Be careful to keep your personal challenges to yourself and those closest to you.
The people around you have challenges of their own and likely won't be able to give yours real attention. Also, in time (if we're awake), we begin to see what a complete waste of energy a complaint (or whine) is even to the people who might be most interested... ourselves.
Once we embrace this fact, complaining less should be fairly easy... until someone around us begins. At that point, we might have a tendency to join in. When we smile, we remember to do what we can to minimize this tendency. When we move, we express care for another's situation and help if we can.
Strive to be complainless.
To feel good and flourish, researchers say that people need a 3:1 positivity ratio. That means they need to hear three positive statements for every complaint.Having a positive attitude has been linked to mind-body-spirit benefits including:
1. Greater creativity and increased intuition
2. Better cardiovascular health and reduced risk of stroke
3. Increased resilience and happiness
—"Positive Affect and the Complex Dynamics of Human Flourishing," by B. Fredrickson and M.F. Losada (2005).
Relatively speaking, many of us who complain about anything really shouldn't.
When the complaints begin among our circle of people, maybe we should be the ones who throw out the idea that many people struggle with far more real (and basic) challenges than we do.
That's when we might hear... "Well, it's all relative."
And when we hear that, we should remember (and maybe remind each other) that we're all human beings and relatively speaking, most of us with a roof over our head, food in our stomachs and work to contribute are living every day...
Relatively wonderfully.
Bob Adams
