Welcome to the happiness podcast. I'm Dr. Robert Puff. If we're from English-speaking countries, we've probably heard this phrase before.

Silence is golden. It's been around, I don't even know how long, but it's a beautiful phrase that has a lot of wisdom to it.

But I found another phrase that I like equally to this one.

It goes,

Speak only when you feel your words are better than silence.

Let me repeat that.

Speak only when you feel your words are better than silence.

In today's modern age, with all our cell phones, computers, iPads, tablets, we're not really

used to silence.

And I think when we're with other people, there's a sense of, if there's silence, there's probably something

wrong. I think silence can make us feel uncomfortable when we're with another person. And mind

you, good healthy communication is a good thing, particularly when it's healthy,

when it's positive, when it's loving.

But unfortunately, not all our communication is done in this way. Sometimes our words are critical,

sometimes are harsh, and sometimes are even judgmental. Or sometimes I think our words are

just to fill the empty space around us. We're uncomfortable with

silence so we fill it. Fill it with anything. It really doesn't matter. It can be

mindless chatter but it's going to be filled because that silence makes us uncomfortable.

But words can be very powerful too.

We probably all know someone in our past who said something hurtful to us that took us perhaps years to get over that one

phrase that was said to us, or others who said something beautiful, kind, supportive to

us that we still hold very close to our heart years later.

...