Every year, as I enter the Thanksgiving season, I contemplate gratitude. I make a point to foster an attitude of gratitude in our home and create a home environment conducive to slowing down and counting our blessings. I don’t need science to tell me this, but I recently read an article titled, “Complaining is bad for your health.” I know why this is, but do you?
Besides the obvious fact that no one wants to be around someone who complains all the time, complaining rewires the brain to make future complaining more likely. That is how the brain works. Your neurons grow closer together and the connections between them become more permanent. “Neurons that fire together wire together.” I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to train my brain to work against me. Isn’t that what complaining does to you? Constant complaining pits you against the world. You are actively training your brain and your eyes to look for all the ways you were wronged or how something didn’t work out for you.
Complaining is also quite literally bad for your health. Research from Stanford University has shown that complaining shrinks the hippocampus…shrinks it. What is the hippocampus? It’s not that big of a deal; it’s only the part of your brain critical for problem-solving and intelligent thought! When you complain, your body also releases cortisol, which shifts you into fight or flight mode. Cortisol is known as the stress hormone. When your body consistently has elevated cortisol, your immune system is weakened, you begin to store belly fat, your body becomes chronically stressed, and you can experience other systems like fatigue, headaches, intestinal problems and high blood pressure.
Proverbs 23:7 says, “As a man thinketh, so is he.” If I can train my brain to do anything, I want to train it to do things that are beneficial to me. David Cuschieri said, “The mind is a powerful force. It can enslave us or empower us. It can plunge us into the depths of misery or take us to the heights of ecstasy. Learn to use the power wisely.”
When my sons start to complain too much, I tell them they are building a complaining bridge in their brain. I then ask them to tell me two things they are thankful for. I am teaching them to look for the good in their life. Seem simple? That’s because it is. When you are tempted to complain, you must stop yourself and recite out loud what you are thankful for. I try to say five things that I am blessed by. If I am in a particularly bad mood, I might list as many things as I can in a 20-minute car ride. Life isn’t perfect and it never will be. There will be hardship, but hardship doesn’t have to break us. Some of the happiest and most peaceful people I have ever met have been through some of the most heartbreaking, life altering situations. It’s possible.
I would love to hear your feedback. If you have been enjoying my articles, please visit hshaygood.com and click The Love Journey tab to order your copy of my new book and sign up for weekly emails. My emails are fresh and different from my weekly Globe articles.
“Love is a journey not a destination.”
Comentarios