Four keys to dealing with negative people

You may understand how the law of attraction works and how like attracts like but still want to know how to deal with negative people. Not everyone you come in contact with may understand or believe that they are attracting things into their lives with their thoughts and feelings. These people may be constant complainers or whiners or just plain old grumps. You may be in situations where you are exposed to these types of people or you still may be struggling with being one yourself.

Here are four simple things you can do when dealing with negative people.

1.  Try to minimize your exposure to environments where you might find negative people. Is there an area in the lunch room or a certain coworker’s desk where people tend to hang out and gossip or complain? Go out to lunch with some more positive folks or use the photocopier at the other side of the office from Ms. or Mr. Busybody’s desk. Are there long lines at the post office or bank where people frequently get annoyed? Try doing your banking online or get your stamps at a less busy time.

2.  Take an inventory of your friends and acquaintances. You may not be able to avoid a disgruntled coworker all of the time but you can pick your friends and decide who you want to spend your time with. Do you hang out with anyone who always seems to have something bugging them, i.e., their spouse, their kids, their boss, their bad back, taxes, gas prices, global warming, etc. Do your friends share the same problems with you over and over and don’t do anything about them. While everyone may have areas of their lives where they would like to make improvements, people who take action and are committed to making changes instead of just talking about problems are more the type of people you want to spend your time with and be like.

3.  Maybe the negative person in your life is a family member and you don’t want to or can’t avoid them. A good way to deal with any toxic relationship is to set boundaries. You do this by saying yes to the things that are acceptable to you and no to the things that aren’t. You don’t just tolerate and go along with doing things that leave you resenting the other person. Remember you are not trying to control anyone else’s behavior. If a relative is always borrowing money from you, you can choose to just say no. If your mother wants you to call her every other day just to check in, you can say that is something that you just don’t feel is necessary.

4.  It may be frustrating to be in situations where you have to be around negative people. When you find yourself in such a situation, try to look for the positive and what you can do to make the experience a more beneficial one for everyone. Instead of focusing on what you don’t like about what is happening, focus on what you like about the person and what you can learn from them or how you can help them. You most likely attracted this situation by focusing on the very behavior that you don’t like or didn’t want to happen. If you can change your focus to the type of people and situations you want in your life you will attract more positive people and situations and will have a lot less dealing with negative people.