I definitely agree! Words -or rather, thoughts, are what pulled me through my rough childhood. I had parents who would always put me down in the past. They constantly told me that I was not good enough, that I was a burden, that they should just throw me on the streets, etc. They also took their anger out on me a lot and often called me worthless.
However, beginning from when I was only seven, there was just some sort of sense of rebellion within me that I've always kept to myself. There was a point in time though where I questioned if I was a bad child for making my parents feel the way they did, but I realized that this should not be the way it was nor should I believe the words that were spouted towards me because I knew that within myself, I did not genuinely feel "connected" to those words.
No matter how I thought about it as a child, I just couldn't relate to the word "worthless" as being me. I couldn't relate to any of that. "Stupid"? Something certainly felt wrong there. I didn't feel insulted at all, but it just felt... "Wrong."
So I took time each day to try to search for who I was through my thoughts and emotions. The word, "strong" constantly popped up and I thought... "Yes... I want to be strong." Then eventually, I told myself "Will. I have a will. Their will is not my will." and thought, "Yes... This feels real. This feels genuine." And I also thought.... "Kindness. And strength.... I am not worthless. I don't want to be worthless. But full of strength and kind? Yes.... This is what I want to be..."
It's amazing how words can just echo like that whether out loud or within the mind. It's pretty much like getting involved with listening to music. But then, you can even say that words are music, just like that saying that a person may say about your sentence "That's music to my ears." Words are certainly powerful, and I constantly experiment and play around with them on a daily basis. It also helps me very much when I have others approaching me for advice. Some wonder how I do it, but it's really so simple just as how Helen has given her examples. While those people constantly spouted negative things about their situation and selves, I simply reversed the matter by reversing the order and placements of their words. Then like magic, it's like those people struck a positive realization or have found the strength that was there all along within them. Simply amazing stuff.