Do you ever find yourself surrounded by a bunch of negative nellys? Every time you try to look on the brighter side of life these people are quick to throw out all the reasons why the brighter side is “naive” or “not reality.”
Here’s the thing – their negativity is more about how they see the world and what’s right for them, which is obviously not right for you. Remember this so you don’t get sucked in.
And when you find yourself surrounded by negativity here are a few things you can do:
1. Be present and protect yourself. Listen, but before you do, first imagine pulling a giant bubble up over you (like you’re pulling a big bubble wand up from your legs to up over your head). Doing this can help put a barrier so that you can be present and listen without taking on their negativity.
2. Give them an out. Sometimes people don’t know any other way and going from negative to positive can feel like too big of a leap. Since making that leap feels so uncomfortable the second you try to go there, you get a lot of arguing or push back. The good news is you don’t have to go from one to the other, find that place in the middle that bridges that gap. For example, someone talking about their job being really stressful (focused on all the negatives), you could respond with, “wow – I’m really impressed that you’ve been able to find a way to focus on your work and not get caught up in all the stress – how do you do it?” This shifts the conversation to them talking about how they’re winning in a tough situation.
3. Remind yourself about why you hold the positive perspective that you do. What makes it important to you? Odds are, it helps you in some way, it helps you to get the life experience that you want. Remember that.
Not only does it help you stay grounded in your convictions but it also helps you to remember that everyone gets to create the life experience they want – you want yours to be positive. If someone doesn’t want the same, that’s on them.
You don’t have to change that. The cool thing is, you living your positivity will undoubtedly improve your life. What more proof can those naysayers need? So don’t worry about convincing them to do things differently just show them what it’s like to live on the other side! You might be surprised that people will start asking you how to get there!