people who never stop complaining can make you crazy. here's what maybe we don't know: people who never stop complaining can make you dumb.
wellthinkaboudit! it makes sense...explains a lot.
i wouldn't have chosen to be in the test group for this particular study, but it's interesting, what they found. apparently brain chemistry actually changes when a person is exposed to too much negative talk. the decrease of certain natural enzymes leads to negativity, depression, anger and ultimately to stupidity. OMG! Stop watching Fox right now!! Stop watching network TV all together cause the news is always bad and the reality shows are worse. Stay away from AOL, too, unless you just have to hear it one more time how some actress fell down drunk and slipped a mammary or how one crack addicted man ate an entire pizza by himself without sharing. A healthy alternative is to watch cartoons. I recommend the series "Peep" which is insanely wonderful, as well as "Roly Poly Oly" and "Kipper the Dog". For movies, try Disney classics like "Jungle Book". Sing along whenever possible.
but i digress. i think what they missed in that study is that negativity is also addictive. for some folks, once they've had that first hit of adrenalin that comes with reliving an offense, they just can't stop without reliving all the bad they've got. depending on age and how well they've kept score, all they've got can be a lot. my mom, for example,...lotta years, meticulous score card. as she talks, i fantasize just slowly standing up and then running as hard and fast as i can, straight into the wall.
i am aware that i feel all kinds of negative by the end of a 2 day visit with her. that's why i drive 10 hours each way, instead of flying. i don't want to get home before i've recovered and it never fails that there's something along the way to distract me, something in nature that serves as a defrag for all the static i've absorbed. at various times, it's been a starving stray by the side of the road that i've tried to catch or at least to feed and then to pray for, the rest of the way home. and more than once i've had a hawk swoop low and close across my line of sight, raising my spirit as it lifts toward heaven.
often, the dogs at the shelter do that for me, as well. i went in today with a accumulation of small irritations and though i wasn't doing it out loud, inside my head i was starting to whine. my phone's lost and my basement's wet, how bad will it get? how bad will it get? even as i walked the dogs, i was stuck in the frustration/self-pity conversation. what brought me back to the moment was a medium sized shepherd mix named Arizona, who cowered at the back of the kennel, flinching as i reached for her and then crouching through the lobby but who, when we'd been outside for a while, walking in the rain, through the tall grass, suddenly started hopping with joy. she'd prance a few steps, pause to look back at me to see if it was ok and then spring forward like a bunny - all 4 feet in the air. At one point, she did 3 bunny hops in a row and i can't tell you how good it made me feel...how i laughed out loud and how much i wanted to hop right along with her, for the sheer silliness of it.
maybe i'll do that next time...cause hopping will be good for me as cardiovascular training, cause it might entertain passing motorists and also cause i'm pretty sure that if they did a study, they'd find that a little bit of silly is the perfect antidote to a lot of whine.
No comments:
Post a Comment