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How to Live and Thrive Amidst Negativity
Management

How to Live and Thrive Amidst Negativity

By Mainak Biswas June 24, 2016 - 1,820 views

There is negativity all around us. Whether it is the inflation, exorbitant outsourcing costs or labor unrest, there is always some bad news to worry about. There can also be negativity in the form of passive-aggressive behavior from those around us, pessimism, financial difficulties, stressful situations and a whole lot of other negative situations that ultimately wear us out.

It is already known that prolonged exposure to negative situations causes stress, which leads to lowered performance, health issues and a general tendency to give up on things. Yet, this negativity can be used to our advantage. In fact, we can use negativity to help us become better individuals, and in fact, learn to thrive when the odds are stacked against us.

At the cost of sounding like a motivational speaker, we have listed some tried and tested methods through which we can use negativity around us for our advantage.

  1. Learn from negativity

Like we mentioned earlier, negativity can present itself in various situations and forms. No matter how it comes to your door, always try to learn from it. Negativity around us always has something to teach us. It helps us to become better individuals, look for survival tactics and teaches us to turn threats into opportunities. Most importantly, negativity teaches you to be resilient to adversities, which in turn helps you to become stronger.

  1. Make use of depressive realism

Depressive realism is a concept floated by some psychologists, who believe that depressed people are in touch with reality more than people who are in normal states of mind. The fact that people are depressed makes them lose their protective layer, which exposes them to harsher realities of life, unlike normal people, who tend to view life from a less realist glasses. If you are unable to see anything positive, make use of that. Make use of your own depressive reality to change it and see a better future.

  1. Focus on the positive

When all the odds are stacked against us, it is easy to lose hope and become helpless. However, in every dark moment, we can find something to focus on the positive. The very fact that you are reading this article or the fact that this article was written shows that all is not lost. There is still access to the Internet, electricity, literacy and education. That itself is a lot for many people. If you focus on these basic positives that already exist in your life, you can create a better future for yourself by strengthening what is positive.

  1. Hurry up with unfinished business

Negative situations are created because we tend to procrastinate with a lot of things. When we hurry up with things that need to be completed, things become a lot more easy and streamlined. For this reason, you should start finishing up things you have left incomplete, as this will not only bring you peace but also make you a more productive and efficient person.

Negativity need not be negative

At the end of the day, we must not look at negative situations negatively. We must learn to tolerate distress in our lives. This helps us to focus on the positives and strengthen what we already have. When we accept that negative situations will always be there and that we can make them work for us, we will start to look at negativity from a completely different perspective. That actually makes us more positive than you might think.

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