“If I can touch you, I can make you feel great or inflict levels of pain you have never experienced.” I’ve actually said that very comment many times over the years. It relates to a portion of my training in martial arts where I studied nerve and joint attacks. The attack is not always a specific strike but more about the proper touch. The points in martial arts are a lot of the same points used by massage therapists or acupuncturist. The simple differences are the angle and pressure. For instance, there is a point in the “V” area between your thumb and index finger where you can rub the point to make headaches go away. With just a simple 90 degree arch of my thumb and applying direct pressure rather than rubbing, it becomes an excruciating attack point that will literally drop you to your knees. There are hundreds of points all over the body that can be manipulated the same way depending on the situation. We all have the ability to make people feel great or inflict levels of pain without spending 28 years training in martial arts. In fact, this technique requires little, if any, training and zero physical touch. Care to guess what can bring pleasure or pain so easily: your words.
Just like the touch, words have so much potential power behind them. The inflection and tone make all the difference in the world. “I love you” can bring so much joy and peace to another person when it is said with sincerity and honesty supported with caring inflection and tone. “How could you not know I love you” can be as hurtful as there is an implication the receiving party is dense for not seeing you love them. You would typically hear the second sentence in some type of couple’s argument where the sender puts heavy inflection on “not” and the receiver filters “you think I’m dumb.” The damage is done, the pain is there. We have all seen it, heard it, or experienced it.
There is also a big difference between words and the touch. If I am applying a joint or nerve attack to you, the pain goes away when I let go. That’s not the case with words. The pain from word attacks lingers for sometimes minutes to an entire lifetime. For that very reason, I consider words a far more powerful technique in our arsenal. The next time your ego feels the need to fire a word attack, put him/her on stand-down for just five seconds. Is five seconds too much to ask as opposed to the potential life-long injury you can cause? Think I am over-dramatizing? Take this quick little test. I bet you can remember at least one very hurtful thing that was said at some point in your life. Whatever the situation, those words touched you in a less than positive way. Like the old quote, “with great power comes great responsibility.” Use your power wisely. Use your words wisely. You may never know when you are changing a life with the touch of your words.
Rodney
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