Staying Positive in Negative Situations - Five Valuable Tips

by Elle Jay

Are you able to stay calm, happy and maintain your positive attitude during difficult times?

It's pretty easy to be happy when everything is going right. Unfortunately, we often are forced to be around people who bring us down, or find ourselves in situations that are less than ideal.

Below are five situations where we can choose to be positive:

#1: Treat Failures and Painful Experiences as Valuable Lessons

It is acceptable to wince and cry out when we experience pain. But we have to be careful not to let that pain transform itself into fear and paralyze us. Without pain or failure, there is so much we would not learn and experience. Treat each failure and painful experience as a lesson you have learned.

#2: Avoid Negative People

It is so easy to pick up the "vibes" of negative energy when you are surrounded by it. If possible, try to avoid people whose negative energy brings you down. Sometimes people say cruel things about others to make themselves feel better - ignore them and recognize how low their self esteem must be. Constant complainers and whiners are annoying, if nothing else. Don't get caught up in their negativity. Stop the conversation when it starts or put a positive twist on it. Many times the constant complainer will move on to someone else who will listen to them go on endlessly. Disassociate with people like this as much as possible.

#3: Decide To Be Different

Some people say we are the product of genetics, others say it is our upbringing and environment. If you have a relative with a bad attitude and negative view of life, decide that you can be different, no matter what roll genetics or environment play. You do not have to fail at being optimistic simply because your relatives are pessimistic. Rather than repeating their bad attitudes, you can decide to be different.

#4: Accept Situations You Cannot Control

Our environment is inclined to change a great deal, and change can be challenging. It can test our flexibility, our ability to adapt, and can alter the way we feel. Change is a constant that we can rely on to be with us throughout our lives. There will be many times when we are in situations and environments we cannot control. Once we recognize and accept that a situation or an environment is one that we cannot control, we are often more able to tolerate it, and then change what we CAN about it - our attitude.

#5: Focus On The Positive

There is constant pain and misery in the world. It is available on television pretty much 24/7. Pay attention to how much negative news you are absorbing every day. If you wrap yourself up with all of the negativity and destruction going on around the world, it will most definitely bring you down.

There are some people who seem like they were born positive thinkers. Having a positive attitude, however, is a choice. It is an ongoing choice, since every day, at every moment, we have the choice of how we react to situations and people in our lives. It is often difficult to remain positive when situations or people are negative and pulling us down, unless we focus on staying positive. We always have the ability to change three things: our attitude, our way of thinking, and our behavior.

W. Clement Stone said it poignantly when he wrote, "There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative."

Choose to make that little difference that makes such a big difference!