I have always believed that venting was healthy. It enabled us to get things off our chest and out of our head. Keeping it in was somehow suppressing it and doing more emotional damage than necessary.
A recent article says that might not be true. The essence of the article is that venting causes you to re-live the bad experience twice, which cements it more in your brain. It even found that you don't feel better after venting, but you feel worse that day and the next day.
I tend to believe that venting isn't an all-or-nothing thing. There are times when you can feel better after venting, and other times when it may have negative impacts.
To me, the essence of venting is this question: what now? If you need to vent just to get it off you mind and then you will move forward - awesome. If you vent and it just stays there as a constant state of frustration, then venting isn't helping.
Also, if you do it too much, other people stop wanting to be around you. After all, who wants to be in a negative environment too often.
Pay attention to when and how you, and your team, vent. Is it being done in a healthy way, or is it having a corrosive effect.
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