How negativity hurts

Too much complaining is bad for your brain.

"The brain works more like a muscle than we thought," says Trevor Blake, author of Three Simple Steps: A Map to Success in Business and Life. "So if you're pinned in a corner for too long listening to someone being negative, you're more likely to behave that way as well."
"Typically, people who are complaining don't want a solution; they just want you to join in the indignity of the whole thing,” he adds. “You can almost hear brains clink when six people get together and start saying, 'Isn't it terrible?' This will damage your brain even if you're just passively listening.”

Blake offers these tips:
1. Get some distance
2. Ask the complainer to fix the problem
3. Block out the griping
4. Mentally retreat to your imagined favorite spot.