How to Stop Swearing

Do you have a potty mouth? Most of us let a bad word or two slip out in a situation of extreme stress but some individuals develop an exceptionally bad habit of swearing far more than they should. 

It can have a negative impact on your social interaction with family, friends, and coworkers. Using foul language in your everyday speech simply isn't a socially acceptable way to communicate. 

Is it time for you to start modifying your speech? Perhaps someone has told you that you are swearing far too often or it may be that you have come to this realization on your own but if it is obvious that you curse just way too frequently then it may be time for you to get your inappropriate conduct under control.

If you have a potty mouth and you need to curb this bad habit quickly there are a few relatively easy ways for you to stop cursing and cussing quite so much. A bad habit can be easy to acquire yet tough to lose.

If your parents used foul language in the home then you may have picked up your swearing habit from your home environment. You may have started swearing as a teenager when it appeared to be a cool thing to do. Sometime a person uses foul language in order to appear more like the social group that they hang around with or to appear to be a little tougher to those individuals. 

Whatever the reason for the degree of curse words within your speech there are definite disadvantages to being a person who swears too often. Your job opportunities may be limited, your dating and marital prospects may be reduced, and your business and social networks may be restricted. You may also be subjecting young impressionable children to words which are better left unsaid in their presence.
If you swear a great deal then you may find that the world as a whole seems to rank you at a lower level than it would other individuals. Tough options to accept when simply removing the cussing swearing cursing from your speech could greatly enhance your potential out there.

Swearing cussing or cursing whatever you call it - it isn't cute! Using foul language on a regular basis is simply a bad habit that you have picked up at some point in your learning process. The good news is that virtually any bad habit can be broken.

Habitual behavior generally tends to develop over a lengthy period of time. It may have taken months or years for this habit to form. As you became more comfortable with this mannerism it became a natural part of your method of speaking and unfortunately also a distinct aspect of your personality as well.

We Don't Want to Hear Your Bad Words

The familiarity with a mannerism causes it to become so second nature that you may not even realize when you are doing it. This is when it is time to acknowledge that you do indeed have a bad habit.

Knowing you have a bad habit is the first step in breaking it. Whenever we are more conscious of a bad behavior we are more able to correct it. This is the very reason why a swear jar can work to curb your urge to curse. Just insure that the money in the jar goes to someone else or to a local charity and not to you. The monetary penalty should be a punishment and not a reward fund for yourself. 

Breaking that nasty habit really shouldn't be too difficult. It's an easier habit to kick than quitting smoking as there is not a physical addiction involved.

Listen to what you are saying. As you become more conscious of your speech you will begin to notice your curse words immediately after they have managed to slip out. 

Over time you will begin to unconsciously begin to change your speech pattern to remove these offending words while they are still in the thought process and before they are actually spoken. In the meanwhile though you will have to make a determined effort to speak without the curse words. 

It just takes time and practice to get it right. Like all learned behaviors it takes practice to break a bad habit. Do not be discouraged when you slip up. It may have taken years for you to learn your habit so it will also take time to break it. Just keep concentrating on which words you will speak, before you speak them, as this will help you to focus on eliminating the words that you do not want in your vocabulary.
To begin breaking your swearing habit it is important to slow down and actually think out your words before you speak them. This will help you to eliminate the curse words before they are spoken. Be patient, pat yourself on the back when you do well and you will succeed in cutting those nasty words out of your vocabulary. You can stop your cussing. It just takes time and it takes patience.

Zen Things Down - Shake Off the Stress - Relax

Use long humorous phrases to help you quit swearing. Use a sweet comment or funny saying to replace that bad word. Using your sense of humor will help you more easily reduce your episodes of swearing. A funny phrase said with a smile draws a good emotion to virtually any situation so it can also help to erase any negative emotions that may be present during the times when your curse words have a bad habit of slipping through.
Using a funny phrase to replace the bad words will also help you to deal with any intense emotion of frustration, hurt, or anger when it arises. Emotional periods are when a person is most likely to fall back into the habit of swearing.

I don't recommend using short similar words to replace swear or cuss words because they are just too easily exchanged with one another. Do not use words such as damn, shoot, carp, and frick to replace your swear words as these will make it too easy to fall back into your swearing habit.

Keep in mind that you are creating a new habit by removing an old one. You want your new habit to be a good one that will last. The idea is to think nice, think polite, think sweet.

Slow down your speech to slow down the thinking process. By using an exaggerated phrase, and preceding it with a long drawn out Ohhhhh or Awwww you can increase your likelihood of preventing bad words from popping out when they shouldn't. "Ohhhh gosh darn drat". The ohhhhh or awwww will allow you time to stop, to think, and to remember the phrase that you should say instead of the curse word.

1. Suffering succotash (Yosemite Sam's favorite saying).

2. Oh rats darn drat.

3. Oh Googling gorillas.

4. Oh George Washington

5. Oh fricasseed chicken.
  
6. Kooky crabgrass.

7. Oh those dancing kangaroos.8. Saskatoon Saskatchewan.

9. Muddy Mississippi, muddy Mississippi, muddy Mississippi (repeat for as often as is necessary).

10. Oh foolish flamingos.

11. Well fancy that.

12. Holy crawdads and crayfish.

One day you will find yourself shocked to hear someone swearing and it is then that you will realize that you no longer do.

Slow your thoughts and actions down a wee little bit. Some folks swear in every single conversation that they enter into but most cussing occurs when someone is emotionally charged up. Which means that you really should try to reduce down the excitable side of your personality a little. Relax, de-stress, chill out, zen it, calm down, or laugh it off.

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