The right words have the power to do a hell of a lot.
Someone who knows all about this is author JK Rowling. And not just when it comes to writing wonderful words (does it get any more wonderful than Harry Potter?), but also about tough times. Her success as one of the wealthiest authors in the world took years of perseverance.
As she began to try to get her first novel published - it was rejected 12 times before being picked up - was raising a daughter on benefits as a single mum, and fell into depression when she described hitting "rock bottom." But she kept going. She pushed on and focused all her energies on writing and eventually, all the hardship paid off - 450 million copies of the Harry Potter series sold and counting.
"Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me,” she said previously.
But even now, she's not immune to feeling stressed or overwhelmed, and said the thing she does to get past these feelings is quite simple: she reads a book.
Granted, this can be hard to get spare time to do when you're a busy mum, but isn't there something wonderful about keeping that favourite book for the half an hour you might get to yourself?
After being asked by a fan on Twitter which books she turns to for comfort, Rowling responded:
“To tell you the truth, when I’m really stressed or overwhelmed I turn to biographies of people who’ve led turbulent lives. I find it soothing and inspiring to read about people who’ve endured and overcome.”
To tell you the truth, when I'm really stressed or overwhelmed I turn to biographies of people who've led turbulent lives. I find it soothing and inspiring to read about people who've endured and overcome. https://t.co/oGDFHH5dzG
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) March 19, 2018
Fans responded in droves on Twitter, recommending their favourite reads:
I read 1812, Napoleon's Fatal March on Moscow by Adam Zamoyski. However bad I'm having it, they had it worse.
— Julia Morgan (@MorganScorpion) March 19, 2018
I love @StephenKing's book "On Writing" where he tells of his reaction when his agent called him to tell him what they got for the paperback sales of Carrie and how he fell to the floor and how his wife burst into tears. Stories like that are always uplifting.
— Nai Mei (@naimeiyao) March 19, 2018
This isn’t the first time Rowling has spoken openly about her mental health and depression. “I have never been remotely ashamed of having been depressed. Never,” she told a student journalist at Edinburgh University in 2008. “What’s to be ashamed of? I went through a really rough time and I am quite proud that I got out of that.”
