Jaimie H- Stop Gossip...

This challenge was tougher than I thought! I tried many ways throughout the week to not gossip including avoiding people who I know gossip a lot, changing the subject, silence and prayer. When I was conscience of what I was doing I was able to use one of these methods to not gossip. However, sometimes I was on my usual auto-pilot mode and sure enough I turned into one of the "gossip-types", usually the babbler, or lover of gossip! One of my downfalls is certainly after a couple of drinks. At the beginning of my girls night out I was very conscious of my words and thoughts. By the end of the night I had told two girls that my boss smokes (which she asked me not to tell) and I also revealed information about another co-worker that was private....just to babble on about the information I had. It was as if I couldn’t control what was rolling off my tongue. I felt so proud of myself at the beginning of the night, and when I stepped out of the car at the end of the night I was appalled and ashamed at how I failed at my attempt to not gossip for the night. I realized that this challenge was harder than it seemed and how gossip is so intertwined in our lives. I could go on and on about other examples during the week but what I learned is that it is going to be something that I will struggle with for the rest of my life. I really did feel better about myself as a person on those occasions over the week that I didn’t add to the conversation, or run and tell another friend about something that I learned. To be silent is definitely a virtue that I will strive for. It’s as if I feel like I need to respond when people are gossiping to me about someone. Instead of perhaps offering them some thoughts on why that person is the way they are and perhaps helping a friend deal with a situation with another friend or colleague by offering a positive suggestion or solution, I add fuel to the fire. Thanks for shedding the light on this subject and giving me some tools to help me on this life-long journey to decrease the gossip in our world.