OK, so it may not come as a surprise that hanging out with people who whinge and complain all the time isn’t good for your spiritual or mental wellbeing. But it turns out that all that negativity has a physical effect on the brain’s ‘muscle’ – and can make you dumb!
This article in Inc, Listening to complainers is bad for your brain, quotes a book by Trevor Blake, entrepreneur and author of Three Simple Steps: A Map to Success in Business and Life, which looks at how neuroscientists have measured the impact of complaining on the brain. It can apparently make you negative too – even if you listen to it on TV or radio.
Blake says: “Typically, people who are complaining don’t want a solution; they just want you to join in the indignity of the whole thing.”
Time to tell them to sort themselves out, remove yourself from the situation – or, as he suggests, imagine you’re surrounding yourself in a protective ‘bubble’ or escaping to a secluded beach. Keep practising that technique, and it’ll keep you calm and free from negative infiltration.
inktuition 
I enjoyed reading your blog post. The protective bubble can work very well. I recommend it to my therapy clients all the time when they’re in situations where they can’t avoid people who are behaving in a negative manner. It has the advantage of your being able to see and hear the other person, but you don’t take on their negativity.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting on my blog posts. It’s fascinating to hear from another therapist how effective some techniques are – for ourselves as well as our clients.
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