Intent: The Hidden Power of Speech

Last night, I posted my first YouTube video, and while I was hoping to share a relaxation technique with others that I find useful, I also learned a lesson from it myself.

In the video, there’s background music, but for the first six minutes or so, I’m talking.  First, I’m explaining the process, then I’m guiding the listener through it.  While listening to it post-production, I noticed a jarring difference between my voice (and its effect) when I switched from ‘instructing’ mode into ‘guiding’ mode.

While (in my opinion) my voice isn’t abrasive in the first half, when my tone changes for the second half, the difference is undeniable, and it made me realize just how much the ‘intent’ behind our words impacts what we say; that even when there’s nothing necessarily ‘wrong’ with our tone of voice, a simple change of intent has the power to transform our words and, potentially, all of our relationships that involve speech.

I thought about this for a while after I had this realization, and a specific example that immediately came to mind was when we tell someone ‘I love you’.  I’m an insecure person (lots of baggage here, lol) and a lot of times when I say ‘I love you’, even though I mean it with all my heart, my intent when saying it is to hear that person say it back to me, to reassure myself that they do, indeed, love me.   So I mentally replayed an instance where I knew I was saying it because I needed to hear it, and then, I pictured myself saying ‘I love you’ with the intent of letting that person know I loved them, without the intent of hearing it in return, and even in my imagination, the difference was stunning.

We always hear how someone’s ‘tone of voice’ is so important when they speak, and I agree, it is very important, but I’ve never heard anyone mention our ‘intention of voice’, and I now believe that to be a huge oversight.  I believe tone of voice is only the first lesson when it comes to our communication with the world around us, kind of like learning the alphabet is only the first step to learning how to read.

Humanity has stagnated at tone, instead of graduating to intent – and who knows what lies beyond that?  Even plants react to our intent… even when that intent is only in thought! (‘The Secret Life of Plants‘ by Peter Tompkins – thank you Indrajit Rathore for suggesting this book to me!)

If plants can react so strongly to intent that isn’t even voiced, only thought in our minds, how much more do the people around us react to the intent we actually give voice to?  And how much are we completely oblivious to its impact on them?

When children misbehave, how different would our voices sound if we changed our intent from ‘making them stop’ to ‘teaching them the proper way to behave’?

I am challenging myself to speak with intent today to those around me, and I invite you all to join me.

I’d love to know what you think about my theory (okay, I’m calling it MINE, even though I’m sure someone else already came up with it, but because I came up with it on my own, I’m still calling it ‘mine’), so please feel free to discuss this in the comments! 🙂

Related articles

• Genuine Sweetness (hearthungerblog.wordpress.com)
• “My plant read my mind!” FBI and CIA’s foremost polygraph researcher. (eagleman6788.wordpress.com)
• Psychology and the Voice: 10 Ways to Change Your Tone and Close More Sales (resourcenation.com)

Did some searching, and will add related articles I find below:

• The Power of Intent (http://blogs.hbr.org)
• The Power of Speech (http://www.aish.com) – (I’m not Jewish and this isn’t about intent, but found it great and related)
• Speak to Your Rock! Why Moses Didn’t Enter the Promised Land (http://agapegeek.com) (series on the power of words, based on the teachings of the Bible – I read 1 & 10, good stuff)
• Your Words (http://mindsofpower.com) (Power of words and intent as relates to the Laws of Attraction)