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Toxic personalities: We have all heard this term. Almost all of us know someone this description applies to perfectly. The trick with negative people is to let it exist in their sphere, not yours. Negativity is something everyone has to deal with. We all know the person who is more comfortable in misery than in any other emotion in the world. There is comfort, for those people, in the depths of despair. Doomsdayers, if you will. To them, the sky is always falling. The problem is, if you spend too much time in their presence, the sky will fall on you as well.

I had this girlfriend in college. If you uttered the words "How are you?" to her, you had better be prepared to lose two hours of your life listening to injustice after injustice. The world happened to HER, not the other way around. There seemed to be no ability, in her mind, to how her attitude attracted her problems. You know the term, water seeks its own level? Yeah. Like that. She seemed to have no idea how to effectuate change in her life by changing her attitude. She was stuck in a swirling drain of problems and almost reluctant to stop the spiral. But she didn't want to be alone in that unhappiness. And we all know how that goes.

Negativity can be contagious. If you are not careful, it can rub its ugly stain onto your soul with the merest of suggestions and stay put. It is like walking around with a dark cloud over your head. Momentum dictates that rain will follow. Sometimes it is easier to simply get wet than to fish out that umbrella and take precautions to stay dry. But you need to shake off that inclination which just allows yourself to get drenched. Get the umbrella out. Protect yourself. Be active in your pursuit of happiness. Do not let pessimism undermine your goal.

Now when I deal with negative people, I simply do not let their words pierce my shield. I hear their unhappiness and I feel empathy for it. But I have no wish to incorporate it into my life. So only YOU can determine how you deal with negative people. They may be the unhappiest people in the world. But it does not mean that YOU need to be.

Learn more about this author, Jen Darien.
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