Quit complaining – Studies also say Complaining affects your Brain!

My kids are messy
My boss is ineffective
Everyone just gossips in that church  <- (How did you know that, by the way???)

Have you ever sat in a bus or train, and overheard conversations of people chatting around you? If we pay closer attention, many conversations are just belching out complaints, or using complaints as a conversation opener:
Isn’t the weather just so terrible today?
Boy, the traffic was ridiculous!

We say we are venting, getting it off our chest, sharing our woes.  I am not saying you become a pressure cooker, keeping it all bottled in till it affects you.   You have heard me say that I believe it is good to talk.   But…but, if we keep complaining, and form a habit of it, (especially if it is always the SAME THING), whatever we may call it, it is COMPLAINING.

Complaining affects our health. It can have huge implications on our mental, physical and emotional health.  But before I jump into the details of that, let me get this one quickly in…

Don’t you just think we have become a generation of unashamed complainers? Let’s be honest.

We are so easily offended and wounded.  There has to be at least one individual that is offended by something you say, write, share or post.   Yep! Past generations did not take for granted what we do today.  Furthermore, they had monumental patience compared to us today.   Our forefathers could easily overlook a lot of things.  

Today, we read into everything, scan for hidden agendas, try to tell the other person what they actually meant (can you imagine?) when they said something. Or we look out for the invisible ink between every line.

Complaining affects your brain … makes you dumb too?

Complaining is stressful. I read that complaining has been shown to have permanent effects on the brain. Did you notice the word, permanent? Das ist nicht gut! (That is German for ‘that is not good’).

This post from Stanford University  shows the effects of stress on the brain.   There have been studies to show that our own complaining impairs our brain’s hippocampus.

The hippocampus is the part of the brain that is involved in memory forming, organizing, and problem solving.  In a study by Hampel 2008 showed that it is the first part of the brain to have damage in Alzheimer’s disease.

Negative thinking empowers the negative thoughts in your brain

I also read that every time you think negatively or complain, you actually empower and strengthen the negative thought muscles in your brain.  This is how thinking negative soon becomes natural.

Now if the research on this is accurate, this is serious business; complaining is no joke!

And by my own experience, chronic complainers are usually negative minded people.   You got to do your own research and findings on this matter when you have finished reading this blog.

Listening to Complainers can also make you dumb…oh dear

So, they tell us complaining affects your brain.  Now here is something else…There is also so much on the internet on studies showing how listening to complainers can also make you dumb.   Well, I can believe that too. Complaining does not change a thing.   Here’s my point.   Complaining for the sake of it but not getting results, is pointless.   Which then only leads to more complaining.

How dumb is that?

Complaining affects our emotions

Constant complaining or listening to complaints will also certainly affect our mood. Complainers often sound like victims. And that is because constant whining leaves you feeling victimized or helpless. Complaining makes one feel unhappy. Chronic complainers are unhappy people.

It seems to be a vicious circle. They were probably unhappy about something which caused them to complain. This made them unhappy which only increased the complaints, making them more unhappy. And so the cycle continues.  

You feel lethargic, demotivated and deflated after listening to a barrage of complaints

Now let me switch gears for a minute before I round up and give you one more caveat.

How complaining affects others

Complaining affects others.  The fact is no one likes listening to constant whining.  That is the stark truth!

Constant complaining repels friendships, makes you unpopular and annoying.. 

The more you are around negative people, in particular complainers, the more it affects you and you find you start becoming like them.  Author of Three Simple Steps: A Map to Success in Business and Life, Trevor Blake likened hanging around complainers to second hand smoking.

Blake’s father was a chain smoker. The only way Blake could protect his lungs was to distance himself.  Or he would become a second hand smoker. The same, he said is true of complainers.

This thought is also re-echoed by Jon Gordon, author of the No Complaining Rule.

Being around someone who is complaining and whining could make you into an angry, depressed and /or frustrated person.   

Now, for the records, there is a place for complaining positively. But good constructive complaining will be a topic for another day!  So if you want to empower your brain, you know what to do…quit complaining!

Any books listed in this blog, do not serve as endorsements of the books.

Related articles

• New Research Says Complaining Is Literally Making You Sick And Killing You
• The No Complaining Project

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