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Word Pictures -- Part One:
Five Reasons Why Word Pictures Work
By: Family First Staff

Move beyond "everyday words" and use word pictures in your communication with your spouse. In their book, The Language of Love, Dr. Gary Smalley and Dr. John Trent describe a communication style to convey better insight and understanding to your spouse.

This method is called "emotional word pictures" and is defined as "a communication tool that uses a story or object to activate simultaneously the emotions and intellect of a person. In so doing, it causes the person to experience our words, not just hear them."

Why Word Pictures Work

1. Word Pictures Have Been Time-Tested by the World's Greatest Communicators. Smalley and Trent give examples of great speakers, such as Cicero, Benjamin Franklin and Winston Churchill, who have used word pictures in their communications with others. This is a time-tested method.

2. Word Pictures Grab and Direct Attention. Studies have shown that word pictures encourage the brain to work faster and expend more energy than when we listen to regular words. Word pictures force your spouse to get past the words and focus on the meaning behind the story.

3. Word Pictures Bring Communication to Life. Word pictures "activate a person's emotions, which can lead to positive change."

4. Word Pictures Lock Thoughts into Our Memory. Studies have shown that people remember things better when a word picture is used.

5. Word Pictures Provide a Gateway to Intimacy. Using word pictures provides a common ground of communication that both spouses can use.
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Word Pictures: Part Two
Creating Word Pictures
By: Family First Staff

Move beyond "everyday words" and use word pictures in your communication with your spouse. In their book, The Language of Love, Dr. Gary Smalley and Dr. John Trent describe a communication style to convey better insight and understanding to your spouse.

This method is called "emotional word pictures" and is defined as "a communication tool that uses a story or object to activate simultaneously the emotions and intellect of a person. In so doing, it causes the person to experience our words, not just hear them."

Seven Steps to Creating a Word Picture

1. Establish a Clear Purpose. Have clear in your mind what message you want to convey when creating your word picture. Do you want to clarify feelings, move to a deeper level of intimacy, encourage your spouse, or lovingly correct them?

2. Carefully Study the Other Person's Interests. Know what interests your spouse so that you can use an illustration that will best capture their attention.

3. Draw from Four Inexhaustible Wells. If you are concerned about not being creative enough to form your own word picture, Smalley and Trent suggest four sources of inspiration: nature, everyday objects, imaginary stories and your own experiences.

4. Rehearse Your Story. While it's not practical to write down or practice every word picture you use, but Smalley and Trent do recommend thinking through your stories before using them.

5. Pick a Convenient Time without Distractions. Choose a time to share your word picture with your spouse when there aren't distractions or time constraints. Know your spouse and when they are most likely to be attentive to you.

6. Try and Try Again. Smalley and Trent encourage readers to continue this communication method, even if it is not as effective as hoped the first time used.

7. Milk Your Word Picture for All It's Worth! Use a basic word picture to bring several levels of feelings to the surface.

Examples of Word Pictures

Smalley and Trent provide 101 examples of word pictures as the final chapter in their book. A few examples are provided below. Once you understand the concept, try using the steps above to create your own.

"I feel my life is as boring as a VCR tape on constant rewind -- the same thing gets played over and over again. At times like that, I want to fast forward to the end and put in a tape with a new job, new house, and new car."

"I know I can be a roaring flame of enthusiasm, but my wife often hoses me off with her words, and I wind up a dying ember. If she would only fan the fire with some encouraging words or a tender hug when I get home from work, I'd burn as brightly as ever."

"Your love is to me what going to McDonald's is to the kids -- especially when they get to order all the chocolate shakes and French fries they can eat!"
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Arty Words
Suite101

Words show up in the most unexpected places and in the most unusual ways. While walking through New York�s Whitney Museum of American Art discovering what the latest and greatest trends were in the American art world, I saw words in a new way.
I was looking for a magic moment�maybe an epiphany, but actually felt just a little overwhelmed. Then, I turned a corner and was delighted to find words among this sea of images. Don�t get me wrong, I like to see the world through artists� eyes and images can transport me to new levels, but the Whitney Biennial was a lot to take in, particularly in one speedy trip. And I was able to find focus in the five word paintings of accomplished and veteran conceptual artist Mel Bochner.

Each painting begins with one word in the upper left corner and then begins a journey through a thesaurus. The word �nothing� leads to �negation,� �goose egg,� etc. The other four words featured in the paintings include: �indifference,� �stupid, �meaningless,� and �mistake.� �Mistake� leads him to words such as �botch,� �boner,� �fumble,� �fluff,� �gaffe,� and �snafu.� All the words are painted in bright, candy colors and I was forced to really look at the words and contemplate their meanings.

The words were obviously not chosen for any uplifting nature and I don�t even begin to interpret the message, if any, from the artist. I merely experienced the paintings at face value and found them surprisingly powerful. But, words can do that.

For some, I imagine, they could have found the experience boring. Minimalist, conceptual art isn�t for everyone. But, I would suggest following John Cage�s advice: �If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring then eight. Then 16. Then 32. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.�

I enjoy conceptual art. Perhaps it�s because conceptual artists use language as a tool in their art. Words are their brushes. Their ideas are the artwork.

As I experienced these words in a new environment and new way, I felt the power of art to slow down time. My senses were sharpened and putting any preconceived notions away and resisting the urge of my own ego to intellectualize the experience, I merely stood in front of the five paintings and contemplated the orange, blue, and red (and my memory here is hazy, I remember them as brightly colored, but am not sure about the actual colors and unfortunately I wasn�t taking notes) words: �Nothing,� �Indifference,� �Stupid,� �Meaningless,� and �Mistake.�

Author: SandraLinville

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A vote for lively word pictures
from here ..... and more

It's raining metaphors. Must be election time. Pollies of all persuasions are great believers in metaphoric power - and for good reason. There's nothing like a good metaphor to capture the imagination, tap the emotions and construct an apparent coherence to a platform, policy or campaign.

Take Mark Latham's "ladder of opportunity". John Howard took the rungs out, Latham'll put them back. Simple, tangible, familiar. As homely as the references to his mum, his housing commission childhood, his public education and his western suburbs roots.

The ladder does a lot of tapping. It taps into the pervasive "up is good/down is bad" semantic theme in English. It taps into the spirit of fair play that we like to think is an Australian quality (though, crikey, why we think we have a monopoly on it, I don't know). It taps into mateship and the image of the leg-up among friends (think of the "Orange - fair" commercials). Who can't relate to that? And it taps into Australia as the land of opportunity and social mobility - all you need is hard work and ambition. Ask Latham's mother. Ask a migrant. Ask Ayn Rand.

Latham's education platform clinches his construct as a modern-day Robin Hood. Take from the rich, give to the poor.

A considered, coherent, fair policy. Not like Howard's last-minute "clearance sale".

If Latham is quintessentially aspirational, Howard has constructed himself as quintessentially reliable.

Trust the Coalition to keep the economy on track, to keep terrorism at bay, to keep undesirables out, to maintain the status quo, to preserve and conserve and bequeath. We're the "custodian of democratic values", he says. The custodian guards, looks after, keeps safe and secure. It allows Howard to tap into the larger metaphor of continuity. The past handing on to the present, the present safe-guarding the legacy and in turn passing it on to the future. The core values of what makes us "proud to be Australian" (though a vaguer phrase never passed a set of lips).

To contrast the image of steady conservatives, the Coalition has labelled Latham as the new kid with L-plates. Inexperienced, wet behind the ears, still learning the ropes, reckless, risky, eager to spend money, other people's money, your money.

This is powerful stuff. After all, what do you do when you have L-plate drivers near you? Slow down, keep your distance and hope they go away.

The Coalition likes to dip into Latham's fiscal record to conjure fear of deficit budgets. John Anderson knows that predicting catastrophe can promote the image of an untrustworthy gang: "Latham in the Lodge, Crean with his hand in the pocket, Ferguson giving the waterfront back to the maritime unions and Peter Garrett trying to tell us how to run our farms."

And it's not confined to politicians. Journalists and commentators also turn the metaphoric trick.

We're told that "voters gave Labor the tick" for the education policy; that "Iraq still has the potential to blot Howard's history scrapbook"; that Latham is "the gunslinger out to reclaim the fading west".

On the eve of the AFL grand final in Melbourne, Latham was feeling pretty chipper: "I think we're in the last quarter, the scores are level, the ball's gone up and I'm hoping to use my height to my advantage to take the big mark and kick the winning goal."

Certainly high scores for congruence, inference and crowd-pleasing. Ladders and rungs, custodians and clearance sales, L-plates and truth overboard, balls and goals.

Today's slogan is tomorrow's forgotten promise. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

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