Don't Let Them Steal Your Joy!

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."

Winston Churchill

Have you ever had a friend that brings you down with negativity every time you talk to them? As Joel Osteen would say, "Don't let them steal your joy!"

There are a couple of people I have in my life that bring me down. They are forever mad at the world, depressed, negative about everything, and never have good things to say. I try to stay as far away from these people as I can. If you are positive, they still find someway to bring negativity into the picture. Having people like this in your life can be detrimental to changing your mind to think positively. It is quite frustrating!

Unfortunately, sometimes we can't get away from them because they are family. If this is the case, all you can do is continue to be positive and ignore their negativity the best you can. You won't be able to change their way of thinking unless they want to change. If they don't want to be happy no matter what you say, just ignore their negativity as much as you can. Don't spend more time with them than you have to.

For those who are negative and depressed all the time: You would have a lot more good friends if you would just change the way you think. I am not judging, I used to be the same way. I was always complaining, always sad, always negative. You know what? People didn't enjoy being around me, and I can't blame them.

When I changed my way of thinking and thought positively and was happy in spite of negative circumstances, it change me for the better. I got comments from people. I was told by one person that they didn't like me very much because of the way I was. I took that as constructive criticism. I only improved from there. I didn't want people to look at me as that kind of person.

I am not seeing the world through rose-colored glass. I know that negative things are going to happen in our lives. When they do, we have the choice to see the good or the bad in the situation.
Every time something negative happens to me, I believe everything is going to be okay. It might seem like the end of the world, but it always turns out okay.

My problem was that I grew up with constant negativity around me. It was ingrained in my mind. I chose to change it. It takes some work. I had to constantly remind myself, when I thought of something negatively.  I would have to catch it and quickly change my thinking to something positive. For example, if I was ticked off because I got caught in traffic, I would quickly change my thinking to believing there was a reason why I was stopped in traffic. I would think that maybe I was being saved from a horrible accident otherwise. Sometimes, I would just enjoy the beauty around me. So many people are oblivious to the beauty because they are in too much of a hurry.

How often do you look at the beautiful sky, clouds, trees, colorful skies, and green grass? We usually don't slow down enough to enjoy anything. How often do we stop and appreciate all of the wonderful things we have? We have so much that helps us do things efficiently: cell phones, computers, i pods, palm pilots, I could go on and on. Instead of appreciating all of these wonderful things, we complain about not having enough hours in the day. Think of what it took for people to get all of the things done years ago when none of these things existed. We have so much to be grateful for, but we choose to complain about what we don't have. As they say, "Stop and smell the roses". There are so many wonderful roses to smell!