What's All The Griping About, Anyway? ~ Sunday Tippets, Damsel Style

Complain, Complain, Complain...

Have you ever noticed how some people complain a lot?

No matter what you say, some people will argue or find fault with everything...

I don’t mean the friends or relatives who always seem to have some health issue or money problem to gripe about, though that’s part of it. I mean the people who seem to find the negative in anything, no matter what it is, and they’ll talk your ear off if you give them a chance.

Some people are just glass-half-empty kind of people.   Yes, some things are difficult and challenging but this is life.  You will usually get out of it depending on what you put into it.  I have always believed that.  The challenges we have aren't "interruptions" to life, they are part of life.  Why complain?

That’s not to say I haven’t ever complained.   I have, in fact, plenty of times.  When I look back at my life, I find that whenever I was having a really rough time, I’d have a tendency to find fault with various things more than I normally would. I saw the pattern, and I started to catch myself because I didn’t like it. It didn’t feel good. I still see it crop up from time to time, but I put a zipper on it and take a look at what’s going on. Why speak of it? What for? Why feed a flame of negativity?  I have to remember that I have a choice.  I have a choice to entertain negativity and complaints or not.  I have a choice in how to respond—or not.

I can smile kindly, listen to someone’s complaints, and
choose how to respond. I can listen, I can validate, I can empathize, and I can commiserate. I can help by problem-solving if asked, and I can brainstorm for solutions. But I don’t have to spend a lot of time with it if all the person wants to do is gripe, especially when there’s no solution to the problem at hand or if it’s really not a big problem in the first place. At least not to me.

The world is neutral. It is not positive or negative, good or bad. We put our interpretations on it, we can see things as good luck or bad, and we can make a choice about what we focus on and what we talk about. We make it what it is, and we have power in our words. 

 

Sunday Tippet  ~ Ways to stop the "griping" and make things more positive in your life:

Recognize abundance

Look for possibilities

Unleash your energy to fix what's wrong

Ride the changes

Take yourself to your edge

Be your best for the world

Tomorrow morning, arise out of bed and say to yourself...Today is going to be a great day!!  

Who are you in this picture???