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How to Stay Positive Around Negative People.
The atmosphere you are in can heavily impact your mindset.
This includes both your physical environment and especially the people you are around.
You may feel calm when you are at the beach, listening to the waves crash, or perhaps the positive vibes from your friends are contagious when you are all sitting around a table laughing.
On the flip side, sometimes your atmosphere is less than ideal, and it can have a negative impact on you.
Think about the way you feel around negative people.
Do you have a tendency to be brought down with them, or do you find it easy to brush off their mood?
If you are strongly impacted by negative people, that is totally normal and you are not alone.
However, there are ways to stay positive around negative people.
With a little bit of practice and implementing these strategies, you will be able to stay positive around negative people, no matter what your atmosphere looks like.
1. Kill them with kindness
Instead of falling prey to the negativity of others, respond with kindness and compassion.
Eventually, they should feel silly for acting in a negative way once they see that it is not affecting you.
Even if the negative people do not change, you can have the satisfaction of knowing you are helping the situation and not making it worse.
2. Stand up for yourself but remember your values
You are your own best advocate.
You know yourself better than anyone else, and if someone is facing you in a negative way, be sure to stand up for yourself.
No one else can defend you the way you can.
Just be sure that when you are defending yourself, do not do it in a harsh manner.
You would never want to compromise your integrity.
Remember your values of respect, kindness, honesty, and whatever else is important to you.
3. Prepare for the situation
If you know a tough conversation or interaction with a negative person is coming, do your best to prepare for it.
Practice what you are going to say and how you are going to respond. Know what triggers you, and reflect on how you can handle those triggers.
Repeat positive mantras and affirmations to yourself, and keep these at the forefront of your mind.
If possible, try to have a friend or loved one present to support you and help back up your stance.
4. Set boundaries
Boundaries are so important, especially when they stand between you and those who do not serve you well.
There are many different ways to set boundaries depending on what you are protecting yourself from.
One way is to not discuss certain aspects of your life that bring about negative remarks from specific people.
5. Choose positivity, not defensiveness
When having difficult discussions, especially ones with negative people, it is human nature to respond in a defensive manner.
However, defensiveness only leads to debate, arguments, and more negativity.
Be the bigger person and respond with positivity.
Look at the bright side of things and be sure to take the other person’s feelings into account, regardless of whether or not they are doing the same for you.
6. Remember your truths
Sometimes, people like to try to tell you who you are.
This is great when those people have your best interests at heart and are only trying to support you, but unfortunately, that is not always the case.
People may say that you are bossy or too much to handle, but only you get to decide who you are.
Remember your truths when you are faced with a negative person.
Related Reads:
- How to Catch Your Breath When Life Gets Crazy
- 8 Ways to Have a Healthier Relationship with Social Media
- 10 Habits to Consistently Live Your Best Life
7. Only control what you can control
The only things that you can control when you are around negative people are your thoughts, actions, and reactions.
Focusing on the things you cannot control will only leave you feeling frustrated and let down.
The truth is, you cannot control the reactions of negative people.
You may be able to influence them, but you still cannot decide how they will respond to you.
Focus on yourself and show yourself love and patience.
8. Think about the long-term
Sure, this situation you are in might be uncomfortable in the moment, but will it matter next month?
In a year from now?
10 years from now?
Chances are, it won’t.
Do not dwell on encounters with negative people, especially if they are not going to matter in the long run.
Focus on what is best for you long-term, and find some comfort in that.
9. Focus on your own personal development and self-care
One way to stay positive around negative people is to really pour into yourself.
Do you practice self-care often and work on your own personal development and growth?
It may be a challenge to stay positive if you do not do that inner work first.
Read some personal development books, take a bubble bath, work with a life coach, or do something else that is going to serve you and push you to become the best version of yourself.
10. Journal on the situation afterward
Sometimes the interactions with negative people can really affect you, and it is important to get some closure from the situation.
Without closure, you will dwell on it and hold a grudge against the person for a long time.
After a difficult encounter, journal on the situation.
Reflect on how you handled it well and what you can do better next time.
Show yourself lots of forgiveness and give yourself grace, as it is not easy to deal with negative people.
Journal without judgment and allow it to bring you some peace.
Final Thoughts
Staying positive around negative people is definitely a challenge.
Both positivity and negativity have a ripple effect on people and are contagious, so mindfully choose the better option.
By implementing these strategies into your life, you will adopt a more positive and healthy mindset, no matter who you may encounter in your days.
Michelle Gagliani
Owner & Founder
Michelle is the Founder of The Balanced CEO and a Holistic Nutritionist + Health Coach. She was born and raised in St.Thomas, U.S.V.I., and is currently living in Austin, TX. When she’s not running this blog and online business, she is cozied up at home watching TV, taking long walks in nature, or trying out new healthy recipes.
Great tips! I am highly sensitive to peoples moods and energy, so negative people drain me and just make me cranky. I need to find a way to stop that from happening.
Hey Cindy, I can be the same way! We just have to work hard to control our own thoughts and emotions.
This is a really great post. I don’t see myself as negative, but sometimes I can be realistic which some see as negative depending on the situation. Lately, I’ve been trying to be more kind and more optimistic about situations even if I have doubts in my mind. It has really changed my outlook on life by approaching every situation with kindness and optimism.
That is awesome. Thank you for sharing that Katrina! ❤️
Agree completely. Being around negative critical people is so hard and just drains the energy out of them. I used to say to my staff that I would rather work short with engaged and positive folks than fully staffed with people who were always complaining and critical. And you feel bad in a way for their negative approach. Thanks for the list – and the cautions on not overstepping those boundaries.
I love this post. Great tips to starting positive as there’s so much negativity all around. Great read. Thank you!
Thank you, Christine!!
Staying positive around negative people is a real struggle. I had a friend who belonged to this category of people and I felt so exhausted after every meeting with her. Naturally, we stopped seeing each other after some time.
I was in the same boat with you Kat. Sometimes, you really just have to distance yourself from those kind of people.
We all have negative people in our lives. Thanks for the info!
Thank you Leslie!
Thank you for this post! One of our friends married a very negative person. And she digs at me especially because I am positive. She has made it her goal to put me down about positive things in my life. I use the kill her with kindness as I was taught at a very young age and walk away when needed. She definitely snarls at me every time. I see my self getting upset and try to remove the negative thoughts but find it hard sometimes not to get mad. I have realized some people will never be happy or maybe jealousy has made them this way.
Implementing these tips brings calm and peace to my mind. I notice that I am much better at dealing with negativity from my work environment and associates than I am with my close familial relationships, especially with my grown children who can be surprisingly rude and judgmental. I do a lot of self reflection and found that I had an expectation that as adults we would share more supportive and fun interactions. The key word being expectation. I’m working on that.
I honor my self-worth and values even if I don’t share as much with them for now.
Thank you for your good work