A common struggle most of us encounter on the journey towards empowering ourselves is how to protect ourselves from negativity from other people. When I first began my spiritual journey, I felt misunderstood and judged. I wanted to keep myself and my heart safe in a cocoon and keep all negativity out of my life. Some tools I used, and continue to use, are protective crystals, surrounding myself with white light, setting boundaries, envisioning a protective shield or bubble around me, and a mirror visualization, among others.
These tools are all excellent, however, I would often find myself still emotionally triggered and upset by other people’s negativity. My tools didn’t seem to work as strongly as I wanted them to and then I realized something life-changing. The most powerful form of protection against negativity is my own mind! When I fully understood that it was my mind that was thinking negative and reactive thoughts, therefore, allowing negativity into my life, I realized I was ultimately responsible for allowing the negativity in! This was so liberating for me!
Let me explain how your mind is the ultimate tool against negativity. We constantly take in numerous stimuli throughout the day and our minds receive and perceive the stimuli in either a positive, negative, or neutral by way of our thoughts. When we have what we perceive to be a negative experience, we give that experience meaning in a negative way. From there, these negative thoughts turn into feelings of anger, hurt, resentment and pain. For most of us, these negative thoughts about what we experienced go on a repeat loop in our minds which cause us further pain and negativity. We then not only replay the negativity in our mind, but we also talk about it with any poor soul who will listen to us, hoping that they will take our side and commiserate with us. Unintentionally, we exacerbate the negativity that we strongly dislike.
Here are some easy tools to help you choose how to respond to negativity rather than to react negatively yourself.
1. Meditation.
Meditation changes and re-wires your brain! Countless scientific studies exist that prove the benefits of a daily meditation practice. Simply put, the more you meditate, the more control you have over your thoughts. And when negativity comes your way, your mind doesn’t automatically go into fight or flight response. Instead, you can pause, take a breath, and think about how you want to respond and act in that moment.
2. Raise Your Vibration
When you are vibrating at a higher frequency, it is much harder to allow negativity into your mind and life. You clearly recognize a negative person/situation, but you value your good and high vibes so you consciously choose to not let someone else bring you down.
3. Repeat Positive Affirmations
Repeating positive affirmations to yourself throughout the day has the ability to keep your mind in a high vibrational and calm state.
4. Practice Compassion
When someone mistreats us it is because they are hurting within themselves. Other times, their behavior is completely unconscious and they really have no idea how hurtful they are. What helps me practice compassion with negative people is to remind myself that their behavior has absolutely nothing to do with me, and to actually feel compassion for them because if they can say and do such negative things, imagine what it must be like to live in their mind? Not nice at all!
5. Boundaries
Setting healthy boundaries is about keeping yourself happy and mentally and emotionally at peace. It’s not about someone else. It is about taking responsibility for your needs and ensuring you are meeting your own needs. If you know there’s only so much time you can spend with a particular family member, you decide how often you can see that person. The key to remember here is that boundaries are not about keeping other people out of your life, but more about you keeping your mind in a peaceful, calm, and high vibrational state.
These five tools are instrumental in protecting yourself against negativity. If you start implementing them today, you will see the results over time. With patience, practice and a whole lot of self-love, you will be able to shift how you react when you encounter a negative person or situation. One day soon, you will be able to let it slide right out of your mind with a “bye Felicia” as you focus on your feeling good!
P.S. If you are being targeted, mistreated, abused in any form or accused of something serious, you need to take stricter measures to protect yourself. Speak with someone you trust and seek help immediately.
