How to Change Your Life With a Single Word

By Gay Hendricks, Ph.D.
©2005 The Hendricks Institute

If there is one thing I have learned from my thirty-plus years as a psychologist, it is that words have an exceptional power to heal and change lives. I saw my first therapy client in 1968, then went on to a career in which I did approximately 20,000 sessions as a therapist and also trained several thousand counselors, therapists and coaches.

During that time I saw many seeming miracles that came from changing a word, a phrase or a single thought.

Why Do Words Have Such Power?

William James, the founder of the field of psychology in the United States, said that the most important discovery of his time was that you could change the quality of your life by changing the quality of your thoughts. Since he lived in the great century from 1800-1900 when telephones, steam engines, and other useful gadgets were invented, he was paying a high compliment to this principle.

Thousands of years ago the Buddha said it this way: Everything we are arises with our thoughts. Here is one reason this idea is so powerful and useful: You don’t need any outside help to change your thoughts. You can change a word or a thought instantly, and you can do it any time you want. Knowing these simple truths gives you a tremendous power that comes completely from within.

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