Turn complaining into something soulful. 

We all know someone who has elevated the process of complaining to a high art.  All they do is complain! (Wait, let's NOT point the fingers) All WE do is complain.  I've certainly been guilty of this.  The wisdom traditions advise us on how to transform complaining into something useful and soulful.  Take a moment to turn our critical eye to look at things we can change and then change by taking positive actions. 

Tear down + recreate = transformation!

Complaining is one of our ways of acknowledging that we're not happy with certain life circumstances.  When we complain or criticize, we are tearing down an undesirable life situation in order to make room for something new.  The challenge with most is, all they do is tear down and they forget to summon the creative energy to recreate something new. This can be very dangerous and destructive in our own lives as well as those we love. When we complain, we tend to focus it on three areas:

• Life situation or circumstance. 
• A person.
• Ourselves.

The challenge with pointing the fingers at what's wrong is, we can't change life situations of the past, nor can we change other people.  If we continue to point fingers, this will be a way of deflection attention from the one person we can change- ourselves. The wisdom traditions point to "Being the change we want to see in the world" as sometimes our complaints are projections of areas within that we want to change.

In a more evolved form, consider when we complain as the ability to see what's not working.  Ask yourself,"What do I really want and need out of this person or life circumstance?" When we ask the more empowering questions we channel a negative habit into a creative process.  

Take a moment now to consider a current challenge, complaint or grievance.  How would the challenge resolve if you were more compassionate, patient, supporting or loving?  Most complaints are about other people, right?  Keep this in mind, no matter how thinly we slice it, there are always two sides.

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