Defend Yourself Against Negativity

Negativity is everywhere. People have a way of making even the most wonderful things turn negative. I don’t know how they do it, or why they do it, just that they do it. Negative people are not my favorite, and I’m sure they aren’t yours either. When someone insists on shoving their negativity in my face, I’ve learned how to defend myself against their negative opinions. Just because someone else is not happy with their own life does not mean that they are going to make me feel badly about mine. Here’s how you defend yourself against negativity.

Don’t Take it Personally

When people try to impress their negativity upon me, I ignore it. I don’t take it personally that they feel negatively toward me, because I know that they really don’t. Their poor attitude is not a reflection of me or my family; it is a reflection of their own personality and their own lack of satisfaction with life. It’s much easier to ignore negativity when you realize that it’s not about you at all.

Spend Less Time with Negative People

We all have negative people in our lives. Some of them we can cut out of our lives completely, and some we still have to see during the holidays, at the office, or during family functions. You can’t help that, but you can limit your time with them and maximize the amount of time you spend with happy, upbeat, positive people.

Be a Good Example

You cannot change everyone. Some people are so unhappy that they’ll never change. However, you can use your own positivity to change the course of a conversation toward something less depressing. When people are around you and your positivity, it’s hard for them to feed their negativity so they will either walk away and avoid you, or they will slowly become more positive.