what i learnt this week 2017 :: WEEK 4

#WhatILearntThisWeek

There is a Chilean saying “que rico es quejar” which translates to it’s lovely to complain.

I grew up hearing this saying (being the massive wog that I am) but as it turns out… it is not true. Complaining is BAD (said in the voice of Mr Mackey from South Park who always says ‘Drugs are bad’).

In 2004 I attended a pain clinic to learn how to live with chronic pain. One of the first things they taught us was that pain responds to attention and the more attention you give it the more pain you will have. It is a downward spiral. This is the reason you will rarely hear me complain about how much bloody pain I am in… it just doesn’t do you any good.

I recently read an article in The Huffington Post titled How Complaining Rewrites Your Brain for Negativity and it was fascinating to learn how bad complaining is for your overall health.

Just like smoking, eating sugar and doing other bad stuff… it feels good to complain. Our brains are very efficient and the more we do an action the more likely we are to keep doing it – as neuroscientists like to say “neurons that fire together, wire together.” It’s what makes our brains so efficient. This efficiency applies to both good and bad behaviour and habits.

So if you complain a lot, then you will continue to complain a lot and it will only get worse. Complaining can also shrink your hippocampus (the part of your brain responsible for problem solving and intelligent thought). Think about that for a minute.

Complaining can also lead to increased blood pressure and blood sugar thanks to the release of the stress hormone cortisol. Excessive exposure to cortisol can also impact your immune system, increases the risk of high cholesterol, diabetes, heart attack and weight gain leading to obesity.

So instead of feeling like a failure because you didn’t lose the weight you wanted to, take stock of your complaining habits and start to make some changes. It might be just as important as doing exercise or eating well.

In short, complaining is bad for your health, shrinks your brain, makes you fat and most likely makes you difficult to be around… time to reconsider mindless complaining.

You can read the article here.

Get in touch via Twitter, Instagram or by email 🙂