Right up until he passed away, Dr John Hinwood was a prolific blogger (an award-winning blogger in fact!). John’s blog’s shared musing from a rich history of experience, learnings, travel and wisdom
The Hinwood Institute is named in honour of Dr John and to continue his legacy, we’re republishing his blogs to keep his wisdom, wit and wise words alive for the world to enjoy.
You can learn more about the legacy of Dr John Hinwood HERE.
A very interesting paper by Matthias Mehl et al on how the words we use can identify our level of stress and anxiety was recently published in the proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences.
The lead author Dr Matthias Mehl from the Department of Psychology, University of Arizona says that our linguistic embellishment of the words you use is likely to be a much more reliable indicator of stress levels than self-diagnosis.
The researchers have identified a conserved transcriptional response to adversity (CTRA) that may contribute to social disparities in health.
It’s a funny thing, what we say about our stress levels often doesn’t match our body’s own inherent stress responses.
The study set out to record when, and how often, we use pronouns and adjectives.
The speech of 143 volunteers was recorded at intervals over a period of two days and their responses were then transcribed.
Subjects were also asked to record how stressed they felt at given times.
The impact of underlying stress on speech patterns, the report says, is specific and for stressed individuals, the use of ‘function words’ – pronouns and adjectives – soars.
The research also found that stressed subjects were also much less likely to use third-person plural pronouns – such as ‘they’, ‘their’ and ‘them’. This is because people under pressure tend to focus more on themselves instead of those around them.
Study author Matthias Mehl told Nature we choose ‘meaning words’ (nouns and verbs) consciously when we speak. But when it comes to function words, these are often inserted subconsciously.
The words act as ‘emotional intensifiers’, reflecting a speaker’s state of arousal. Even if they don’t realise it themselves.
Dr Mehl says such speech analysis could help identifying people at risk of developing stress-related diseases.
PS: Stressed? Wonder how stress affects your health? Take the quiz below!
How well do you roll with the punches?
How it works:
- Answer 25 simple questions
- Generate results instantly
- Receive feedback to enhance your score
Listen to the Podcast here
About the Author
Dr John Hinwood has shared the stage with Dr John Demartini, Dr Deepak Chopra, Dr Wayne Dyer, Dr Joe Dispenzia, Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield (Chicken Soup for the Soul fame), Dr Bruce Lipton, Dr Masaru Emoto and others who are at the cutting edge of human behaviour and mindset change.
He has written 14 books with 4 being Amazon international best sellers. He has had papers published in academic journals and was once Captain/Coach of the Danish National Rugby Team. Dr. John’s experience as a health professional by training, successful businessman by effort and an inspiration by inclination has given him an awesome array of practical tools for success.