International No Whinging Day

‘International No Whinging Day’ and ‘Fun Friday’.

This is an open invite to every person on the planet to the 4th ever ‘International No Whinging Day’ on ‘Fun Friday’ – 22n January 2016. In honour of Candice Marie Roberts and to raise awareness of Guillain Barre Syndrome.

In honour of a fantastically positive young lady Candice Marie Roberts, who indescribably sadly died of the rare and horribly debilitating Guillain Barre Syndrome on her 26th birthday in 2010, I decided to launch ‘International No Whinging Day’ a few years ago. The reason for me picking the date is that the third Monday in January has been Christened as ‘Miserable Monday’, as ‘research’ has shown it’s the most miserable day of the year in the UK with people still being in the depth of winter, the joy of Christmas has worn off and the bills to pay for it haven’t. So I think we should fight back with ‘Fun Friday’ at the end of that week.

My idea for the day first and foremost is that people become aware of just how much they whinge normally, and hopefully decide to become more positive in the future. For one day I challenge you to not make any negative comments about your life or anyone else. I’m thinking homes, work places and schools instead of ‘swear boxes’ could have ‘whinging boxes’, any time somebody moans, they have to donate to the box. Of course you might want to set an upper limit, some people could bankrupt themselves if they moaned as much as normal. In the evening ‘Fun Friday’ can take the form of ‘Positive Parties’, where there’s no whinging or negativity allowed and everybody will have a good time.

This year I've added to it by allowing the day before to be 'get all your whinges out' day, so for one day you are allowed to complain about all the things that are really bothering you, and people should take turns listening to each other. That should help you get them all out of the way for the day itself, and allow you to see which of the two days you enjoy the most.

Candice was always happy to help others, backed up by her several stints of volunteer work, and she often liked to look on the bright side of life. She even wrote a list of all the things she loves about life, how many of us do that? We’re often quick to tell people about all the things we don’t like, I’m sure people would prefer to hear about things we do like. As an exercise in cheering yourself up, writing such a list, and subsequent readings of it, could be fantastic.

The biggest thing I want from the day is an Increased awareness of Guillain Barre Syndrome, had Candice survived, she would’ve undoubtedly done a massive amount to raise awareness for the condition, so her family set up the Candice Marie Roberts Foundation to help do just that. So if you could please tell as many people as possible about this day and spread the word, by forwarding the message, liking the facebook page etc. On the subject of facebook, any negative status updates on the day would count for a fine into the ‘whinging box’! Maybe the day won’t be that big in 2013, but hopefully it will grow year on year and the only way that’ll happen is if people spread the word.

Generally humans love to whinge and moan, they’ll tell you all about how they work too many hours, don’t earn enough money, have a headache, how annoying their partner can be, how bad the weather is, how their friends have upset them, how much everything costs, how unreliable public transport is, how much horrible housework they have to do, how bad their hangover is making them feel, how they’ve not had a holiday since their last one, how some celebrity or television programme annoys them, that a sports official has had the temerity to make a decision that doesn’t favour their team................that their wallet isn’t big enough for their fifty pound notes, their Ferrari won’t start, their butler is off sick and their Pony isn’t well

It will be great to have a day when all the fortunate people in the world realise just how lucky they are, if they work too many hours they should be thankful they have a job at all, if they feel they don’t get paid enough they should think of all the people in the world that get paid far less, if they have a headache they should be glad that’s the most serious health issue they have to deal with, if their partner is annoying at times they should be thankful they are with someone they love and aren’t lonely, all the research shows that no amount of whinging can affect the weather, if their friends have upset them one night they should be thankful they have so many friends, if the price of everything upsets them then they should be glad for all the things they can afford, if housework is getting them down they should be thankful they have a house to look after, some scientists are now saying if you don’t drink alcohol then you won’t get a hangover, any holiday should be seen as a great luxury and not a necessity, if a celebrity or television programme annoys them then they can ignore them and be thankfully they are lucky enough to have access to a television and be aware of the celebrities existence, and as for the refereeing decisions, they really should get over them.

Each year I like to do some physical challenges, long walks, bike rides a ‘tennisathon’ etc for charity, I’m sure I’ll come up with some equally silly challenges this year, but I wanted to come up with something that could reach a much wider audience and last forever.

To donate any money to Guillain Barre Syndrome Support Group, in Candice’s name visit my justgiving page: https://www.justgiving.com/Rob-Watson0

For more details on the syndrome visit: http://www.gbs.org.uk/

To show your support for the day visit and ‘like’: https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tinyman#!/pages/International-No-Whinging-Day-and-Fun-Friday/283424335030465