For decades, research has shown that staying positive improves our interpersonal relationships, our self-confidence, our self-esteem and our overall life satisfaction. On the contrary, remaining negative deteriorates are physical conditions and psychological well-being. Moreover, negative people severely hamper their interpersonal relationships especially with their loved ones. To put things into perspective, first I would like to describe people with both positive and negative thought-process so that we all are on the same page.
Positive thought process : Highly self-confident, irrespective of the situation tend to have a positive view of people and life in general, breed optimism in self and others, are more forgiving, like to build relationships on mutual trust, are secure and positively driven.
Negative thought process: Lack self-confidence, irrespective of the situation tend to have a negative and biased view of people and life in general, breed , pessimism in self and others, are less forgiving, do not let things go easily, like to build relationships which is based on their views of others, are insecure and negatively driven.
(Please note: These descriptions are purely based on my own research and experiences and it may vary from people from people. Moreover, I am not denying the possibility that people turn negative due to their life experiences. I totally empathize with them. Having said that, we cannot overlook the impact of negative thought process on interpersonal relationships!)
No matter how much we deny that our happiness is not dependent on others, when people close to us are behaving nicely with us and make us feel valued, we can’t help but feel positive and energetic; when they mistreat us, avoid us, pass negative judgments and comments, we bound to feel distressed and dejected.
Everyone has good and bad days. But even on a normal day, when you are generally feeling positive and lively , your loved ones start nitpicking, they start complaining about everything you do, the way you talk, the way you conduct yourself etc. tends to affect you. This unexplained balloon popping negativity ruins your mood and leaves you puzzled.
When such behaviors are repeated on a regular basis, and we are on the receiving end of such negativity, we tend to start blaming ourselves. We start believing that something is wrong with us and we make attempts to change ourselves and become like a person whom our loved ones want us to be ; soon to realize that the unnecessary critical and negative behavior has maintained the status quo. All the attempts to keep our loved ones happy have been futile and in the process we are loosing our ‘self’ and our positive thought process. This is time when we need to change our strategy!
Listen to my podcast on BeyondBiases (Episode 29) on Bakstage app to find some useful tips and suggestions.
Hope it helps you in some way 🙂
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