Rewire Your Day – How Words, Thoughts, and Brain Chemistry Shape Your Reality
- Brainz Magazine
- Sep 12
- 5 min read
Meryl Bengtsson is a certified ADHD coach, former corporate leader, and founder of ADHDlife. She helps high-functioning entrepreneurs transform overwhelm into clarity and momentum with ADHD-friendly strategies that align with how their brain truly works.
“Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt you.” It’s a phrase many of us grew up hearing, a well-meaning attempt to shield us from the sting of teasing or verbal cruelty. My mother used it often when I came home from school upset about my freckles. She meant to comfort me, to remind me that physical harm was worse than verbal insults. But even then, I knew, words do hurt. They linger. They shape how we see ourselves. Today, neuroscience confirms what many of us have long felt, words, thoughts, and emotions don’t just pass through us. They rewire us.
The chemistry of emotion
To understand why language matters, we need to understand the brain, its chemistry, its architecture, and the hormones that regulate our emotional states.
Our brains are like cities in motion. Thoughts are vehicles. Emotions are the fuel. And neurotransmitters, the brain’s chemical messengers, are the traffic signals that guide everything.
Here’s how a single phrase can shift your entire day:
Cortisol: The stress hormone. Harsh words, criticism, or ambiguous feedback can spike cortisol, triggering fight-or-flight responses and narrowing your ability to think clearly.
Dopamine: The motivation molecule. Encouraging language, curiosity-driven framing, and emotionally intelligent messaging can boost dopamine, especially vital for ADHD brains wired for novelty and reward.
Oxytocin: The bonding hormone. Words that signal trust, safety, and empathy activate oxytocin, deepening connection and collaboration.
Serotonin: The mood stabilizer. Affirming feedback and positive self-talk help regulate serotonin, supporting emotional resilience.
Testosterone: The drive and dominance hormone. Testosterone influences assertiveness, confidence, and goal-directed behavior. Language that reinforces agency, autonomy, and self-trust can amplify its effects, while shaming or disempowering messaging may suppress it.
Your brain isn’t just listening. It’s responding. And the words you choose, or absorb, are the levers.
Executive function: The brain’s control room
Executive functions are the mental skills that help us navigate complexity, regulate emotions, and turn intention into action. For ADHD entrepreneurs, these functions often operate with intensity, unpredictability, and brilliance, but they’re also highly sensitive to language, environment, and emotional tone.
Here’s how each skill shows up, and how words, thoughts, and emotional cues can either support or sabotage them:
Self-awareness: Your internal radar, the ability to notice your thoughts, feelings, and patterns. Harsh language, especially self-talk, can distort this radar, leading to rumination or disconnection. Compassionate framing sharpens it.
Emotional regulation: Managing feelings in real time. Supportive language and intentional emotional cues, like music, scent, or movement, help stabilize mood and response. Criticism or ambiguity can trigger overwhelm.
Self-restraint: The pause before reaction. Encouraging language strengthens this buffer, allowing space for choice. Reactive or judgmental messaging shortens it, leading to impulsive decisions.
Self-motivation: The internal drive to act without external pressure. Dopamine-rich language, curiosity, novelty, purpose, fuels this. Shame-based or urgency-driven messaging drains it.
Non-verbal working memory: Holding visual and spatial information. Visual metaphors, diagrams, and emotionally resonant imagery enhance this. Overload or cluttered messaging can impair it.
Verbal working memory: Holding and manipulating language-based information. Clear, rhythmic, and emotionally engaging phrasing supports retention. Dense or abstract language can disrupt it.
Planning and problem solving: Structuring thoughts and navigating complexity. Affirming language and strategic metaphors, like “mental scaffolding” or “cognitive maps,” help organize and energize this process. Negative framing can fragment it.
“Executive function isn’t just about discipline. It’s about design, and language is one of your most powerful design tools.”
The power of intention
Dr. Masaru Emoto’s work on water crystals, though controversial, offers a metaphor worth considering. He claimed that water exposed to loving words formed beautiful, symmetrical crystals, while water exposed to hateful language formed distorted ones.
Whether or not the science holds, the symbolism is powerful, our bodies are 60% water. Our environments, especially verbal ones, shape us.
Words aren’t harmless. They’re energetic. They’re architectural. They build or erode the emotional scaffolding we stand on.
Rewire your day before it runs you
So how do we shift from reactive to intentional, especially when our brains are wired for speed, intensity, and nonlinear brilliance?
It starts with understanding that your neurochemistry isn’t just reactive. It’s programmable. The way you begin your day can prime your brain’s chemical messengers to work with you, not against you.
Here are four science-backed strategies to rewire your day, each designed to activate specific neurochemical pathways:
1. Anchor, then adapt
Start your day with one emotionally resonant task, something that feels meaningful, not just urgent. This anchors your brain in purpose and primes dopamine, the molecule of motivation and momentum. ADHD brains thrive on novelty and emotional relevance, so choose a task that sparks curiosity or progress.
2. Power poses & success stacking
Before diving into your to-do list, take 60 seconds to stand tall, breathe deeply, and recall a recent win, no matter how small. This activates testosterone, which fuels confidence, assertiveness, and goal-directed behavior. Pair it with “success stacking”, mentally list three things you’ve done well recently. This builds emotional momentum and primes your brain for decisive action.
“Confidence isn’t a mood. It’s a chemical state, and you can trigger it.”
3. Time as texture
Use sensory cues to shape transitions. Light a candle before deep work. Play a specific playlist for admin tasks. This helps regulate serotonin and oxytocin, stabilizing mood and enhancing emotional safety. ADHD brains often resist rigid structure, but they respond beautifully to emotionally intelligent rituals.
4. Momentum mapping
Build your schedule around cognitive peaks. Notice when your brain feels sharp, creative, or reflective, and align tasks accordingly. This honors your natural dopamine rhythms and reduces friction. You’re not lazy or inconsistent, you’re wired for strategic bursts.
You don’t need a new brain. You need a new blueprint, one that’s emotionally intelligent, chemically aligned, and designed for how you actually operate.
Final thoughts
Sticks and stones may break bones, but words, thoughts, and emotions build worlds. And you have the blueprint.
Whether you’re an ADHD founder navigating intensity and innovation or a team member learning to collaborate across neurodiverse lines, the way you speak, to yourself and others, matters more than you think.
Rewire your day. Before it runs you.
Meryl Bengtsson, Coach & Educator for ADHD Entrepreneurs
Meryl Bengtsson is a certified ADHD coach, educator, and founder of ADHDlife. A former corporate leader with a Master’s in Global HR, she blends neuroscience, mindset, and strategy to support entrepreneurs with ADHD in building businesses that work with their brain, not against it. Her practical framework helps turn scattered energy into aligned action and lasting momentum. Known for her direct, no-fluff approach, Meryl shows clients how to see ADHD not as a deficit, but as a powerful alternative cognitive design with untapped potential.
