This summer I was lucky enough to get to spend 4 of my weeks being a camp counselor. One of the things that the teachers do at the beginning of the week is set rules. The kids invent the rules and they are written out on a huge piece of paper and posted so that the kids can all see them. But one thing that the teachers always said at the beginning of the "creating rules session" was try not to use negative words such as "don't" and "no" They said that this often just brought the whole atmosphere crashing down and we didn't want the vibe to change just because of someones negative words. Besides the fact that it is really hard to phrase rules when you cant use don't and no, I had never really thought about it. I noticed through out the week that when I made a conscious effort to not use negative words everyone seemed to be not only happier but also listen better, follow directions better and stay on task. Since then I have been thinking about how, even unconsciously, words can affect they way you feel. The usage of words not just definition but how we structure the sentences they are in and what emphasis we put on them can totally change the meaning. I believe that this is something that we need to be extremely careful about and often just let go. Words do hurt more than we realise, even if the schoolyard rhyme doesn't say so.