How can we insulate ourselves from negative people?

Anwser Podcast

Transcription :

Transcriber: Geetanjali Nath

Question: How can we insulate ourselves from negative people?

Answer: We need to see this world like a hospital. We all have different diseases. When we are in the hospital our purpose is to take the treatment, and get cured. If somebody have some other infection, and we closely associate with them, we might get their infection. It is not that an infected person is bad. It is just that the person is sick and we do not want to get their sickness. If we are in a position where we can help them in taking the treatment and get cured then we should do that. However, if we cannot, then at least, we must make sure that we do not get infected ourselves.

We do not judge the person as bad. They may be having some difficulties in their earlier life because of which they may have developed a negative attitude. Why they acquired such an attitude, this is between them and god. However, if their negative attitude is affecting us then we better keep a distance from them. We may not be able to avoid them all together but we can take a position. Especially if they are working as colleagues in office, we can keep our relationship limited to work only. Sometimes, we may have to be assertive to give such people our message. If we do not facilitate them in their negativity by our submissive hearing, then they will eventually stop.

If we can help them correct their negative attitude and change it for the better, that is great. However, sometimes they may not be in a receptive position. At best we must protect ourselves. We can also serve them by our prayers that they develop more positive attitude or that they become more spiritual (a positive attitude will be the natural result). We can serve them by our prayers, but we must know that protecting our own positivity is important for us. Only when we have our own positivity, we can help others. If we are also infected by negative then what to speak of helping others we will not be able to help ourselves also.