Five Surefire Ways to Deal with Negative People

Imagine this: you've woken up today feeling the best you've ever felt in a long time. You've eaten a good breakfast, exercised, even managed to sit very still for more than five minutes without a single fidget. You start your day out with a smile and everything goes along swimmingly until... Mr Negative pops up in your line of sight and makes a beeline for you. He complains, he snipes, he cries about how everything is going wrong for him. As you listen you can feel your positivity drain from you. You actually feel physically weaker listening to him. What can you do to stop this energy vampire from stealing your happiness from you?

1. Be Still.

First off, don't panic. Don't look around the room for an escape, as best as you can don't even react to what you hear or see. Simply be still and try to let the parade of negativity pass by you, around you and through you.

By not reacting to the mental bullets that Mr. Negativity is shooting you, you actually have taken the first step towards taking back what he is attempting to take from you, namely, your positivity. It won't necessarily extricate you from this perilous situation but it is a very good start.

2. Be Understanding.

Make sure you don't add to the negativity. Realize that there's a pretty good chance that this guy doesn't even realize that he's being the way he is. I've even come across some negative people who actually believe that they're actually being positive. Sometimes whenever I'm trapped in a situation I actually look at how my feelings are when I'm listening to him. The result is that the negative feelings I'm beginning to feel aren't so powerful.

Doing this gives you the chance to distance yourself from the negative feelings. In turn, the feelings themselves are less intensified. Because of this you are then able to see other solutions to the problem and you're able to make a decision about what to do next.

3. Don't Go There