Imagine you’re going to work, the sun shining, minimal traffic, and drinking a good cup of coffee. You’re in a great mood until you reach the office and run into the office’s designated Debbie downer. Immediately, your good mood turns sour.
We’ve all experienced negativity, whether that comes in the form of a bad day, a person, or news. It can be easy for a great day to turn sour with just one negative thought or interaction.
Due to the brain’s negative bias, people tend to focus more on negative things in life rather than the good, overthinking bad interactions, negative comments, or even reflecting on someone else’s bad mood.
Negativity can harm your social and work life and damage your emotional health. It’s important to learn how to battle negativity in everyday life. Please keep reading to find out our tips on dealing with negativity.
Effects of Negativity
Despite what you’d think, negative attitudes can play a large part in a person’s overall health and wellness. Usually, we only connect negativity to a bad day or bad feeling that can temporarily limit our perspectives. However, there are many more dire effects negativity has on our bodies.
Depletes Energy
Battling negative feelings is tiring on both the mind and the body. When dealing with negativity, we tend to be stuck in the process of depressive rumination. This is when there is constant overthinking of negative interactions or feelings that don’t allow any rest, draining energy in the mind and body.
Chronic Stress
Negativity and depressive feelings can create chronic stress, affecting relationships, moods, and productivity. Chronic stress upsets the body’s hormone balance by decreasing the brain chemicals that control happiness and damaging the immune system.
Health Conditions
Negativity can directly impact your physical health and cause all kinds of health conditions with enough stress. Some conditions that can be developed are heart disease, asthma, diabetes, gastrointestinal problems, Alzheimer’s disease, and even accelerated aging.
Feelings of stress can create bodily reactions such as blood vessels constricting and pulse rising. These increased changes over time can create serious conditions in the long run.
Dealing With Negativity
The good news is that there are many ways to combat negativity! There are both internal and external solutions to negative situations that can improve your mood and help you overcome negative bias.
Look For Positives
If you are having a bad day, something you can do is look on the positive side. This probably sounds easier, but positivity is always achievable with the right mindset.
If a person is constantly complaining to you and impacting your feelings, remember that they could be going through something and try doing something nice for them. If you spill coffee on your way to work, remember it’s a common accident and try to get it out with water and soap.
There is always a positive in every situation. All you need to do is look for it and keep it in the back of your mind not to let a negative situation affect you. If you need to cry, let it all out and wait for the weightless feeling of letting the negativity go.
Try to See from a Different Perspective
Our perspectives are formed from experiences, upbringing, and environment, which can be challenging to overcome or shift. One of the most challenging tasks is shifting our thought processes because we’re forcing our brains to work differently. However, it’s an important strategy for dealing with negativity.
When encountering a negative person or situation, seeing from a different perspective can open up your mind to everything around you. Negative bias forces us to prolong our thinking on one negative thing instead of the whole picture.
For example, imagine you are looking at a picture of a neighborhood. Beautiful trees, green lawns, children playing in the street, and a single trash can spilling onto the street. Your attention is probably on the trash can, wondering which house it belongs to, what it could cause, and the annoyance of the situation.
You become so focused on the trash can that you don’t look at the beauty and happiness in the rest of the picture.
Make sure to remember there is beauty and wonder in the world. Negativity can blind us from the many awe-inspiring things around us every day.
Don’t Dwell
When faced with negativity, it can be easy to sit in it and allow it to consume your mood. After all, this is the natural negative bias of our minds. However, this constant rumination can lead to a spiral of negative thoughts and feelings that create a prolonged state of negativity.
To avoid this, try not to overthink small obstacles, whether negative criticism from a boss, heavy traffic, or a long line for coffee. The easy thing to do is overthink these things until you’re in a bad mood. Instead, it’s better to move past these inconveniences and not let them spoil the rest of your day.
Smile
This might sound silly, but smiling is an actual solution to negative emotions! When you smile, your brain releases chemicals like neuropeptides, dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins that reduce stress and depression and boost happiness. Smiling can even lower your heart rate, directly counteracting the effects of stress.
Even if the smile is fake, the bodily reaction can still help improve your mood and lessen the negativity around you. Additionally, smiling can help others with their negativity. Seeing someone smile can increase these chemicals in our brains and help us feel more comfortable.
Dealing With Negative People
We’ve all encountered a negative person that completely ruined our mood, constantly complaining or expressing annoyance. This transfer of negativity is because of something called emotional contagion. This is the idea that people in contact can share a happy or sad mood.
This is why it’s easy to feel bad when encountering a negative person. However, there are many ways to counteract this negative transference and stop it before it occurs.
Limit Interactions with Negative People
If there is a person at work that is constantly bringing down your mood, the best option you have is to avoid interacting with them. Limiting interactions will be beneficial to your own physical and mental health. Even if it’s hard, placing your well-being first in this situation is important.
Understandably, all situations are different, and some people might be unable to cut off interactions with a negative person. However, try to limit the amount of time spent with them as much as possible and keep the rest of these tips in mind.
Calming Activities
When you inevitably experience stressful situations, it can help to separate the other part of your life from stress. This can be meditation, exercising, eating a balanced diet, or playing games.
Performing any of these tasks can help you balance your life and bring positivity when needed most. By doing things you enjoy regularly, it’ll be easier to brush off the negativity brought on by other people or situations and relieve your body from the long-term effects of negativity.
Be Honest
A coworker, friend, or family member always comes to you with all their problems. With every inconvenience, their annoyance is vocalized, and while you want to be there for them, you also need space from the negativity.
One of the hardest things a person can do is be honest in any situation. However, if there is a person that is a constant stressor in your life, communicate with them about how their attitude impacts you.
They may not even realize what they’re doing. It can help both parties open this line of communication and work on what’s creating this negativity between you.
Stay Away From Drama
If a person is complaining to you about someone, there can be a lot of negativity directed towards this separate party. When encountering this situation, the best thing to do is to stay away from the drama, even though it can seem more fun to fuel the fire and continue with the negative complaints. After all, a weakness many of us face is the predisposition to gossip.
However, in the long run, you should avoid the topic of other people when talking with negative people. Giving into a negative conversation will only decrease your positivity and impact your mood for the rest of the day.
The Golden Rule
The golden rule is something every kid learns in elementary but is easy to forget when faced with negativity. The rule is to treat others the way you want to be treated. It can also mean behaving the way you want others to behave. Being a positive person regularly can help spread positivity around your environment and help others not dwell on negativity.
Creating a positive effect on those around you, especially the negative people, is the best thing you can do for your health and will generally contribute to your overall happiness.
Responding to Negativity
How you respond to negativity is important to determine how much this negativity will affect you in turn. We also may respond differently depending on the severity of the situation. For example, spilling coffee can annoy you and require deep breaths and patiently making another cup.
However, getting into a car accident is much harder to deal with and can include more intense negative emotions that may require good news, positive activities, or a change in mindset.
No matter the situation, the worst thing a person can do when faced with negativity is to reflect negativity. This can only heighten the overall stress on your mind and body and prolong a bad mood.
Overcoming Negative Thoughts
As much as we can place the blame for negative thoughts on others, we also must see how we’re contributing to our attitudes. Sometimes negativity comes from within rather than an external source which can be just as harmful, if not more. If this is the case, there are a few ways to eliminate your negative thinking.
Avoid Complaining
Complaining won’t do anything except allow you to dwell in negativity. If you spend all your time thinking about things you don’t like, you don’t get any time to enjoy the things you do!
Also, remember that if you don’t like people complaining all the time to you, they probably don’t like it much either. Cutting your complaints down can create a more favorable environment for everyone.
Pursue Hobbies
Finding hobbies that distract you from stress is significant for a balanced life. Enjoying fun activities can prevent stress and negativity from taking over your mind and allow you some moments of relief from the outside world.
Whether you enjoy knitting, baking, reading, or yoga, carving moments out of your day for these stress-relieving activities will improve your physical and emotional health.
Enjoy the Small Pleasures
Any person can find a few small pleasures in life. It can be those few minutes of extra sleep in the morning, a cup of coffee from your favorite bakery, or meeting a friend on your lunch break. It is important to incentivize yourself throughout the day or have something to look forward to chasing away bad moods.
See a Professional
If you’re having a hard time dealing with negative thoughts and find them negatively affecting your work, relationships, and well-being, consider finding counseling for professional help. Knowing what you need and what will best benefit your health is essential.
Final Words
Dealing with negative thoughts can be difficult but is necessary to maintain your health. Hopefully, by following these tips, you can avoid negativity and live a happier, healthier life!
