It's strange, because complaining often does really make us feel better--even if nothing changes. Just "getting it off your chest" can help. There's a release in having expressed your discontent, in finding sympathy from others who agree. We call it venting, because that's what it really does. It releases the pressure and allows some fresh air inside the room.
Of course, it's hard to be around someone who is always complaining. The worst is a one-note complainer, always haranguing on the same wrong that's been done them. We have other words for these folks. Harsher ones, like whiner, moody, bad-tempered, bitter.
If you give in to a desire to complain all the time, you will find that people avoid you. We are all sensitive to the moods around us to some degree and too much time around negative people drags us down.
It's a lesson I have to remind myself of daily, especially at this time of year. I'm a teacher, and this is April. In the flow of a school year, this means that I'm exhausted from the previous months of work, and looking forward into TESTING SEASON (which might as well be called teacher-hunting season). If the testing process doesn't kill me itself by sucking all the joy and love out of the school building, the blame games that come with the results will bury me alive.
Still, it is April. There's plenty to be happy about. Spring has finally arrived. There are flowers blooming in my garden and new freckles on my daughters' cheeks. I'll have a birthday soon, and, even though that will mean I'm older, it will also mean that someone will make me cake and buy me gifts.
See? It's all in looking at the bright side.
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This post is part of the Blogging from A-Z Challenge.
Good article, Samantha. I like the way you balance your negative frustrations with a reminder of the good and positive things in life. Doing that helps us keep perspective, and not become the querulous person no-one likes to be around. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Colin. Like the blog title says: Balancing Act. That's my life :-)
DeleteDefinitely no reason to fill our lives with negativity. The ones that have gotten my recently are on Facebook. The one word post like "sigh" designed to get everyone to ask how awful their lives are. Or the person who posts every negative event or thought and finally I realize all the events in their life have one negative thing in common - them. I'm done with those.
ReplyDeleteMarlene at On Writing and Riding
I've only got so much time for those emotional black-hole sorts of friends. Especially when their troubles are very first-world and non earth-shaking.
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