149 Words can create worlds. Worlds of any kind: they can be very unpleasant or beautiful, wideranging, worlds of dreams becoming reality. ‘I hope I get it’ ‘I just borrow you for one second’ ‘I don’t have to miss’ ‘I’ll try’ ‘It’s just a trifle, no big deal’ – Thank you! – No problem! How many times, during a day, do we think or pronounce similar sentences? How many times do we do this in a week? And in one month? And in one year? The number is incalculable. The fundamental question is that the kind of words and phrases we say, in the interaction we have with ourselves or in the interactions we have with other people, define in a very precise and predictable way both the way we are perceived, and the way we will stay. Plato said that «To express oneself badly […] does some harm to the soul5» and Wittgenstein, the famous philosopher and language researcher, said, in a much deeper sense than what is commonly understood, that «Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent6». Words have a power, which we can define chemical or magical depending on the kind of approach we want to use: in any case, they possess an intrinsic force capable of conditioning our state of mind, the way we see the world and, also, the way the world sees us. Words, therefore, both those we think and those we pronounce, profoundly alter our perception of reality, being able to alter that kind of perception in those who listen to us too. The words we use to communicate with ourselves are closely related to the way we live our emotions, the way we play out in the world and even to our health. Without resorting to international authors – since Italy, from this point of view, boasts numerous excellences – suffice it here to recall the work of Dr Fabrizio Benedetti, worldrenowned neurophysiologist and Professor at Oxford University, and that of Dr Enzo Soresi, neurosurgeon: the language of the doctor and that of the patient contribute to determine in a clear and verifiable way the health conditions of the patient himself, along with the outcome of his therapy7. with the right words, you can say anything Returning to our everyday language – the one that we use to describe ourselves to the world, and what we use to describe ourselves… to ourselves – it is of paramount importance to choose the right words to literally mould our brain and our reality as we desire it. How many times we start, in person or on the phone, with the classic opening phrase «Sorry to disturb you». A simple phrase of this kind, although pronounced with the best intentions, contains no less than two problematic words, worthy of attention: sorry and disturb. - The first word, ‘sorry', has an important implication: usually, you apologize when you do something wrong. The word, indeed, implies that everything around it could be "wrong". We say sorry when we arrive late, when we spill a glass of water on our table neighbour, when we step on someone else’s foot. Of course, in the case of a telephone call, this word can be considered as a form of kindness, but the human brain does not work like this: faced with two possible scenarios, it chooses for comfort and laziness the one statistically more relevant. It’s simply a matter of cognitive economy, put into practice by an organ, our brain, extraordinary in its entirety but which sometimes, for this reason, can go blundering in. The brain tends to think this way: most of the time, when someone says sorry, it’s because he did something wrong. So, most probably, this is the case. This is not necessarily true, but it is awfully real: moreover, heuristics basically govern each and every action we daily
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