Your vocabulary might be the missing nutrient in your health routine. Here’s the science, the scripture, and 15 simple swaps to start speaking life over your body.
Try this with me for ten seconds.
Say this out loud: “I can’t handle this. I’m so tired. Everything is falling apart.”
Now notice your body. Did your shoulders creep up and your breath get shallow? Did your jaw tighten just a little?
Now say this: “This is hard, but I can handle it. I can let this be easy.”
Feel the difference?
That’s not just in your head. Well, it is, but it’s also in your body, and that’s the whole point. The words you use don’t just describe how you feel. They help create it.
We spend a lot of time talking about what we eat, how we sleep, and how we move. But there’s one thing running underneath all of it, every single day, that almost nobody is tracking: your vocabulary. Which is why I started calling it the missing nutrient.
Listen to this week’s podcast, where I compare our words to different nutrients to help you understand that, like food, your words either fill you up or drain you.
Your body is listening (here’s the science)
Neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett has spent years studying how the brain builds emotion, and one of her findings stopped me in my tracks. Many brain regions that process language also help regulate what’s happening inside your body: your heart rate, blood glucose, and even parts of your immune system.
Words aren’t just ideas floating around in your head. They’re wired into the same systems that run your body.
Psychologist Ethan Kross, author of Chatter, adds the other half of the picture. When your inner voice turns harsh, your brain reads it as a threat, and your body responds the way it would to any threat. Stress hormones rise, your heart works harder, and your muscles brace. Once in a while, that’s fine. But when negative self-talk becomes the soundtrack, your threat response never gets a chance to turn off. And a stress response that never turns off wears on your body over time.
Let me be clear about what I’m not saying. I’m not saying you can talk your way out of a diagnosis, or that a bad day of self-care made you sick. What I’m saying is simpler and, honestly, more useful: your words shape your stress, your stress shapes your body, and you get to choose one of the few things in that chain.
God said it first
Throughout the Bible, God reminds us in his goodness that our words are powerful. Need I remind you, he literally spoke life into existence.
“And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.” Genesis 1:3
But he also said:
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.” Proverbs 18:21
“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” Proverbs 23:7
“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” Colossians 4:6
If you’ve read The Little Things Aren’t So Little, you know that second verse is a favorite.
We were made in the image of God who spoke the world into being. And he literally gave Adam the power to speak names over creation. Of course our words carry weight. They shape the story we live. I talk a lot about the edited story, the bigger, God-written story over our lives. Your vocabulary is one of the pens you’re writing it with.
What are you writing?
Where your words show up in your health
Most of us don’t notice our own vocabulary because it feels normal. But it can hide in places like:
- “I hate my stomach.”
- “I’ll blow it.”
- “This is so hard.”
- “My hormones are a disaster.”
- “My marriage is never going to work.”
- “I’m just an anxious person.”
Notice how many of those are labels, not descriptions. “I’m exhausted” stops being what your body is telling you right now and becomes who you are. And when something becomes your identity, your life starts creating the evidence to prove it.
Creating a new vocabulary: 15 Swaps to try
This isn’t about faking positivity or pretending you feel great when you don’t. Your body can tell the difference. The goal is honest words that leave room for change.
- “I’m so tired.” → “My body is asking for rest.”
- “My bad back.” → “My healing back.”
- “I’m sick.” → “My body is fighting for me.”
- “I was bad today.” → “I’m learning what works for me.”
- “I hate my body.” → “My body is doing its best with what I give it.”
- “I can’t handle this.” → “This is hard, and I can do hard things.”
- “I’m always anxious.” → “I’m feeling anxious right now.”
- “I have no willpower.” → “I’m building new habits.”
- “I blew it.” → “I can start again at the next meal.”
- “I’m too busy to take care of myself.” → “I’m choosing one small thing today.”
- “My hormones are a mess.” → “My hormones are asking for support.”
- “I’ll never get better.” → “I’m not there yet.”
- “I have to work out.” → “I get to move my body.”
- “I’m starving.” → “I’m ready to nourish myself.”
- “I’m falling apart.” → “I’m being rebuilt.”
See the pattern? From permanent to present. Shame to information. From “have to” to “get to.”
How to make it stick
Changing your vocabulary works a lot like changing how you eat. You don’t overhaul everything at once. You add one good thing at a time until the old way no longer fits.
Catch it. For one day, notice what you say over your life, your body, your energy, and your relationships. Jot a few down in your phone.
Reframe them. Using your repetitive language, reframe it in your notes app. What is a different way to view this? What else could be true?
Cancel it. When an old phrase slips out, don’t beat yourself up (that’s just more negative self-talk). Say, “Let me say that differently.”
Replace it. Pick one swap from the list and practice it this week—just one. Next week, add another.
Say it out loud. Your body hears your spoken word, not just your thoughts. Say the new phrase in the car, in the mirror, at the kitchen sink. Say it out loud so your ears can hear it. It will feel awkward at first. That’s normal. New words feel a little like new shoes before you break them in. But the more you wear them, the better they will feel.
Listen To: The Missing Nutrient
I go deeper on all of this on the podcast The. Missing Nutrient: Your Vocabulary. I share where my own health vocabulary was quietly working against me, how I started rewriting it, and the phrases I still catch myself saying. If this post hit home, this episode is your next step.
Listen to the Missing Nutrient Podcast Here.
Your questions answered:
Can your words really affect your health?
Your words don’t override biology, but they do influence your stress response, and chronic stress affects your sleep, digestion, immunity, and heart. Changing how you talk to yourself is one real way to lighten that load.
Is this just for positive thinking?
It’s not about just “trying” to think positive. Positive thinking can mean pretending everything is fine. A new vocabulary is about honest language that leaves room for change. “I’m feeling anxious right now” is still true. It just isn’t a life sentence, and that changes how your biology responds.
What if the new words feel fake?
Start with the most honest version you can believe. If “I’m healing” feels like a stretch, try “My body is working on this.” Belief grows with practice.
Your words, Your story
You already pay attention to what goes into your body. Start paying attention to what comes out of your mouth. Your words are working on your body all day long. Let them work for you.
If you need help editing your story, join one of our Freedom Story workshops here.
Quick Prayer:
God set a guard over my mouth (Psalm 141:3). Teach me to speak about my body, my health, and my life the way You speak about them. Let my words build up, not tear down, starting with the ones I say to myself.
FAQ
Longer than a weekend, and that’s okay. Old phrases are habits, and habits take repetition to replace. Pick one swap a week and practice it until it comes out without thinking. In a couple of months, you’ll catch yourself using the new words without trying, and the old ones will start to sound strange in your own mouth.
Both count, but saying them out loud adds weight. When you speak, you’re both talking and listening, so your words hit twice. That’s why I suggest saying your new phrase in the car or at the kitchen sink. It feels a little silly at first. Do it anyway.
Their words affect you too, whether it’s a parent who always called you “the sickly one” or a friend who constantly talks down about her own body. You can’t control what others say, but you can choose not to agree with it. Quietly replace their words with yours (“That’s not my story”) and, when it’s safe, gently set a boundary around body and diet talk.
Your kids are learning their health vocabulary from you right now, so start with your own. Talk about food in terms of what it does (“this helps you grow strong”) instead of good or bad. Talk about bodies in terms of what they can do, not how they look. When they hear you say “My body is asking for rest” instead of “I’m so fat and tired,” they learn that, too.
No. Your words support your health; they don’t replace your doctor, your medication, or your treatment plan.
