“Change your words-Change your mindset”
January 9, 2022
It has become a tradition, by the end of December, for major dictionaries and wordsmiths to choose one word, or a few words, that sum up the major highlights and shared experiences of the previous year. Depending upon your choice of word slingers, you will discover a variety of chosen words for a given year. For example, Dictionary.com chose vaccine as one of the words of 2021, while Collins Dictionary chose double-vaxxed as one of ten other words on their list.
Many of the word-of-the-year choices emphasize words that represent the more negative aspects of the previous twelve months. For example, Merriam Webster chose, among other words, doomscrolling (also known as doomsurfing). Doomscrolling is a new term referring to the tendency to continue to surf or scroll through bad news even though that bad news is saddening, depressing, and disheartening. Doomscrolling can trigger the release of stress hormones which can negatively impact your mental and physical health. Yet, many continue to do this. It is similar to watching a car crash and being unable to turn away.
However, not all words-of-the-year are negative. For example, Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO of Thrive Global, chose a word that is more hopeful and full of possibility as we face obstacles and challenges. Huffington’s word—Resilience+. Why this word? Huffington said, “2021 was the year we watched the pandemic go from something we thought and hoped would have a defined end to, at best, an endemic that will always be part of our lives. And our thinking about resilience is evolving in the same way. Resilience is not, as so many of us thought in the early days of the pandemic, an end state we can reach. It’s a constant process of becoming….Not a marker to reach, but a mindset.”
While I may not agree with Huffington’s choice of word, I do agree with having a proper mindset, which causes me to think of Philippians 4:8,
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
And the words of the year, moving forward in 2022, are: true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellence, and praiseworthy. I think this mindset should have a positive impact on my mental and physical well-being. Change your words-change your mindset!