{"id":7580,"date":"2016-02-10T12:49:36","date_gmt":"2016-02-10T17:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/thoughts-from-campus-ministry-a-complaint-free-life\/"},"modified":"2016-02-10T12:49:36","modified_gmt":"2016-02-10T17:49:36","slug":"thoughts-from-campus-ministry-a-complaint-free-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/thoughts-from-campus-ministry-a-complaint-free-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts from Campus Ministry: A complaint-free life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat you&#8217;re supposed to do when you don&#8217;t like a thing is change it. If you can&#8217;t change it, change the way you think about it. Don&#8217;t complain.\u201d<br \/>\n\u2015 Maya Angelou<\/p>\n<p>Do you find yourself complaining, gossiping, or criticizing others?<\/p>\n<p>Is this practice harming your relationships at home or at work?<\/p>\n<p>Do you constantly feel, irritable, restless, sad, or tired?<\/p>\n<p>We all succumb to these negative feelings from time to time, especially when we feel anxious and pressured by our various responsibilities.<\/p>\n<p>I know that in my own life, I\u2019ve had periods when I complained often. Even when things were going my way, I could always find something to complain about. And I would invariably feel unhappy and miserable (and make others miserable).<\/p>\n<p>Every day, we&#8217;re faced with a choice. We can choose to focus on the negative aspects of our lives or we can choose to focus on our blessings. Sometimes we choose well and sometimes we falter. But as a community, we can support each other through our individual and collective challenges.<\/p>\n<p>This is why I am grateful for our newly-begun <a href=\"http:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wordpress\/start-becoming-happier-now\/\" target=\"_blank\">Complaint-Free Challenge<\/a>. I hope you\u2019ve joined in. If not, you can pick up a bracelet at the Wellness Center.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve decided to begin my challenge today, Ash Wednesday. For Christians around the world, this day begins a 40-day period of fasting and prayer. It\u2019s a time when people reflect on what\u2019s working in their lives and what\u2019s not working. It\u2019s a time when they commit to righting the wrongs in their lives.<\/p>\n<p>May we have to courage to drop the things in our lives that do not serve us or others &#8212; especially complaining, gossiping, and criticizing.<\/p>\n<p>May we commit to living a happier, complaint free life.<\/p>\n<p>And may we wear our purple bracelets as a sign of this commitment.<\/p>\n<p>Cylon George<br \/>\nCampus Chaplain.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Published:<\/strong>\u00a0Wed, 10 Feb 2016 12:49:36 +0000 by\u00a0c.george<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; \u201cWhat you&#8217;re supposed to do when you don&#8217;t like a thing is change it. If you can&#8217;t change it,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2086,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campus-announcements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7580\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}