Spiritual Fridays: Reviews of 24-hour No Complaining Challenge

The Secret
My first thought when I read about the challenge was 'What's the challenge?!' But as I read through the whole thing I realised I was being too cocky. For someone who starts sentences with “Arre yaar...!” quite frequently, it was indeed  a challenge, one that I decided to take up, on a Saturday no less, when work is stressful enough to drive me up the wall and through the roof. And so I began, Saturday dawning just as any other Saturday, or any other day for that matter, but me marshalling all my positive energy and thoughts to succeed at the task I had taken up. The more I stopped myself from complaining, aloud as well as in my mind, the more I realised that it's totally possible to come up with solutions to problems without banging my head on the wall or hyperventilating, something I am quite famous for.

I actually found myself having a good day at work — smiling more often, being nice and polite, taking deep breaths whenever presented with a concern and arriving at a solution calmly. I actually started feeling as if there were some magical forces at work.

But here's the kicker: I failed; I couldn't even last 12 straight hours without a complaint finally slipping through my lips. And yet, it was a memorable day.
I don't mind that I failed, something like this takes practice, after all. Enlightened souls are that for a reason, after putting in a lot to reach that stage. I am nowhere close to it, it might as well be the Everest summit for me at this point.

But it feels like I've been let in on a wonderful secret, that I don't need to be best friends with stress and whining for every little thing to get 'lightbulb!' moments (solutions), that it may take me several sessions to go without complaining for 24 hours or 48 or 72, but just even trying it and putting in some genuine effort feels like a victory in itself.

-Gretta D

Make it a Habit
Complaining, cribbing and crying about things is an easy way to run away from problems. I always believed complaining and cribbing about certain problems was my way of finding solutions, at least I was acknowledging the problem. It had become an integral part of my daily life—cribbing about my job, complaining about no growth, middle-class lifestyle, etc.

I forgot I had a stable job that paid me enough to take care of my basic needs. The job which gave me in the words of Amitabh from his movie, Deewar, “roti, kapda and makaan.” 

After taking this challenge of not complaining for 24 hours, I saw a new 'me'. I know it's not too easy to change in 24 hours, but I felt so much better and happier. Since it was the first time, I made an extra effort to not complain. We are so used to it that we find it very natural and normal to complain without finding solutions. I really want to make this a habit and am sure one day not complaining but being grateful to God of what we have and what we are will be natural. Having said that, I also want to say that cribbing is not bad. As human beings we all have our 'low' days.

Those are the testing times when we have to be stronger and believe in ourselves. We may have many reasons to crib, but we have innumerable reasons to be happy and grateful about. Think about it, while I continue with my attempt to not complain. 

- Shweta Iyer

Keep Calm and Look Within
I have always been low on the complaint meter in general, but then human tendencies cannot be hugely in deviation and so I decided to take up this challenge of limiting my habit of criticism to the extent I could. Our mind needs food continuously and I believe that’s what makes us crib all the time. 

I normally find myself complaining about the way my maid works, how the food prepared by my maid has the same taste no matter the varied ingredients, how the milkman doesn’t deliver milk on time/doesn’t deliver milk at all at times, how the traffic in our city is bad, how the government doesn’t do a thing to improve infrastructure in Mumbai and so on and so forth. 

The first 24 hours of the challenge were tough, as all these thoughts and several similar ones kept coming to my mind, which is when I realized that I needed to think about all these issues with a different perspective. I began to understand that we voice our emotions about a lot of issues mainly because it has become a practice for us, without really trying to understand the circumstances that govern these matters. 

From the next day, I began to think deeper about these issues. Slowly, I made an effort to look into the situation and circumstances of people. I realized that every human being is different and therefore, what I want/think/understand/desire is different from every individual around me. I also realized that every human being is trying to make an effort to improve his/her life and hence, if we try to help each other and minimize criticism we will be able to move ahead as a society.

If we really assess, most of our criticism/complaints are mere statements and there is seldom any action that goes into it. A couple of days later I was on the path to improvement. Even then, I still found myself complaining about people honking in their cars, the traffic moving unceremoniously, people spitting/littering the streets, etc. 

This made me realize that when we take our minds off inconsequential issues, we are able to see larger problems, which really need to be sorted out in our country. 
At the end of a week, I feel I have definitely been able to keep my mind calm, to an extent. I also feel that if each one of us clears our mind and comes together for complaints which are genuine for our progress, a lot of time and energy would be conserved and channelized for the betterment of humanity. 

Having said all of this, there is one complaint that I will never be able to do away with….that of my husband not giving me enough time and to this one I believe all wives in the world would agree.

- Ketaki Aikat

Also Read: http://dnai.in/cv2r