If swear words are an integral part of everyday language, it is possible to limit their use using this simple method.
Limiting the use of swear words or delaying it as much as possible among your children is a daily struggle for many people. It is indeed a very widespread habit, which can be difficult to eradicate. However, circumstances, such as the arrival of a child, or a professional change, can cause a desire for change in one’s vocabulary. In order to review old habits, there are very well-known techniques but often with inconclusive results.
The first on the list is the swear word jar, which involves dropping change into a jar for each swear word pronounced. A moderately effective solution which is no longer really in line with today’s society where physical currency is disappearing from wallets. In second place: the use of non-vulgar equivalents. The most used being “Wednesday”, to which are sometimes added inventions specific to each person.
The solution to repeated swear words would actually be found in a method that is quite surprising but whose effects have this time been proven. This is hypnosis. Known to those looking to quit smoking, lose weight or fight against sleepwalking, it is also used by certain athletes. And this is also the method that Luke Benedictus, an Australian journalist and editor, decided to apply, who recounts his experience in an article published on the website “The Father Hood”.
This father of two admits to excessive use of swear words in his daily expression and became aware of the problem when he caught one in the mouth of his one-year-old son. Motivated but divided as to the results of hypnosis, the father only needed one session to notice a real change in his way of expressing himself. Far from the clichés that can persist about hypnosis, Luke Benedictus says that the state of half-sleep necessary for this type of therapy is obtained simply by closing your eyes and focusing on your breathing. For his part, the specialist describes unpleasant situations to his patient and shows him the best way to resolve them. The goal is to make patients aware that the body is capable of naturally rejecting habitual behavior when it is assimilated to something negative. All associated with self-control work in order to be in control of your emotions.
After his first visit, the journalist saw his language habits almost completely transformed. He estimates that 90% of swear words have disappeared. He nevertheless specifies that in certain situations, insults can occur reflexively, most often in unpleasant or surprise situations. A “relapse” according to him which is not one according to his therapist, who explains that swear words are not necessarily to be banned from language because they remain a socially integrated means of expression and are not systematically negative depending on the context .
