You Are What You Speak:

Nourishing the Soul with Words

As a kid, you might remember hearing the phrase, “You are what you eat.” At the time, it probably sounded like one of those old people sayings in attempt to make you put down the candy and choose something green instead, so you don’t catch “the suga” when you are their age.

As I reflect, this statement was usually offered without much explanation, just a firm tone and a knowing look. But beneath its simplicity was a profound truth: what we consume becomes a part of us. It shapes how we feel, how we function, and ultimately, how we live.

Drawing even deeper, it was never just about food… it was about nourishment.

Nourishment is the act or process of providing what is needed for growth, health, and well-being, which goes far beyond food consumption. However this is the most literal meaning applied when trying to understand what is meant by nourishment.

When navigating outside of the box, nourishment also includes anything that sustains or enriches you physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually.

So, nourishment can look like:

• Food and water that fuels your body

• Words and relationships that strengthen your heart

• Rest and reflection that restore your mind

• Faith, purpose, or connection that feed your soul

In essence, nourishment is anything that truly fills you…

—not just temporarily, but rather, something that supports your wholeness and helps you thrive.

Now, let’s flip that idea on its head for a moment:
You are the words you speak.

Go ahead and settle in with me for a second. Like food fuels your body, words fuel your spirit. They shape your reality and overall your mindset, your relationships, and the emotional environment you live in every day.

Your words have weight, and what you speak over your life or better yet, over someone else’s life is what takes root.

Speak fear, and you nourish anxiety.
Speak truth, and you nourish clarity.
Speak love, and you cultivate connection.

Last year, I happened to read a book by Joseph Nguyen entitled, “Don’t Believe Everything You Think.” I found it to be a powerful guide to inner freedom and emotional clarity.

At its core, the book concluded that most of our suffering comes not from external events, but from the thoughts we choose to believe—in clinical mumble-jumble, cognitive distortions.

Nguyen challenges the idea that all thoughts are true or helpful, revealing how many are rooted in fear, ego, and past conditioning (I believe resulting from the many things people told us or spoke over our life). By understanding that our thoughts are not truths, but rather passing mental events shaped by our past, our pain, and our patterns, we have the opportunity to shift those narratives playing in the background of our minds. True internal freedom emerges when we stop self identifying with every thought and start observing them with curiosity and exploring their origin stories.

The truth is…

Thoughts become powerful when we believe them — and even more so when we speak them.

When we speak our thoughts out loud — especially the ones rooted in fear, shame, or limitation, we give them form, energy, and often, permanence over each and every experience we find ourselves in.

Words are not just fleeting expressions; they become imprints in our relationships, our self-concept, and our environments.

Nguyen encourages us to question our thoughts. Your reflection invites us to choose carefully which ones we speak, because:

When thoughts are spoken, they often live beyond the moment.

Words don’t pass away easily. They echo.

• In someone else’s memory.

• In our self-image.

• In the spiritual and emotional atmosphere we carry.

And that’s the bridge:

By learning to observe thoughts without attaching to them, we can begin to experience peace, presence, and deeper self-awareness. Through a blend of mindfulness, spiritual insight, and simple yet profound truths, Nguyen offers a path to liberation from the mental noise that keeps us stuck — reminding us that just because we think it, doesn’t mean it’s true.

We often underestimate the power of language. We throw words around without realizing they are not just sounds~~ they are seeds.

Every phrase you speak, every thought you affirm, every story you repeat — it all grows something. And those words don’t just affect others; they build the landscape of your inner world.

If you’ve ever told yourself, “I’m not good enough,” or whispered, “I’ll never be able to change,” or accepted the narrative, “This is just the way I am” — pause.
Really pause… Understand:
🌀 Thoughts are not always truth
🌀 But when we speak them as if they are, we breathe life into them
🌀 And what we speak, often stays within us as well as others

What you speak outlives the moment.
So ask yourself — is this thought true?
And more importantly — is it worth speaking into the world?

Choose words that nourish, not just express.
Because some words may fade, but many take root — in the soul, in the mind, in the memory. And when they do, they either build or bind.

Instead, Ask yourself: Is this the nourishment my soul needs? Is this helping me thrive, or slowly draining me?

Because the truth is, just like we learn to make intentional choices with our physical diet, we must learn to choose our verbal diet just as carefully.

Feeding your body with junk leads to fatigue, imbalance, and illness. Feeding your life with negative, limiting, or shame-filled language does the same to your spirit.