How to Respond & Protect Yourself From Negative People - Negativity is Contagious

You may feel like you have to endure someone else's negativity because it's the 'nice' thing to do, but you don't. You need to know how to respond & protect yourself from negativity so it doesn't also become a problem for you, too.

Show Notes:
It’s those moments when we feel like we are being suffocated by someone else’s negativity that we wish we could do something about it. And we can. But it has nothing to do with the other person & all about what you can do. 

I know that making the decision to walk away, distance yourself & retreat from negativity is easy, it’s just the actual action of it that’s difficult. Actually telling the person (when you need to) that you don’t want to be around negative attitudes can be really scary because you don’t know how they are going to react. It’s also difficult if you’re a people pleaser because all you want to do is make the other person happy & disregard your own feelings. 

But if you’re an empath, it’s SUPER important to distance yourself from this type of behavior. It’s not going to be good for you to absorb all that negativity & put yourself in a mood, too. Not only because it won’t be fun to experience, but it will also get in the way of you being able to help that person get out of their funk, if that’s important to you.

I feel like a lot of times, people pleaser or not, we feel like we have to just suck it up & endure negative people. And sometimes we do if we are in a situation where there is no exit strategy, but I’d say there is usually a way to get some distance so you aren’t so clouded with someone else’s negativity.

Today I am going to share with you 5 Ways on How to Distance & Protect Yourself from Negative People:

1. Start with an Empathetic Reply (Instead of drawing out the conversation more about whatever they are being negative about, use a response that will help shut down the conversation. “Sorry to hear that,” “Is there anything I can do?” “That’s really too bad.”
2. Tactfully Change the Subject (Start with your empathetic reply, then take a quick turn to a new topic. Example: “That’s really tough. Have you heard anything about blah blah blah?/What was the best part of your day?” Ideally, you would bring up something super positive or just very different than what they were talking about.)
3. Ask If You Can Suggest Something Positive for Them to Try (Don’t just give them a classic encouragement line, it has to be something more involved. It would need to be something that can keep their mind off their troubles long enough to either forget about it or when they do circle back to their problems you can remind them of the positive thing that just kept their mind occupied & suggest they keep doing that.)
4. Don’t Try to Solve Their Problems  (They might ask you for your advice, which is fine, but you have to understand that if you DO give your advice, you are inviting yourself deeper into the problem.)
5. Take Your Exit (This can be scary the first time you do it, but just embrace your desire to not be around negativity & it will seem easier.)

Thank you again for listening & I hope this episode was helpful.

Come visit me on my Instagram page @sabrinajoyperozzo.

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