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The Problem Of Complaining At The Past Thirty Days

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Jack McGrath
Mrs. Groninger
AP Language Period 2
9 November, 2015
No Complaints Here For the past thirty days, I have attempted to completely stop complaining. This was very challenging for me, as I am notorious for complaining about school, waking up, and just about anything that could cause the slightest discomfort. Unexpectedly, I did exceptional in this challenge, catching myself before I would start to go on a rant. After the first week, I began to notice that it had become easier to let my annoyances go and get past them without wasting fifteen to twenty minutes in misery, dreading my task. But, there were some times throughout the thirty days where some complaints slipped out of my mouth without me realizing until five minutes …show more content…

So what should we do, keep them to ourselves? Not necessarily; “Psychologically, it’s really unhealthy to squelch complaints,” said author and psychologist, Guy Winch, “By not complaining aloud, it doesn’t mean the dissatisfaction has gone away. You’re just not voicing it.” Throughout the challenge, I noticed that the complaint grew progressively worse if I kept it in my head, rather than venting to others. This is because you don’t feel the release of the stress hormones, and the thought lingers in your mind until you let it out.
By the second week of the challenge, I was starting to become accustomed to not complaining. But, I started to notice that if I was around people who often complained I would feel the urge to complain much stronger. A recent study by Murray Munro, a Linguistics professor at Simon Fraser University, shows that second-hand complaining was even more harmful to the individuals than their own self-generated whining (Osgood). This shows how if you are around people with negative energy, you will often be motivated to complain as well. Of course, being around other complainers isn’t the only way to feel the urge to gripe, we’re all human; we experience stress on a daily basis. According to Statistic Brain Research Institute, 73% of Americans regularly experience psychological symptoms caused by stress, and 50% experience anger or irritability while stressed. At first, how do you

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