I was ordering my coffee the other day, and our lovely friend who makes coffee Andre asked how I was going. I was in a particularly chipper mood and said ‘fantastic, honestly what could I possibly complain about!” And he said ‘oh people will find anything’. He explained just earlier he had an exasperating customer that couldn’t find a single thing to be happy about. He ended up saying, ‘well at least you have your two legs and you walked in here’ as the level of complaining was getting ridiculous. To which this customer said ‘yes, but I have a sore on my right foot making it difficult to walk’.
We had a laugh about this, and he said the majority of people when they come to order their coffee, complain about something, whether it’s the weather, the line to order their coffee, their lack of sleep, the crappy day at work they have ahead, how they need a holiday and on and on. As I sipped my coffee I hard thought about complaining.
Why is it so enticing to complain?? I know when I feel low I fall head first into complaining. But it never makes us feel better, and instead, now two people including the person who had to listen to the whining feels a lower vibration too. It never solves anything, or even moves remotely in the direction of resolution or fun or a better experience of life. Yet complain we continue to do.
The thing that shortcuts complaining and moves in the direction of being more conscious and happy is gratitude. When we bring to our awareness the abundance of things that we can be grateful for, we instantly feel more elevated. For example, ‘I have enough money to drink coffee’ and ‘regardless of my sore foot I can walk’, even radically – ‘I am not going to be taken hostage walking outside this shop today’ or simply – ‘I am grateful that I live in a city with great coffee’.
It doesn’t matter how small the thing is that we feel grateful for, or sometimes how ridiculous. If we replace our external complaining with an internal gratitude check in, it’s marvellous how quickly we can transform our mindset and mood.
Sent with love,
Jac x