Grumble, Grumble, Boil and Trouble
Okay- so maybe that’s not exactly what the three witches in Macbeth said, but … isn’t it? I mean, he was fine until they planted the seed of discontent in his head. That seed grew- he grumbled. He complained. He became more discontent. More angry. More self righteous. And, finally, began acting in that bitter seed.
This morning, I looked up what the Bible says about complaining. I’m not gonna lie, I was surprised by just how many verses came up. It made me think about the neurological connection between complaint and our brains.
We know God has been instructing us in scientifically proven strategies to live happy, fulfilled lives for more than 2000 years – and now the science is catching up.
There is a lot written about gratitude – what I found interesting is that gratitude and complaint are opposite but don’t hold equal weight. Because of our protective instincts- negativity holds more weight in order to keep us safe, so we can be actively working on our gratitude and undoing our progress with complaining.
That golden ratio is 5 to 1. For every one complaint- you need FIVE expressions of gratitude just to break even. It seems to me that it’s a whole lot easier to stop complaining than to try to 5X the gratitude for every negative I encounter.
If we quit complaining AND add gratitude the consequences are literally transformative. I’m going to try it and I let you know how it goes! Let me know if you’re going to try with me- I’d love to hear all your good news.
Be Blessed and Keep Thriving!
A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
Leave a Reply