Less than seconds after the word “NO” is uttered, dozens of stress-producing hormones and neurotransmitters erupt in the speaker’s and listener’s brain, says Andrew Newberg, former director of The University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Spirituality and the Mind, and Mark Waldman, an associate research fellow. Those chemicals immediately disrupt the normal functioning of the brain, damaging logic, reason, language processing, and communication. [1]
Are We Affected by Negativity?
The word “NO” is not responsible for all negative consequences. Negative thoughts or conversations get increasingly difficult to stop as they persist, according to the two neurologists. The brain reacts to negative fantasies like poverty, disease, and death as if they were real events, though they have never happened.Findings also show that negative words uttered in surgical wards lead to the release of cortisol, a stress-producing hormone, and failure of patient-controlled analgesia (PCA). [2]
