resilience and strength temporarily.”
So the next time you bang out reps at the gym, try saying a few choice words and see what that does for you. And if you ever find yourself in a situation in which you need to summon extreme strength, to lift a heavy object off someone trapped beneath it—swear with all your might, and you may find yourself having a bit of the strength of the incredible hulk, without the green.
3.) Swearing helps with pain management
You’re rushing to get ready for work in the morning. Just as you’re about to head out the door you stub your toe on the corner of the kitchen table and yell your expletive of choice as a knee-jerk reaction. If that stinging foot doesn’t feel quite as painful immediately after you’ve cursed it out, it’s not just in your head. A study done at Keele University in the U.K. measured the effects swearing had on pain tolerance, and found that we can withstand more pain when using profanity. Why is that? “When we swear, it sends a message to the amygdala in the brain,” explains Amy Cooper Hakim, Ph.D, practicing in Florida. “The words themselves don’t help us to better tolerate pain — but the emotional and physical reaction that we have by saying the words triggers the fight or flight response, which then gives us that burst of energy to make it through the difficult or painful task.” So the next time you hurt yourself, feel free to curse at whatever inanimate object is to blame