The Power of Words for Dyslexics: Why One Phrase Can Change Everything

Hey everybody, Stephen here from the Truth About Dyslexia. In today's episode, I want to talk about the power of meaning. And what that means is when we're thinking about words, what the actual definition is versus our visual, emotional picture of it. And I'm going to explain this to you with a few examples. This is a real powerful one. You're going to love it.

Let's dive in. Okay, I'm going to do my best to get this one across, guys, because it's so important. You may have heard parts of this in other podcasts because it's just such an important point for dyslexics to realize, which is really the power of words. Now, if you want more information on this, search through the old website search function. There's a podcast search on truthaboutdyslexia. com, and you can find some more stuff about trigger words, which was a Davis Dyslexia principle.

And it's really, it's a real aha moment for meaning, but I'm not going to dig too deep into that. What we're going to go into today is we're going to talk about how, as dyslexics, we're very good at applying emotion and pictures to definitions. Now, the example I always use is if I say the word authority to you, what is your definition of that as a dyslexic? Or if you're not a dyslexic, what's your definition of the word authority? Now, you may have a specific definition, but when it comes to dyslexia, a lot of the time what happens is if I ask you that, you're picturing something, be it a little running movie in your head, or maybe it's a specific picture, whatever it looks like to you is right. But we're very visual thinkers.

So when I used to say that, my picture was always police officers. That was what authority meant to me. I'm pretty sure back when I was younger, I did something stupid, probably involving driving, and I've got a picture of the police in my mind that is emotionally scarred into me to that definition. So when people talk about authority in different ways or different contexts, I still have this emotional reaction to it of, like, the police, do you know what I mean? Like, you've got to respect authority, and I just automatically emotionally connect to police and whatever was going through my body at the time. Now, this is a really powerful thing to click with, and don't get me wrong, majority of people do this to some extent.

When it comes to dyslexia, though, it can be really heightened, is what I've seen. And a good example is, like, I'm going on my kind of health journey at the moment and trying to find my way forward, and I'm doing really well. I'm really enjoying it this year. I'm really loving it, actually, and seeing, already seeing the results I want. And I found a, let's just say, a consistent way to do it that's working for me that isn't too mentally taxing, which is usually where I break. So the thing I've learned about this, though, is one of the, I'm basically, I love to bring a bunch of methodologies together.

It just, it's how I work. It's what I enjoy in life. I like to, you know, I like when I get a recipe to add some of my own flavor. I do the same when it comes to fitness and stuff. I've taken a bunch of really great work of people and fit it to my lifestyle. Now, one of the things they talk about that I wanted to fit in was this concept of a cheat day, where one day a week you can eat whatever you like.

You know, there are different beliefs that it helps your metabolism, not think that you're starving, or, you know, it gives enough alteration to your diet week that it works for you. And for someone like me, I like the idea of mixing it up with that. Like, if I'm going to do this for the long term, to go on a very strict diet doesn't work for me. I just, at some point I will break. This kind of allows a release valve each week. But over the years, I've tried this before and it hasn't worked.

I've usually gone off on a different tangent, and I've never really connected with the phrase cheat day, because when I hear cheat day, I think of, like, cheating on a test at school and looking over someone's desk, and I connect it with the emotion or the feeling of being wrong. That's how I connect it. Now, I'm not saying that's right or wrong. It's just how I connect it. It's my visual emotional connection to that phrase. And if you said, what does cheat mean?

It's kind of cheat means stealing someone's work or copying someone's work, which comes, you can even see it in my very way I'm saying it, comes from that picture I have of someone cheating. Okay, so that's kind of where it goes around in my head. And so I've never really connected that. Why would I want a cheat day if I associate cheating, like with a negative emotional response, or that I'm stealing or like taking something? Does that work? Like, is that going to give me a longevity of this thing?

And so, like, it just hasn't worked for me. Like, I've never liked it. It seems to be one of the things that I break on. And so I was thinking about it, okay, how can I use words and emotions to adjust this? Okay, how can I make this more realistic? So a lot of the work I'm doing is about how to reduce highly processed carbs.

So, like all the refined stuff that you've got no idea where this came from, all the kind of cookies, the, you know, some of the stuff with about 300 things on the ingredient label, that's the big stuff I'm removing, and like the really refined sugary corn syrupy products. It's the big stuff, okay? And I've been watching, you know, it doesn't take much to watch 28 different Netflix documentaries on the negative effects of that on everybody. I've seen some great documentaries on how it affects people with ADHD especially quite highly. And so, like, I'm kind of, I'm on the page of doing it, which is great. But there's one day a week or this period of time each week that I'm allowed to do it, I've been saying to myself, I don't want to call it a cheat day because I don't want to say in a, Social situation.

Oh, today is my cheat day. I can cheat. I'm cheating, because it just brings up this horrible feeling of, I don't want to be a cheater. Do you know what I mean? Like, there's no... I really struggle with that.

Like, it's not even something that I... I don't consciously think that. So just by the way, if you don't consciously think this and go, I don't consciously think that, so I can't believe that, it's not always the truth. Like, I don't consciously think, when I say cheat day, that I'm associating it with cheating at school or cheating on a partner as well could be another way of connecting it. I don't think of it like that, but deep down there's an emotional bubble up of a negative feeling that's associated. So what I thought of is, I said, okay, all the stuff that I want to eat on this one day, like, to be honest, it's actually a drug.

It's like I'm literally taking drugs. I'm going from taking, you know, healthy, relatively wholesome, healthy-ish food, and I'm going to literally go and eat stuff that's been refined. It's literally been food products that have been crushed down into dust. You know, I'll let you work out what that kind of connects with, to be made to basically refine it so it's so intense. Like, that's why it works, right? They make sugar really refined, really cut down.

Same with wheat, all of that. So, okay, it's literally turning it into a drug that goes straight into your system and gives you a high. Like, let's be honest, that's what it is. We can all talk about the semantics around that, but it is what it is. And so... What I've decided to call this day in my current way of eating is my drug day.

I'm allowed to have my drugs on this day. And it's such a weird thing. Like, it seems like such a minute and micro change, using that phrase. But my association with drugs is, hey, you don't want too many of those, but there are a few that are quite nice. Like, as I say, I take THC, I use Ritalin, prescribed, of course, and they're drugs, right? They're drugs with really good outcomes for me.

And so, like, I don't have a negative association with drugs. I just know you've got to take them, you've got to know what you're doing with them, and you've got to enjoy them, and you've got to get some benefit from them and not overdo them. So that's my connection to drugs is like, you know, that's just what works for me. Again, this is not me saying you need to change your cheat day to drug day, but I'm trying to explain the patterns behind my choices, because this will be something similar in a bunch of things in your life. Like maybe there's words to do with work or stuff that's just not serving you. You know, like to-do list might be a horrible, like it might be a death word to you.

But maybe visual planner, oh, that's connecting. I like visual, I like picture or my picture board. Maybe that works for you. And just that one reframe can change your whole emotional connection with something. To get you more interested, active, and consistent with it. And so for me, although it does sound a bit funny because I say, Yeah, it's my drug day today, and I do get a few funny stares.

But even when I'm explaining what that means, I'm really happy about it because I'm saying, Hey, I see this stuff as a drug, and I, you know, I allow myself one day a week where I can just take those drugs, and I've got six days to get them out of my system. And people go, Oh, kind of makes sense, a bit crazy, but kind of makes sense. But for me personally, and what I'm caring about is I want to stick to what I'm doing, and I want to associate what I'm doing with something positive I can do for a long period of time. And this one minor change has been, you know, it's been weird but game-changing because I don't want to be on drugs for seven days a week. You know, I don't want that. And so, but one day of it I can handle and I enjoy.

And so it's kind of like, it's this perception shift that's just gone, boom, and, you know, it's changed that emotional connection. So what I would suggest to you is, are there words in your life that have really bad emotional meanings? Does a parent say something to you, a partner, a colleague, and you've just got a really weird connection with that phrase. Maybe it's from your past as a kid. Maybe it's the definition you learnt. Because there are heaps of these around, and they're kind of like little, I want to think of them as mines, little word mines floating around.

You don't even know they're actually negative in your life, okay? You don't even realize it. It's kind of like authority. Like, I don't like authority. I like to be the boss. And, like, my connection to authority is the police, where I've done something wrong or, you know, authority is looking down on me.

I think I probably connected with a principal at school as well who told me off at some point. And having that negative association with it. It fixed me because, like, a lot of authority is fantastic. There should be leadership in countries. There should be leadership in a bunch of different community organizations. The only way to do well in life is to become your own little authority, whether it's the top of a business or a group or whatever you're doing, or a leader of a sports team or whatever it is.

That is authority. And authority in itself is not bad. But if I've associated it negatively, and every time I hear it, I switch off because I have a negative emotional connection, it's pretty bad, right? We're going to be doing some stuff in the future around some tools to help change those emotional boundaries. I'm doing some work. I found a practitioner that is going to come in, and I'm going to see if I can offer her out to the group.

I think she's going to be fantastic. She's doing some really cool work around this space. But yeah, I just love, as I say, I just want to share that it was just a massive aha for me, and I thought it might just help you, you know, kind of click on a few things. I'll be back next week. Have an epic rest of your day. Thank you for listening to today's podcast on the Truth About Dyslexia.

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