“The key is to keep company only with those who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.” — Epictetus
It’s a dark world we live in, isn’t it?
People around us bring our feelings down all the time. They judge others, speak negatively, assume the worst of people, and just generally have a negative outlook on life. They might say they’re happy people, but when it comes down to it they haven’t faced themselves.They haven’t grown.
How do we fall out of this group of people? Everybody around us seems so negative, and it’s not like we can test out what everybody is like and go from there. We don’t have the time.
The truth is, we don’t need any time to look for more positive people. Instead, we need time to look for the more positive versions of ourselves and begin looking at things more positively.
Once we begin to be more positive, the things around us do the same. Or rather, we attract things that are more like us. When we become sources of light, others reflect our light.
Once we become truly positive, other positive people will show up in our lives. As Epictetus says, this is the key. In order to become something, we need to surround ourselves with likeminded people. It’s difficult to be positive when everyone around you hates everything, just like it’s hard to be negative when everyone around you looks for the best in every situation (which, for the record, is the way to go).
Using this logic, we have three options. Option one is for us to be positive — no matter what. Always looking for the best and trying to make our circumstances turn out okay. Option two is to surround ourselves with people who chose option one. Option three is to do both, and frankly it’s the most effective.
When we only keep the presence of those who uplift us and bring out our best, it becomes easier to maintain our best. Because of this, we need to actively choose to be around people who we want to be like. Your friends make up who you are, so choose them wisely.
Trouble may come when those negative people try to drag you back down. When this happens, try to remember that you can always refuse to participate in their arguments. It takes two personalities to argue. Knowing this, we can rob people’s negativity of its power by refusing to give it attention. As a result, we become less burdened by them. I’ll say it again: Your friends make up who you are, so choose them wisely.
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What do you think? Do you have ways to avoid negativity? How do you weed out people that drag you down? I’d love to hear your methods in the comment section. Also, feel free to leave a like and share this blog on your social media, you have a friend who could use this information! Other than that, stay tuned for future blog posts every Monday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, and try to be the reason someone smiles today 🙂