Complaining is Draining
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Recently I was speaking to my friend and accountant Jim, who had just gone to see a popular singer perform. I asked him how he enjoyed it, really expecting to hear a lot of praise, but I heard him hesitate and then he said; “well she’s kind of a downer”. He’s a positive person and being around negative people affects him…well; negatively. Really it affects us all the same way. Some of us however, are not able to know that right away, or can’t get the courage to tell people who are negative to stay away from us.
I had to laugh because I do know that much of this particular singers work is about very sad things, sad things which both do exist and do need attention. The state of the world can seem hopeless indeed at times. In fact if anything shedding light on these things reminds us why we need, more than ever, to stay positive. When seeking singles in chat rooms, being positive and joyful will always garner a better response.
I recently read an article about the effect of complaining on your brain. If you are a complainer or around complainers, you are literally conditioning your brain and the energy around you to be negative. Once you set yourself up this way it can be very difficult to ever be satisfied with anything and worse, ever be happy.
Yikes! What a terrible thing to do to yourself, your friends and family and the world around you. I believe you deserve better. You can shape your world to be a place that you are pleased with. You can see people and places as magnificent and feel blessed to be around them! You can do this, all by simply stomping on ANTs.
Sounds funny doesn’t it? ANTs are Automatic Negative Thoughts and truthfully, most of us suffer from ANTs and we don’t need to. Try stopping yourself the second a complaint is about to come out of your mouth and instead smile and think of something positive to say. If you are about to complain about a meal in a restaurant, instead focus on what’s great about this experience; you are in a restaurant after all! That in itself is wonderful! Very few people in the world can even afford the luxury of dining out. Picture yourself actually stomping on the ANTs crawling inside your head.
If you have people in your life who always complain, consider telling them about ANTs. Tell them that you love them and love being around them when they are positive and happy but when they are negative and complain it actually harms you. It’s like going out when you have a bug and making everyone else infected. Negativity and complaining are just as infectious and destructive. Love yourself enough to speak up for yourself and avoid it when all else fails. You make the world you live in, make it the world you deserve!