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Energy vampires. Human black holes which come out of nowhere and just suck the life right out of you. That's what a number of self-help gurus have named negative people. They're also known as sob sisters, blamers, drama queens, and my personal favorite: fixer-uppers (they require endless help). They seem to have an endless capacity to dwell on what they don't want. After spending a little time with them, you'll find yourself feeling drained, tired, worried, or stressed. In other words, they can make you feel as unhappy as they obviously do. We must avoid falling into their highly contagious negativity trap.

At some time or another, we'll all most likely have at least one negative person in our lives to deal with. My husband had a good friend several years back who was the most pessimistic person we'd ever encountered. After spending a little time with him, a wave of darkness engulfed us. He spun every topic of conversation into an excuse to complain about what he disliked about all the people in his circle of life, his job, his church-his entire life, in general. After years of trying to toss positive life preservers into his friend's bottomless lake of negativism, my husband finally had to let this friendship go. The friend was pulling him down to the bottom of the lake, instead of letting my husband save him.

Sometimes our energy vampire is a permanent fixture in our lives that we can't walk away from. How do we prevent them from putting a damper on our own happiness and fulfillment?

(1)Try to realize where the negativism is coming from. Sometimes a person received so little attention in their life as a child that they feel the only way to be heard is to be a squeaky wheel. As the old adage goes, "The squeaky wheel gets the oil." Maybe they feel this is the only way to get the attention they so desperately crave. A lot of people with constant ailments they complain about found the only way they could get attention as a child growing up was when they were sick, and it carried over into their adult years. Understanding this subconscious craving for attention will make their neediness more tolerable.

(2) Remain detached from their woes. When they start their negative tantrums, as I like to call them, just smile and don't comment one way or the other. If they catch you in their web of negativity, they'll have the power to drain you of your own positive energy.

(3) Play the "Now-tell-me-something-positiv e" game. Right after they finish telling you something negative

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