5 Steps to Stay Positive When Around Negative People

5 Steps to Stay Positive When Around Negative People

by | Apr 5, 2015 | Change your thinking, EFT - Emotional Freedom Technique, Self-empowerment

How to Stay Positive When Your Around Negative PeopleDo you find it difficult to stay positive when you’re surrounded by negativity?

I’m opening up the Powered by Intuition Mailbag to share the answer to a question from a reader who asked how she “could stay positive and in a state of gratitude when she was surrounded by negativity.“

Answer:

If you’re living in the midst of a situation that’s negative it’s very hard to stay upbeat and positive all the time.

And whether it’s in your home, workplace or within a social group it’s going to affect you.

The way to rise above the negativity is to become conscious that you have a choice in how you react. The moment you become aware that you don’t have to react to negativity your mind has expanded.

When I first began my journey with personal development and found out that I didn’t have to think the thoughts that just “popped” into my head but could CHOOSE my thoughts, it blew my mind! Wow!

You could almost hear the “screech marks” as the wild negative and sabotaging thoughts came to a halt in my mind that very instant.

“You mean I can decide what I’m going to think about,” I thought? This was a revelation.

So, what I want to say to you is that the first step in overcoming anything in your life always begins with mastering your thoughts. Everything we do in life begins on the “inside.”

Now you might be thinking, “That’s hard!”

And, I won’t sugar coat it….it is hard. You have to want it – bad. You have to desire to change more than you desire to stay stuck where you are in the negativity of whatever the situation is.

You also have to be disciplined and commit to doing it and be consistent about doing it.

Here are 5 steps to maintain your positivity when you’re around negative people:

1. To shield yourself from absorbing negativity focus on the things you’re grateful for in your life. To do that though, you must first “interrupt” the thoughts that have taken control of your mind.

2. To do this use what’s called a “pattern interrupt.” This is when you deliberately take an action to switch gears on your thinking. Using this is like applying the “brakes” to a runaway train.

When you take control of the train you can direct it to go where you want to go. And this is exactly what you want to do with your thinking; take control of it. When you’re in control and direct it you consciously decide what you want in your life rather than being a victim of life and taking whatever comes along.

3. Pick a prayer you like or a mantra you know well. I like using either the “Lord’s Prayer,” or a mantra from “Ho’oponopono” which is, “I’m sorry. Forgive me. Thank you. I love you,” when I want to interrupt and halt a negative thought pattern that’s stampeding through my mind.

Depending on the situation I might use this mantra from Sahaja Yoga instead: “I forgive. I forgive everyone including myself.”
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4. Once you take back control of your mind and calm down again you can think rationally about the situation and decide how to respond and what you’re going to do rather than react on autopilot. You can take an inventory and see how much good there really is in your life and focus on that instead. Remember what you focus on expands.
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As you make a habit out of interrupting the negative thought patterns you’ll also be breaking the “circuit” that has you automatically become upset.
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5. Overriding the body’s stress response means you’re mastering your thoughts. You’re now fully conscious to the process that was hijacking your mind and can put a stop to it. That’s being a victor instead of a victim.

BONUS STEP! 

If you use one of these steps you’ll get your mind off of the negativity and start to neutralize the negative emotions that are activating the stress response in your body eventually. I say eventually because without a technique to reset the nervous system’s ingrained response it’s going to take longer.
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When the stress response (fight or flight response) in your body is triggered you feel anxious, scared, overwhelmed, upset and fearful and you’re ready to react at a hair trigger.
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You’re body pumps cortisol into your bloodstream to prepare you for a “fight or flight” so you can protect yourself from danger. If this same “danger” (what you’re calling a negative environment/person) appears in your life again and again your “fight or flight” response will be set off at the mere sight or thought of this negativity. This powerful reaction becomes ingrained within your nervous system and hijacks your emotions and behavior unconsciously.
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When this happens you’ll have an uphill battle trying to maintain your positivity because it’s no longer just a “mental” challenge to change your thinking but a physically ingrained habit within your nervous system that you have to restore to “neutral.” The fastest way to reset the response from your nervous system is to use EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) or Tapping.
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Learn how to use the EFT Tapping Points here and watch a video for how to tap to maintain your positivity in the midst of negativity.
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Are you surrounded by a negative situation or people you can’t get away from? How are you dealing with it?
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