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Good news for French people considered grumpy: complaining can also contribute to your daily happiness. But only in a certain context does a study teach us. Find out which one.
Optimists do not have a monopoly on happiness. According to a new scientific study, seeing the glass as half empty and complaining about it can also impact well-being and make us happy. A revelation that twists the neck of the injunctions to permanent happiness. Yes, but there is one element that matters: it is not about ruminating endlessly.
Co-rumination with a loved one, the key to happiness?
The team of researchers from the Southwest University conducted on more than 2,600 middle school students with an average age of 14 and examined the relationship between rumination and life satisfaction. Scientists have thus discovered that lamentations and complaints allow them to flourish, but only under certain conditions: when they are done in the company of a close friend or your spouse, in short, a person who will complain with you. It’s not really the negative thoughts that are the source of your satisfaction, but rather the fact of sharing them (and being understood) with someone who matters.
Good in his body, good in his head!
Obsessive lamentations, to be distinguished from confessions
The study does not say, however, that you have to moan and ruminate all day to feel good. Moreover, obsessive lamenting, never being happy and constantly rehashing one’s problems has a negative correlation with the level of life satisfaction. Complaining all the time therefore reduces fulfillment. And can also affect your relationships.
But having a discussion with a loved one to explain your current problems, and feeling their support, or possibly thinking about a solution together, that tends towards a positive outcome and brings you comfort. It goes to show that complaining is good for your mental health, but only do it in good company!
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