Tip #2: Hang Out In Groups
More Stuff from Celestine Chua of The Personal Excellence Blog.Speaking to a negative person can be extremely draining. When I spoke to my negative co-worker, I would be mentally drained for several hours, even though we talked for only 20-30 minutes. That was because I was on the receiving end of all her negativity.
To address this, have someone else around when conversing with the negative individual. In fact, the more people, the better. This way, the negative energy is divided between you and the other members, and you don’t have to bear the full brunt of the negative energy.
The plus point of having someone else around is that people bring out a different side to an individual. By having another party around, it may bring out a more positive side in the negative person. I experienced this before and it helped me to see the “negative” individual in a different, more positive light.
* Bill Spears, PhD said..."Community. That's what I call it. The image that encapsulates the idea of community for me is a small group of people talking and listening while staring into a campfire. Community is the principal method that humans used to survive throughout the ages. And, it is a great method of survival around a negative person. Rarely will a group agree completely with someone about anything.
So, ole "Negativer" is "negativing"and the first thing you know someone or others in the group disagrees. It may be a planned event, put together for the specific purpose of negating the negative flow of the"Negativer". I once worked in a Alcohol and Drug Rehab Center. If a patient was disrupting the unit, he or she would "get grouped". The community would get together and the identified patient would be called to give an accounting for their negative or unruly or disrupting attitude or behavior. The method worked brilliantly most of the time. There can be some serious positive power for good in a good working group of sane people. The staff called it "Carefronting"."
Don't forget that some negative people are pretty funny.
http://youtu.be/ESHih2aruwE
