Dealing With Negative Influences

Watching or reading the news can be hazardous to your health.

It’s a fact, especially when the events are related to terrorism, kidnapping, murder, accidents, or calamities. These incidents make you worry and will leave you feeling weak and insecure. You find yourself imagining what would happen if you become a victim of one of these tragedies. Getting lost in this type of fear that has you projecting yourself into one of these situations will have a definite negative effect on your entire outlook in life.

You think to yourself, how can I ‘think and grow rich’ when I’m bombarded with messages that tell me how difficult life has become or how poor most of us has really are?

The thing is, you can’t always change your environment, but you certainly can control your mind. This is where visualization can help. Use your imagination, just as you did when you were a child. Imagine your home as a palace, your simple meal as fine dining gourmet, and your nearby park as your favorite vacation spot. Just imagine. Unconsciously, over time your thoughts can transform the images into their physical reality.

If the media can indirectly influence you just by reporting what bad things are happening around the world, imagine what impact people you meet everyday will have on you.

These are the people who are expressing their own views of what is right and what is wrong.

When we grow up in a negative environment, we tend to acquire the traits and characteristics of the negative people around us.

Many gangsters have been brought up by folks who have either misguided them or have taught them the wrong things in life. Through the years, they have instilled within themselves the vices of these people.

Here’s an example.

Pick a nice person, throw him into a group of bad-mouthed individuals who incorporates swearing as part of their everyday language. Gradually, you’ll notice the nice person speaking in the same manner as the group.

This just shows how anyone who joins in the company of a like-minded group will likely be influenced by the personality of that group. So what can you do if you’re surrounded by people who deviate from your way of thinking?

You can’t just avoid them, especially if they are the people you work with everyday. So it’s best to just learn how to shield out pessimistic comments or suggestions.

What if they dictate that you do something dishonest or illegal that goes against the grain of who you are as a person? In the long run, it’s always better to be true to yourself. Be firm with what you believe in. If you have to suffer ridicule, so be it. It’s always better to avoid wrong behavior than to get caught up in a situation that could have a long term negative impact on your life.

If this is an ongoing problem with your group, then just remove yourself from the group and try to associate with people who have the same principles and ideologies as you do. You will be more encouraged to continue striving for your dreams if you have support from people who will prod you to pursue your goals in a positive way.

In a less than perfect world that seems, at times, dominated by negative news and events, it’s up to each of us to find a way to maintain control of our own reaction to those things and to keep their influence on our thoughts in check. The time to deal with a negative situation, if one should happen to you, is when it is happening, not in some imagined scene in your mind that leaves you filled with anxiety and stress.

In his book, Think & Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill gives some very helpful advice. “Positive and negative emotions cannot occupy the mind at the same time. One or the other must dominate. It is your responsibility to make sure that positive emotions constitute the dominating influence of your mind.”

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Glenn Cutforth is a writer, eBook publisher and graphic designer.

Visit his websites at: Self-Help and Wellness.com and The Complete Cat.com

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