Are you a complainer? Do you find yourself thinking and speaking about everything that is going wrong in your life? Are you continually looking for negative aspects of different situations and then spending time focused on those aspects?
Well, I’m sorry to say, but if you are a chronic complainer, your brain is in a slow state of physical deterioration. This fact is backed by science from a physiologist Rick Hanson at UC Berkeley who states the following:
“...people who routinely experience chronic stress... release the hormone cortisol, which literally eats away, like an acid bath, at the hippocampus, which is a part of the brain that is very engaged in visual-spatial memory as well as memory for context and setting.”
I found this interesting and instantly became thankful that I am not a complainer. Not only does complaining cause physical harm to your body, it also causes emotional and mental fatigue at high levels.
Eventually, complaining becomes the default neuropathway your mind chooses to travel down every day because you’ve conditioned it to do so.
Perhaps one of the biggest reasons to stay away from complaining is because when you complain, your life situation has no hope of improving. Zero. Your life will only stay the same or get worse when you complain about any area that you choose.
Whatever people focus on, expands. Good or bad. It’s a natural law of the universe. When you complain about an aspect of your life that you don’t like, you are attracting more of that same thing to yourself without even realizing it.
Great, we get it. Complaining is bad. Now what is the remedy for this? How can people shift gears and start changing their outlook on life circumstances from negative to positive?
The answer lies in gratitude and in changing your state. Gratitude is literally one of the most powerful states on the planet. You cannot be in a full state of gratitude and at the same time experience negative emotions.
Gratitude causes a physical and emotional shift that can’t be replicated by anything else. Eventually, after conditioning your mind to focus on things you appreciate in your life, all of a sudden, your emotions begin to realign with who God created you to be.
And then, once that happens, you begin attracting things and experiences into your life that serve you instead of harm you. And magically, gratitude becomes your default state of mind instead of complaining.
There is a woman I know who has been complaining about her husband and about their money problems for over 10 years straight. Let me ask you, do you think anything has changed for the better in her life?
Not only have things not been getting better, but she’s been living in a state of emotional distress for over 10 years.
The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your emotions. Read that again. How you feel day in and day out is your life. You can own or have everything in the world. But if you come home and you’re angry or frustrated all the time, then that is your life, anger and frustration.
Bottom line is... stay FAR AWAY from complaining. It does you no good. It does the people listening no good. And it does the world a disservice because you are not growing into the person God created you to become, making a difference and a positive impact on a hurting world.
Stay encouraged friends. Never give up and always believe.