Words

The world could certainly use some hope and kind words. With all the struggles that you face both personally and globally, it’s easy to become downtrodden.

You can let anxiety and depression sink in, and it can easily stifle you emotionally.

Thankfully, there is power in the spoken word. Did you know that some ancient writings say that the tongue holds the real power of life or death? Think about that for a minute. If you spew negativity and hateful things from your mouth, it can affect your health and entire character.

However, when you speak positive affirmations and spread goodness and joy, it helps your psyche cope with things, and it can improve your health. It’s strange how your words can have such an impact on your life, but research has proven this theory repeatedly.

People are generally divided into two categories: the pessimist and the optimist. Which category do you fall into? Do you see the glass as half empty, or is it half-full? Your perceptions and views will mold and make who you are.

Speaking Kind Words of Hope in Times of Great Uncertainty

If you want to reduce stress and speak life back into your tired and weary soul, then there are positive and kind words that you can say over yourself and others. If you want to spread hope and joy for all, then incorporate these phrases into your life and speech.

1. “If you’re patient, you’ll be compensated for every disappointment in life.” Henry David Thoreau

2. “When you have hope, you’re able to see the light even though there is darkness all around you.” Desmond Tutu

3. “The good in this world is worth fighting for.” J.R.R. Tolkien

4. “I get by when I stop dwelling on my misery; rather, I tend to focus on the beauty and love that remains.” Anne Frank

5. “Weeping may remain, but for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” English Proverb

6. “You can accomplish great things in this world if you keep trying even when there seems to be no hope.” Dale Carnegie

7. “Use your talents to carve a tunnel of hope through your darkest mountain.” Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

8. “Hope means to keep believing even when everything seems doomed, or it seems as if there is no purity left in the world at all. When you feel that everything is hopeless, you develop the strength to fight another day.” G.K. Chesterton

9. “It doesn’t matter how far your journey or where you go, as long as you don’t stop.” Confucius

10. “You will find your greatest victories come in life, not when you fall, but in every time that you rise.” Confucius

11. “Hope is as delicious and sweet as bread to a poor man.” Gary Herbert

12. “If you are without hope, then you cease to live.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky

13. “Frequently, the failures you experience in life are merely because you didn’t realize how close you were to success, and you gave up too soon.” Thomas Edison

14. “Use your mistakes from yesterday to live for today and use your successes of today to have hope for tomorrow.” Albert Einstein

15. “There are many dark nights, but there are always brighter days.” Tupac

Speaking Kind Words to Redirect Your Life

Positive affirmations are meaningful. These powerful statements help you to change the way you think. Simple, kind words can be useful tools to reprogram your subconscious mind.

It can help you build new habits, get rid of bad ones, and motivate you to succeed. The human mind is powerful, and few taps into the superpowers that lie therein. You can think and imagine things even if they don’t exist right now, and by envisioning situations in a new reality, you mentally make provisions for them.

By focusing your thoughts on positive affirmations, you can start acting on the behaviors you speak to reinforce the goodness in life rather than the negativity.

You might compare your brain to a computer. When you’re working on a laptop, you plug the data into the system to get it to do what you want it to. By using specific commands and programs, you can do amazing things with the touch of a button.

Now, you are so accustomed to getting your computer to do what you want that you don’t even think twice about the processes involved. The same thing can happen to your brain. When you use positive and friendly words, you are programming your mind for greatness, and it’s going to react.

While you may think that it sounds like supernatural hogwash, it’s not magical. The mental laws are immensely powerful and yet quite simple.

Why Do Positive Affirmations Work?

Positive statements or kind words can be used to reduce stress, help you gain control over a seemingly impossible situation in life, or conquer negative habits. When you speak positivity over and over, it’s not long before it becomes your mindset.

Positivity allows your subconscious to grow more robust, and it will affect your entire life. When you fill your vessel with optimism, you will develop new ideas, see opportunities that you didn’t before, and make a stand to become a better you. Think of affirmations as words with power behind them.

Fifteen Positive Affirmations to Turn to Daily

Here are 15 positive affirmations and kind words that you should speak over yourself and others every day. Chart your progress and see how different your life has become when you look at life through optimism.

1. I am pleased and effective in everything I do.

2. I will put my emphasis on contentment and positivity.

3. Today, I vow to do something that will enhance my life.

4. I am thankful for my loving partner to share my joys with.

5. I love everyone around me.

6. My life is full of love and happiness.

7. Today, I will go out of my way to show love and kindness to others.

8. I’m loved and respected by all who know me.

9. I have the energy and motivation to get done my tasks.

10. I love my job, and am thankful for the money it brings.

11. Today, and every day, I feel I am improving my outlook and becoming more positive.

12. I am thankful for all that I have.

13. I’ll let my ambitions drive my future.

14. I am attractive, and anyone would be lucky to be with me.

15. I will seize the day and make magic happen.

Final Thoughts on Why We Must Share Kind Words and Spread Hope

A study was done in 2018 by the students at a university in Dubai. They used 30 plants, grouped in pairs by identical species. Fifteen plants were praised as the students spoke positively to it.

However, the other 15 plants were spoken to in a negative manner and cursed at. They said things like, “you’re ugly, you will never be as big and beautiful as the other plants, and you’re going to die.” Ikea sponsored the project at Wellington Academy, hoping to get to the bottom of the often bogus believed claim.

Researchers dubbed the study “Bully a Plant” to raise awareness of how harmful bullying can be to people, let alone plants. They documented the study on video for all the world to see. The results were uncanny.

The plants that received the negativity and all the harsh comments had droopy leaves and were dramatically different than the other foliage. While they had equally received the same water, food, and things essential for survival, the negativity had a dramatic impact.

While this study is about plants, it can be related to humans. Being always told how worthless you are and how you will never be as good as your brother or sister is very detrimental. If you grew up in a home where you were always seen as less than others, then you might have a negative outlook on life.

Thankfully, you have the power to change all of this. Your kind words and positive affirmations that you speak into your mind and soul can change you and those around you. Spread hope and joy around you to others by filling them with goodness and hope.

Be the person that everyone wants to be around and the one who has a smile on their face and a spring in their step. What changes can you make today to change your tomorrow? You only have one life to live, so it’s essential to make it the best one you can.

A Picture Worth 1,000 Words: Top 12 Famous Photographers of All Time

In the United States, there are currently about 50,000 professional photographers.

Out of all of these professional photographers, only a select few will be remembered and be famous enough to make it into the history books.

But what photographers have already made it into the history books? There are so many famous photographers, but here are a few that you definitely need to know about. 

1. Gregory Crewdson

Gregory Crewdson is one of the best photographers because he puts so much money into making his photographs. Consider some movies with a million-dollar budget.  Gregory Crewdson would use that same budget to create a single photograph. 

He would set up an entire, large-scale set just to take a photograph or two. With each photograph, they get more and more extravagant. 

One thing that makes Gregory Crewdson unique is that he uses everything available to him in order to get the style of photograph that he wants. Some of his pictures include broken fire hydrants, dilapidated buildings, and old towns. 

He specializes in using a large-format camera in order to get the look and type of photograph that he wants. 

If you get a chance, you need to check these photographs out in person. You can view them online, but they just don’t have the same depth and texture that they do in person. 

You could spend hours looking at these eery photographs and absorbing every detail that’s in the photograph.

2. Robert Frank

Robert Frank isn’t as modern as Gregory Crewdson, but his work is still notable. He was born in 1924, and when he was seventeen years old, he became a photographer for commercials. He worked in Zurich and Geneva.

Six years later, he became a photographer for fashion. While he was doing that, he used a camera that people weren’t using at the time, which was the 35mm Leica. 

Later on in his career, he diversified his portfolio even more and got into photojournalism and street photography. Once he started doing this, he really found his niche and made a name for himself. 

He started traveling around the United States and started photographing some of what would end up being the best pictures in his portfolio. 

His black and white photographs show the day-to-day lives of average Americans. He had a talent for capturing people’s real emotions, which his why so many people recognize his photographs.

Eventually, he compiled many of his famous photographs into a book called The Americans. To get content for his book, he drove across the entire American country in the 1950s. By doing this, he was able to get photographs of everyday Americans doing everyday things. 

Once he had done all of that, he was able to compile and publish his book. He had a famous writer at the time, Jack Kerouac, write an introduction for it, but once it was published, many critics hated it. 

As the years went on, the critics decided that maybe his work wasn’t all that bad. As the years went on, his photographs became something that would be considered classic art. 

3. Diane Arbus

Diane Arbus was also a photographer who took black and white photos in America. However, unlike Robert Frank, she specialized in photographing New Yorkers during the ’50s and ’60s. 

She loved photographing things that were outside of the norm. For example, she took photographs of people who performed in circuses, transgender people, disabled people, and even people with tattoos. Due to this, many people called her a “photographer of freaks.” 

However, that’s also what made her portraits stand out from all the rest of them.  In a time where people like that weren’t really accepted, Diane Arbus gave them a platform and a spotlight. 

Arbus was so influential that they actually made a biographical movie on her called Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus. 

4. Robert Capa

Robert Capa focused on photographing war, and he actually photographed five different wars. 

He wanted to be close to all of his subjects in order to get good photographs, so he was often in the midst of all the combat and action. 

This is what helped set him apart from other photographers because most other photographers only took them from a distance. 

These black and white photos get up close and personal with common soldiers. They are a living part of history. 

5. Vivian Maier

Vivian Maier is an interesting photographer, and she became famous after she died. 

Her photographs were discovered by John Maloof in 2007. In a trunk he had purchased, he found a bunch of her undeveloped film. Once he developed them, he found thousands of photos that Maier had taken. 

After her photographs were discovered, people started digging into her life and learning more about her. She was a nanny for most of her life, and she took most of her photos in New York and Chicago. She just captured anything that caught her attention.

Her camera of choice was a twin-lens 6×6 camera. She took it everywhere with her just in case she found something she wanted to photograph. 

She practiced a lot, and you can tell that that practice paid off. Even though her photographers were more modern, it looks like she took them in the ’30s or ’40s. 

She also took many photographs of some of the people on the street. Some of them are candid, like of little kids crying or people sleeping in their open convertible on the street. 

6. Richard Avedon

Richard Avedon was born in 1923, and he lived until 2004. 

His specialty was taking photos of fashion and people. As one of the earlier photographers, he helped to guide the style and fashion in America. 

When he first started his career as a photographer, he worked for Harper’s Bazaar. After he worked for them for a while, he then started his own photography studio when he was only twenty-six years old. While he was there, he took pictures that would later appear in Life and Vogue. 

He used a large-format 8×10 view camera, and slowly he started building his reputation as one of the most famous photographers. 

He was interested in portraits especially because he enjoyed capturing the personality of his subjects. He always tried to bring his photographs to life and make you feel like you really knew the person that you were looking at. 

7. Andy Warhol

You may have heard of Andy Warhol before. While he is known for his unique and famous paintings, he was actually into photography as well. 

He viewed photography as a way to capture the real things in life, and he saw it as a type of visual diary. When you look at his art and photography, you’ll find that a lot of it has a double meaning, so an art critic may wonder if keeping a visual diary was ever really his intention. 

The “Father of Pop Art” first started using a Brownie camera when he was only ten years old. He had grown up in Pittsburgh, so many of his first photographs were taken in his local neighborhood. 

Later, in the ’70s, he started using a Polaroid camera. Once he became skilled at using Polaroids, he was actually commissioned to start taking Polaroids of famous celebrities. 

Eventually, he was able to have his own studio, and he started taking these commissioned Polaroids against a plain white background. This style of Polaroids made the celebrity the focus. In addition to these famous Polaroids, he also took many famous black and white photographs. 

He kept taking photographs up until when he died in 1987. 

If you’re looking for Andy Warhol art, there are many places where you can find it. If you like it enough, some of it is even available to buy so you can hang this famous art in your own home. 

8. Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson was born in 1908 and then died in 2004. 

Unlike some of the other photographers on this list, he was a French photographer. He mastered the art of candid photography.  He took these candids on the street, capturing some of the most intimate and realistic moments. 

During a time where no one was really using 35mm film, he decided that he was going to become a master of it. 

Later on, when he had enough photographs, he made a book out of all of them. In this book, he made all of his subjects come to life and make you feel like you really knew them and saw them in real life.

9. Tim Walker

Tim Walker is also a fashion photographer, but he has said before he doesn’t really care about how important the brands are or not. This is what gives him a unique advantage. 

He has an active imagination, and this shows up in his creativity. Even though he’s a fashion photographer, he’s also photographed portraits for actors, directors, and designers. 

In some of his portraits, he incorporates florals and creates a surreal, fantasy picture. His colorful and vibrant photos are something that would fit a calming, interesting aesthetic. 

10. Ansel Adams

Instead of taking portraits or shooting fashion photography, Ansel Adams is a popular nature and landscape photographer. 

His photographs are so popular that you’ve probably seen them at some point; you just may not have realized whose photographs they were. His photographs appear in books, on posters, and even as screen savers. Some of his most popular photographs include black and white photos of Yosemite Valley in California. 

He was important for inventing a system to make sure they had a good exposure for black and white films. This process is called Fred Archer, and many photographers still use it today. 

11. Gary Winogrand

Gary Winogrand is another street photographer who was based in New York City. 

At the beginning of his career, he was a freelance photojournalist. In addition to that, he also took advertisement photos. 

Unlike other famous photographers, he would take a photograph without looking through the camera lens. Instead of trying to find a focal point through the lens of the camera, he would just guess where it was and hope it turned out.

Despite this odd technique, his photographs still came out perfectly, proving just how much natural talent he had. 

As he practiced, he got better and better at doing this, and his black and white photos became famous around the world. 

He also used a wide-angle lens, even when shooting portraits. This technique wasn’t commonly used, but somehow it still worked. 

12. Philippe Halsman

Lastly, Philippe Halsman is another photographer that you should know about. 

He was popular in the ’40s, and he photographed for the next thirty years until he passed away in 1979. If you’ve subscribed to LIFE magazine, you’ve probably seen his photographs. He has the record for the most covers for one photographer for the magazine. 

If you’ve heard of Salvador Dali, you may not be surprised to hear that these two were actually close friends. They collaborated on many creative projects as well. The popular Salvador Dali portrait you see with his mustache hairs pointing straight up was actually shot by Halsman.

Salvador Dali wasn’t the only famous person Halsman photographed though. There are also pictures of Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, and Marilyn Monroe. 

He was always good at getting his subjects to feel natural and comfortable when he was behind the camera. He had a great sense of humor, which you can see in most of his work. 

Discover More Famous Photographers

These are only a few of the famous photographers from history, but there are so many more out there. 

If you get a chance, try going to a photography or art museum to see some of these photographer’s photos in real life. Even though you can view them online, there’s something special about seeing them up close in person.

If you enjoyed this article, make sure that you also explore our website to find more just like this one!

Do your conversations have meaning? Like, real meaning? Or do you just talk for the sake of talking?

The thing is that we’ve all done a bit of both to a greater or lesser degree. We’ll have meaningful conversations when the situation calls for it. When it doesn’t, we’ll talk just to fill the empty air seemingly.

We, Westerners, are masters at filling the vacuity of quiet space. In fact, we’ve invented a term for not doing so – “uncomfortable silence.” This is too bad because we can often learn more about someone else – and about ourselves – if we could somehow embrace the silence rather than shun it.

But I digress.

To find meaning in a conversation is not the opposite of “uncomfortable silence,” but the opposite of small talk. Fruitless, empty, rhetorical, way-below-our-intelligence small talk.

Our dialogues can’t always be noteworthy, but they can be meaningful.

How?

First, by making an effort to talk about something of consequence to both you and the listener. If it doesn’t matter to you – or the other person – why say anything?

Second, by using smart, intellectually engaging words, phrases, and questions. Ah! Yes, that’s the ticket! But, alas, how to do that?

Repeat the five words after me: “Can I get your advice?”

Rest assured, using these five words will limit the amount of extraneous, face-palm-inducing gobbledygook you hear. If you’re anything like this writer, this should be music to your “I despise small talk” ears.

These five words will transform your conversations, make them more meaningful, and enrich your personal and professional life.

Let’s talk about how it does exactly that.

“A Penny for Your Thoughts” (Cause that’s what they’re worth much of the time.)

“Definition of advice. 1: recommendation regarding a decision or course of conduct…”

Advice | Definition of Advice by Merriam-Webster

What do we think about most of the time? Be honest.

You don’t need to be. The science is in – and it’s doesn’t have too many kind words about what goes through our mind. Research by Harvard psychologists Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert found that our mind wanders “about 47% of [all] waking hours.” This mind-wandering mode is strong enough to be considered the default-mode network of the brain.

We spend almost half of our lives thinking about something other than what matters now.

Worse: “mind-wandering typically makes [people] unhappy.” And where are they most unhappy? “When resting (really?), working or using a home computer.”

Let’s do a bit of deduction.

If we aren’t happy with our thoughts most of the time, what makes us think it’s a good idea to ask someone else for theirs?

And even if (and that’s a BIG if) you get an on-topic response, you risk leaving the conversation open to redirection. Probably to a topic that’s, well, unhappy.

The conversational substance is what we’re after here – and asking for ‘thoughts’ is too vague and, again, risks being misinterpreted or being taken advantage of.

What’s to stop some blabbermouth from rambling on for five minutes about nothing? You asked for his thoughts. Well, you got them. His thoughts had nothing to do with anything.

Granted, socially conscious and emotionally intelligent people will get the hint and form a well-constructed response, even if it’s not filled with actionable information. But not everyone falls into one or both buckets mentioned above – and therein lies the problem of asking for “thoughts.”

You: “Hey, socially inept Bob, can I get your thoughts on this project?”

Socially inept Bob: “Right after I finish up with this email. Speaking of which, did you…”

See where this is headed?

Everyone has thoughts. Not everyone has advice. And even socially inept Bob knows that.

Advice = Wisdom

Professional advice. Expert advice. Honest advice. Good advice. Take my advice.

People equate advice with wisdom and intelligence, structure and function, formality and professionalism, intention, and action.

Here’s another near-universal human trait: we fear appearing incompetent to others. (Not everyone, as you no doubt have experienced, hence why this is a ‘near-universal’ trait.)

Asking for advice is also asking for the others:

• Attention: It’s impossible to deliver quality advice without directing our attention to the conversation.
• Engagement: Ask someone for advice and notice how they will (sometimes slowly) direct their body toward you – this is engagement.
• Formality: Not in an uptight, snooty kind of way; instead, you’ll limit the extraneous noise so often heard in everyday conversation.
• Intellect: Just as advice requires attention and engagement, advice involves intelligence. The former is a byproduct of the latter.

Advice Means That You Value Someone Else

Who do we usually ask advice from? Often, it’s people that we value in one way or another. We value their expertise, their knowledge. So, asking for someone else’s advice is to call for their best – and they appreciate it.

People feel honored when you ask for their advice. It’s also a wonderful gift to bestow upon someone. Perhaps someone is feeling down about themselves for some reason.

Put yourself in that situation for a minute.

Imagine that you’re not particularly happy with yourself. Maybe you doubt your competence or ability to perform a particular task. Now, imagine that someone comes up to you and asks for your advice about something.

Bear in mind that they could ask anyone, so why you?

It’s because they value who you are and what you may bring to the table. That’s a big deal.

And we should try and value others for who they are. This can be a challenge with certain people (you know who I’m talking about.) Those we have a bit of bad history with, for example.

Still, we can try giving them another chance – and asking for their advice is a powerful way to demonstrate that you still value (or are trying or want to value) the person, despite their faults.

Advice Builds (and Rebuilds) Trust

Here’s the thing: we don’t ask for advice often. We may ask for input, thoughts, ideas, etc., but this isn’t the same. Remember, terminology matters here.

This is precisely why asking for advice is a potent trust builder – and rebuilder.

Asking for advice builds trust by generating a sort of “I’m here and at my best!” response in the other person. And really, it’s a sweet thing to do regardless of setting. (Ask the next service person you meet for the advice and watch their reaction!)

It will also generate feelings of kinship, which is why asking for advice builds trust as well. It does so mainly by allowing the other person to drop their defensive mechanisms.

This can’t happen with a “Hey, what’s up?” or a “Can we chat?”. While such queries may open things up for a dialogue, which can then lead to a rebuilding of trust, there’s no power in the initial question. It may also very well be ignored or put off.

Asking for advice evokes a sense of “I should respond to this” to a greater degree than simply asking to chat or talk. It also, as mentioned, elicits a feeling of self-esteem and worthiness.

Again, asking for advice brings forth a sense of kinship, warmth, and openness in the other person; it also, almost contrarily, brings for a feeling of formality and distinction.

Such qualities are why these five powerful words are superb trust builders.

Advice Develops (and Mends) Relationships

If asking for advice builds and rebuilds trust, it makes sense that it has a similar effect on relationships. For as the saying goes, “Relationships are built on trust.”

While asking for advice can certainly help mend a relationship, it’s probably more potent as a relationship builder. It is so for the reasons discussed earlier. Therefore, asking for advice prompts the evocation of kindship, self-esteem, and appreciation. All of these things are foundational to the development of any relationship, personal or professional.

Two areas where this advice about asking for advice (see what I did there?) may be advantageous is in the workplace and with your spouse or partner. In the former setting, asking for advice is seen as an act of both competency and humility. These qualities can go far in a professional environment, especially since they’re becoming increasingly rare.

As for the latter, is any explanation needed? How intimate is it to ask for your partner’s advice on something of importance? Pose the question to your lover and find out!

Here’s to advice and wisdom!

One of the many universal human needs is the need to be respected. Another near-universal need is to appear and demonstrate competence.

Plus, people love to be asked for advice.