Excellent Arthur. This part here:
" A kind of emotional ill health seemed to pervade their thinking and ensued in general low morale and low esteem, which created a situation in which they became their own worst enemy."

I have personal experience with this exact issue. It took many years for me to understand how this grows and often in a stealth manner due to a variety of things. The most difficult part I had in overcoming these things was to actually bring it to the surface and deal with the ugliness. I began to see how i turned into my own worst enemy. I didn't treat others badly, that's just not me, but I treated myself badly, due to how life unfolded over time.

Bottom line was that for me at least, once I brought it all to the surface and determined to take steps to undo the damage, I began to deal with my regrets, failures, etc., in a manner that required me to forgive myself and to commit to changing the way I thought about my own achievements, or lack thereof.

It can be very eye opening when we are willing to zoom in on our own self defeating thoughts and words we speak. I learned a great big step in dealing with these issues was to be HONEST with ourselves and stop denying what we already know is going on inside of us, if that makes sense.

I think we forget too often just how powerful words can be, and if we are going to change or alter our thinking, we must understand this fact and that includes the words we say to ourselves that can either drag us down or build us up. Indeed, there is much ill health when it comes to psychological matters, many of the problems come from the things said by others and what we begin to tell ourselves over time.

it can be self defeating for sure. Good stuff my friend, sorry for such a long response, but I did it as encouragement to others to know we can overcome these issues once we address them in honesty and refuse to let ego and pride blind us.

Have a great day
Jim

As a child, I would read some of the nursery rhymes and began you analyze the content and thought they were disgusting. Familial betrayal, wicked step parents, child abuse, neglect- I could go on. It is a very horrible message to send to our children.

It took me quite a few years to heal from the damage that had been done through verbal abuse in the home I was raised. I was always diligent to watch my words with my own children and I taught them from the time they were very little how important their words were. "Death and life are in the power of the tongue" Proverb 18:21 I think the worst part of verbal abuse is that without the visible physical scars very often people are not even aware of the damage that has been done. Thank you for sharing this wonderful video.

TED always has good videos. Aside from being nice looking, this guy made a lot of good points. Women generally have horrible self talk.

I teach school too. I am seeing more and more like you said the students in their self-made prisons. I am teaching my students to walk around others and to not expect someone to move for them. This is the way things are now.
That is why I like to put on the clown makeup and make someone's day brighter. I have heard that even in wartorn countries that clowns bring a new light into the people's existence.
You are welcome to visit my clown world at http://beaclown.siterubix.com

Thank you Aurthur.
Ken

Thank you Aurthur.
Ken

Good post. Yes, words can destroy a lot of people. Awesome video. Thanks for the link. For the rest reading this --- if you don't have time for the full video at least watch the last 7 minutes.

Hi WillingToTry, your post is great and the video superb. Thanks for sharing.