and you keep on repeating that to yourself. You know, that's not, it's not really helpful to yourself, is it? because then it becomes your reality. You do, you, you can actually, you know, become sicker and you can feel worse, that's for sure, because it will affect the way you feel. Or as if you say, well, i've been diagnosed with this and I'm, i'm going to cope with it in the best way I can, and I'm gonna obviously follow the hospital appointments, etc. But in the meantime, i can also feel great, you know, and If you can and what, or I'm doing the best that I can, but I'm going to enjoy myself In the meantime, you know, and and make the most of my life.

The English Sisters - Violeta and Jutka Zuggo: 9:21

Yes, instead of thinking I am, you know, labelling yourself I am a sick person, i am a sick person, yeah, i have this, i have this, and thus this, whatever it is, whatever illness it is, can become like you. It almost becomes part of your identity. And Whereas I just thinking now that you said that I was just thinking like in the Well back a few years, were all in some cultures where they where, when you were a widow, you would say I am a widow, yes, and that's it. Yeah, well, i mean you still say that nowadays, i know he's, i'm happy with yourself, i am a widow. I mean, oh gosh, i am a widow, but you, they would, or you have you've lost your parents.

The English Sisters - Violeta and Jutka Zuggo: 10:14

I am an orphan and, and some people lose their parents when they're like In the well, into their 50s and 60s, they say I am an orphan. It's gonna make you feel a lot worse than if you say my parents have passed on and I am who I am and I'm, you don't call yourself an orphan. Once you start calling yourself an orphan I mean, we've all seen, yeah, it's in our culture to feel sorry for orphans, to feel that they haven't got and it auto. You know you ought to, you auto, commiserate yourself. Yeah, you start having this enormous self pity for yourself, which I Mean it's okay to feel miserable for a couple of days or weeks or whatever. You know the grieving or, yeah, the illness, accepting the illness. We all know, you know that's necessary, very necessary for you. We're not saying do not do that, but then, in the meantime, it's just this, this, you know, labeling yourself Whatever it is, i am a pensioner.

The English Sisters - Violeta and Jutka Zuggo: 11:14

Oh my goodness, what does that mean? You're a pensioner, your old? You know I mean for a lot. This is a stereotype generalization, isn't it? Yeah, you know of what a classic pensioner, old, you got to do crosswords, i don't know. Go to the park and But no, you could be much more, you could be. You know, you could be a pensioner, you could be receiving a pension. It doesn't mean you are a pensioner. Anything that Comes after the eye, i am Dot, dot, dot. Whatever comes after that is, it's tricky because it does, it can become part of your identity, and Thus I am a civil engineer. I am all of this as well.

The English Sisters - Violeta and Jutka Zuggo: 11:58

Yes, well, doctors in particular, because they they're their job, sort of like lasts forever, doesn't it almost? Yeah, but Declares themselves to be doctors, like we all have to declare ourselves whatever we are. Well, well, if you're flying and you say, Is there a doctor, on board, and you're a doctor, you're not allowed to just keep quiet. No, you're not. No, no, no, i, i mean it's like being I don't know why I'm funny, it's so funny. I suppose it's because they're they, these. If, like a flight attendant Once you were a flight attendant, since I used to be a flight attendant if there is somebody that they do say they're a flight attendant on board, you are supposed to say yes, because in case of an emergency, you can assist and help because you have the training. So I mean, let alone a doctor, a doctor, obviously, yes, you, you're legally. What I'm concerned with is that these labels, that like the language gives you and also your studies, obviously, and things that you do, but they, they condition you from The minute you accept them. They condition you into, they keep you where they are. Well, yeah, i mean, it's a bit like that show. Actually, that's come to mind now. Maybe that's why I was thinking about it as well.

The English Sisters - Violeta and Jutka Zuggo: 13:23

There's a new show now I think it's on Apple TV About. It's called some machine Can't remember what it is now, because I mean I was just watching it and that this machine prints out these cards. Right, you know what it is which, right? You just, yeah, don't give us a shout out in that. Is it like a side comment? I think it must be, and it prints out these kinds He says your, your life's purpose, or your life's you are, you are like a Preacher or a priest or a doctor or a liar.

The English Sisters - Violeta and Jutka Zuggo: 13:57

Oh my god, yeah, creepy cards. As people in the in the town that get these cards, it like really starts conditioning them. You are a queen, you are a teacher, one of them, they actually may a character. He just gets This teacher, which is what he's already doing, doing so that's okay. Well, he's very, he's very, unnerved by this. He doesn't want it. No, what if he's a nerd? everyone else is getting these amazing things. You're a queen, you're a, you're a magician, and he gets you're a teacher, and he finds it boring perhaps. Well, we don't know what happened. That sounds interesting. Yes, I like that kind of magic.

The English Sisters - Violeta and Jutka Zuggo: 14:39

It's kind of a mental thing. You're like a yeah, mind Show, a show about the mind and how, how these things do condition you and they, they affect you. Well, obviously, i mean this is obviously some sci-fi thing, but yes, in real life, this is very much. I mean, it's just, it affects you tremendously. Just from the moment you get up, you start saying to yourself This is going to be a bad day. Oh god, i hate it today. Today I've got this, this and this, and then there you go, these.

The English Sisters - Violeta and Jutka Zuggo: 15:09

Somehow it seems that you, you kind of start things start happening to you. You can't find the shoe or I don't know, you can't find the blouse you wanted to wear and, yes, like when you say, come on, and it does become a bad, yeah, it suddenly starts raining At the wrong side of the bed. Then everything, you, then your brain looks for everything to qualify that. Yes, so all the nice things that happen in between, you ignore and you ignore. Oh, it's a bit like ignoring that chicken. You it just, you don't do it on purpose, it just becomes deleted because you might say this is a rotten day and then go downstairs and have a lovely coffee or a beverage with somebody that you love or You might be, just have a moment of quiet time and look outside and see something really lovely, your pet, something. So there's all these lovely little bits in between that you will delete And your mind will say, okay, you have told me it's a horrible day, let's make that become your reality for today.

The English Sisters - Violeta and Jutka Zuggo: 16:09

So it's a bit like the card that's printed, but it's kind of like printed in your mind, and it's a dangerous game to play Once you become aware of it, because you could be doing this on repetition. You could be doing this for years. Every time you get up that I hate my job, i hate this, oh no, oh god No. And you, once you catch yourself doing this, you think You know what should I say instead. What can I write on that card? What can I write in print in my mind? You could be saying, oh, this miserable weather. You know the climate's Because raining's, raining. Someone got shot. Oh no, it could just be a family struggle.

The English Sisters - Violeta and Jutka Zuggo: 16:50

There's so many tragedies that happen every day, every minute, every second in this world, and yet somehow we're resilient, yeah, and we have to gain more resilience in order to be able to shine the light on you know, with other people and share that You have to like. It's important not to light up the world. Yes, it's important to light up the world with your own light as well. If you bring that purpose into your day, i'm going to light up the world with my presence. You're going to be. That's a big job. My world, your personal world, yes, what difference can you make if you get up with that kind of job in your mind. I know It's going to make you feel so much better. Yeah, lovely smile, share it. The way you just go about, just the way you go about your day, the way you go about looking at yourself as well, your, you know, your kind to yourself, your inner kindness, your inner kindness, yeah, it changes everything. It really is like that.

The English Sisters - Violeta and Jutka Zuggo: 18:06

That TV programme You're watching It's trying to still turn around. What it's called. That's probably called mind games or something. No, it's not, it's not cool, just giving it some kind of machine, what. Yes "The Big Door Prize, Anyway, it is very true, it's very, very true.

The English Sisters - Violeta and Jutka Zuggo: 18:26

I mean, if you had, i wonder what would happen if we had, like, someone recording our thoughts all day And then at the end of it, at the end of the day, you've got the printed summary. You know, like on football games, you get the, you get the summary of how much, how much possession, and you get it on your phone and you read it And how much this, so and so, how many chances they had. Imagine if in life, you had that going through your mind and it would just print it out at the end of the day And you'd get like, or how you know they'd say how much screen time you had yesterday. Yeah, yeah, how many. So how many good thoughts have you had today? How many inspiring thoughts have you had today? How many smiles inside have you had today? Gosh, how many things. How many horrible thoughts, how many downward spiral thoughts, how many limiting thoughts If you had, if you had that, and then, and then what, what?

The English Sisters - Violeta and Jutka Zuggo: 19:18

And then you had, and then it would, you had your little vote at the end of the day. Gosh, not only your vote, but what? these thoughts? how did they affect your, your heart? I think you probably should create enough for that, we should. I had that idea, yeah, And then how you're breathing, your heart right, your blood pressure, your whole body, your, your, your body and your mind. Cause these thoughts will affect you on a physical level. They will cause sickness, disease, illness, anxiety, or they could do the opposite.

The English Sisters - Violeta and Jutka Zuggo: 19:55

So, for instance, if you're not driving right now and you're in a safe place, you can If you're. If you are driving and you're not in a safe place, please pause this podcast until you are, because we're going to just do a little hypnosis meditation trance for you for good thoughts and good things For good thoughts. Yeah, to come your way. So, just, it's just going to be a short thing, like two minutes or three minutes. So if you want to fast forward it three minutes, mind you, we're probably in the podcast, i think, won't we after this? Yeah, probably, yeah, so you're not at home when you're in a safe place.

The English Sisters - Violeta and Jutka Zuggo: 20:32

So if you're not driving and you're in a safe place, just close your eyes and go inside And you can take a lovely deep breath. Now And as you begin to focus on how your body's feeling against the surface that you're resting on, you can begin to relax each muscle And you can notice how the muscles on your face can slightly soften and relax And how your mind can wonder to a wonderful place of calm And how, in the next few days and the upcoming weeks, you'll begin to notice the language you use every day inspires you in creative ways, and the more creative you become, the more serene your mind becomes and the happier thoughts fly through each and every cell of your body, lighting up your inner world, just like the sun lighting up each and every dark corner of your mind is filled with light, and the words that you choose to verbalize are beautiful, inspiring, lovely, kind, soothing, calming words. Calming words like a river flowing gently, that provide you with all the nourishment your mind needs right now for a morning sunrise that lights up every cell in your body, a soothing balm healing your mind and your inner thoughts, healing and sealing every part of your body that needs it right now, making you feel ever so comfortable, ever so calm. Remembering the words you use will affect how you feel in the days and weeks to come. Noticing every word that comes out of your mouth, it will be almost magical experience for you, almost as if it was in slow motion, automatically the best words for you so inspiring, creative, beautiful, wonderful words, kind words, nourishing words, flowing through you. Make you feel rooted inside your mind now, stronger words, powered than ever before, that will make you giving you that kind of charge resilient that comes from within, comfortable, knowing what you know. You'll be set free from words as the days and weeks go ahead in time, making you will know the best words to choose you will notice them. Wonderful words popping up in your mind make you smile inside and out. Inside out, clean light with the world. Take a deep breath and two, three, one, fresh, ready to go, to go and mind the words you use, minding your words day by day.

The English Sisters - Violeta and Jutka Zuggo: 24:45

Thank you for listening. Please do come and say hello on Instagram, come and hell hello on our LinkedIn newsletter, where we have published the podcast every week, and please do come and say hello on Twitter. And please, please, please, leave a review. Yes, because it makes such a difference on Apple podcast and or on Spotify. On Spotify, I see they have a section now where you can leave your thoughts on each episode. Lovely, lovely. Leave your thoughts and we'll, we'll get back to you on there. We will definitely thank you and see you soon. mindin g our words, minding our words. Bye, lots of love and smiles from the English sisters. Bye, bye.