Yoga and Positive Psychology: Calm the Complaining Mind

What do you really want?

What makes you happy?

What gives your life meaning?

What are your strengths?

I ask my clients these questions all the time and almost always they respond with a long silence followed by “I don’t know” or “I’m not sure, I’ve never really asked myself those questions.”

When we’re at a point in our lives when we feel unhappy, overwhelmed, stressed, anxious or depressed, we’re often consumed with complaints, excuses and reasons why we can’t have what we want.

Yet many of us find it difficult to articulate clearly what it is we truly desire. We’re trapped in the mental loop of what we don’t want. We feel stuck. Life becomes heavy and we feel compelled to complain. 

In reality, complaining is one of the most toxic barriers to long-term happiness, because it leaves us a victim of life, and too often blocked from any new or positive ideas or actions.

But the truth is most things we complain about are changeable. So why don’t we just stop complaining and change the problem? A chronic complaint likely falls under one of these three categories:

1. We’re unwilling to change what we can, and instead focus our attention on what we can’t change about the person, situation or relationship, and get stuck in the problem.

2. We’re not ready to change. We have an excuse why now is not a good time or the right time.

3. We simply don’t know how to change and we need help.

4 Key Factors for Creating Positive Change

1. Most of what we complain about is changeable.

2. We are hardwired and designed for change.

3. All of us are capable of learning and developing the knowledge, wisdom and inner resources to make the necessary changes we desire.

4. Change requires action. 

Deep down we know this. In fact, the very reason we complain is that somewhere in our imagination and desires we already know there is something better for us. We can see it and even feel it.

This vision, even if unclear, creates a tension between where we are and where we want to be, and what we ultimately want to experience.

Most change, however, involves taking risks and stretching beyond our comfort zone. So instead we complain and avoid taking new action and/or building the inner resources we need.

The result is that chronic complaining produces stress, anxiety and overwhelm. Eventually, that tension between what we’re experiencing, and what we want to have, is too great, and we suffer. Thankfully, there is another way.

The yoga tradition and positive psychology show us how to take control of our focus, clean up our thinking, and most important, pay attention to where we want to go and what we want to have. They give us step-by-step positive, consistent and sustainable action. 

Combine Yoga and Positive Psychology to Calm the Complaining Mind

Here is a simple practice that combines both spiritual practice and modern positive psychology:

• Sit quietly and gently put your hands on your heart. Take three deep breaths in and out as if you were breathing through your heart. 

• Then, bring to heart one thing in your life that you’re grateful for and breathe in and out three more times into your heart. Continue to breathe in this way until you begin to truly feel gratitude.

• When you feel settled, ask yourself these five questions:

1.  If I wasn’t afraid, what would I do?

2.  What part of what I’m complaining about can I change, accept or leave?

3.  What is holding me back?

4.  What action am I willing to take now to overcome my fear and move forward and toward a solution?

5.  How can I be kinder to myself today?

Another way to get unstuck is to increase the positive creative energy within us and to connect with the larger creative energy around us. Here is a transformative twist on the traditional gratitude journal. It comes from Martin Seligman, Ph.D., often referred to as the father of positive psychology and a leader in the study of happiness and life satisfaction.

• At the end of your day, write down three things that went well and why they went well.

• Answer these questions to help you get clear on why it went well—and learn to retrain your brain to think more positively and constructively— and leave complaining in the past. 

1. Why did it happen?

2. What did I do to help this happen?

3. What did I do well?

4. Why did I do that?

•  Next, write down one thing that didn’t go well today.

•  Answer these two valuable and transformative questions to help develop inner awareness, resilience, and confidence, and then go into action, if necessary.

1. If I focus on this, how is this keeping me stuck?

2. When I feel stuck, what are the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that can help me get unstuck?

Practicing these techniques on a daily basis will aid in transforming our thoughts and emotions from a negative and disempowered state into a positive and expansive one. In this mental and emotional condition, we become much more open to good possibilities and to solutions.

Make these practices a daily discipline. Pay attention so that you will notice when wonderful new insights surface. Happiness is not just the absence of misery (anxiety, stress, overwhelm); it is also the presence of joy, hope, and resilience.

Study alignment with YogaUOnline and Shy Sayer – Anatomy of Perfect Alignment: Every Body, Every Time.

Want another practice for Stress Relief?  Here’s a practice from Olga Kabel – Relief Excess Mental Energy: Sturdy as a Mountain Yoga Practice.

Reprinted with permission from JoyStoneCoaching.com

Joy Stone is an experienced and certified Yoga Teacher and Personal Transformation Coach. She is also the founder of Soul Subscription – a holistic online membership designed to help you stay consistent on your spiritual path, and true to yourself. With over 13 years of professional experience, she is passionate about helping men and women break free from fear, frustration and overwhelm and breakthrough into a life they truly love. Joy’s special style of coaching uniquely blends the most essential tools & life-empowering practices from eastern and western psychology & philosophy. She received her positive psychology education under Harvard Professor, Tal Ben-Shahar, Wholebeing Institute and her yoga teaching certification under the Anusara style — a therapeutic application of yoga psychology and practice. You can learn more about Joy and her work at www.joystonecoaching.com