“Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can change your brain.” Wait a second, that’s not how I learned it!  Many of us grew up reciting some version of this common idiom, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” This childhood chant means that hurtful words cannot cause any physical pain and thus will be ignored.  I will speculate and say that as we grew older, we all learned that this chant is not true; words can and do hurt; they can actually change your brain!

Have you ever been on the receiving end of someone’s