In life it can seem that everything can go wrong and not much can go right. It is frustrating when your day, week, month or year does not go your way and so many turn to what our generation is often reprimanded for: complaining.

Complaining is a habit. It may start out as a slip of the tongue or even more likely as a conversation starter (as people find it easier to find common ground by complaining), but the more you do it, the more it becomes invisible. Soon, what you thought was just a few harmless words becomes your mindset. In everything that you do you look for a reason to complain. It becomes a search to validate your beliefs and to prove to others that your life is just not fair.

This has more impacts on your life than most people would think. Not only will you be one of the people who is cut out of a friend’s life when they go through a “negativity cleanse,” but complaining has been shown to rewire your brain so you find it easier to be negative than positive. What is even worse is that complaining damages your brain as well. Research from Stanford University shows that complaining shrinks your hippocampus, the part of your brain responsible for intelligent thought and problem solving. And, according to a Huffington Post article, complaining can lead to an increase in the hormone cortisol, impairing your immune system, increasing your risk of diabetes, heart disease and obesity.

So next time you are about to complain about the weather or how slow the freshmen are walking in the hallway (seriously, move faster), realize that the culture of complaining may not be the best for you and work towards seeing the world in a more positive light.