When’s the last time you had to
deal with a negative person? How did you handle it? Did you attack back,
navigate through the situation with grace or walk away feeling bad about
yourself?
Taking a moment to review a
negative situation, while we’re calm, allows us to think about productive
avenues for handling future negative people and situations. (Seriously
reviewing any past situation allows us to think of better alternatives for the
future.)
You may ask, why bother to have
any forethought about our responses? The answer is simple; we damage ourselves
by feeding into other people’s cycle of negativity!
Wherever we go, we are inevitably
going to face people who are negative, people who oppose our ideas, people who
piss us off or people who simply don’t like us. That’s the way life is, we are
all, thankfully, different. Our differences are not the cause of conflict but
they do trigger our emotions. Our emotions are what drive us back to our basic
survival instinct of React and Attack. But, we have the ability to keep our
emotions in check and control our responses.
Have you ever noticed that
negativity spreads? I’ve found that if I’m around a negative minded person,
their negativity starts to affect my thoughts and judgments. I’ve learned that
when people initiate negativity, it is a direct reflection of their obvious
self-dissatisfaction. People are often so bored and unhappy with their own
lives that they want to bring others down too. Reacting to someone who is
negative will only trigger anger and additional negative responses from that
person. If we do respond, we have wasted our energy upon the unproductive.
Energy wasted on negative people is energy that could have been spent on a
million other, far more important issues.
Some people may have a less than
articulate way of expressing themselves, it may even be offensive, but they are
still entitled to do so. They have the right to express their own opinions and
we have the right and willpower to choose our responses. There is a wonderful
quote by Alex Noble, “If I have been of service, if I have glimpsed more of the
nature and essence of ultimate good, if I am inspired to reach wider horizons
of thought and action, if I am at peace with myself, it has been a successful
day.” Noble sums up the true spirit of being at peace with one’s self. It’s a
beautiful quote and perhaps one that we need to remember at the end of the day.
There is but one ride in this life … enjoy the journey!
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