The truth is that negative people are difficult to deal with. You might be knowing such chronically negative people, friends, relatives, workmates, or your boss, who have a default negative mindset and leave a negative vibe wherever they go.
They are perpetually complaining and playing the victim. Having to deal with such people and their negative energy can be a tricky business. You need to fight off their negative aura so that it doesn’t bring you down but also react with kindness. Here are 9 positive comebacks to help deal with negative people.
1. “I Hope You Feel Better Soon.”
The person is usually unprepared for a response like this, which expresses concern, but also tactfully puts an end to the negative conversation. While you are showing concern, you are avoiding feeling sorry for their situation or agreeing with their negative mindset. It is likely that the person will feel thankful for your concern and might just walk away. The point is, it puts an end to the negative talk.
2. “Try Focusing On The Positive.”
The phrase is perfect for highlighting their negative attitude without sounding rude. When someone is being negative constantly, it is likely that that person isn’t seeking any sort of advice, but this gentle reminder requesting them to focus on the positive things might help open their eyes to how negative they have been of late. They might not accept your advice, but at least you tried to show them how very negatively they are perceiving everything.
Read How to Stay Positive around Negative People
3. “Let Me Know If There’s Anything I Can Do To Help.”
The saddest truth about negative people is that they aren’t looking for solutions to their problems. They just want to rant, vent out their frustration, and in general, make you feel sympathetic towards them. Even though you might feel sorry for them, you can do little to help them, simply because they don’t want to be helped out of their negative aura. So chances are they will decline your offer to help them. However, this response will most likely distract them long enough for you to excuse yourself from that situation.
4. “Don’t Allow Yourself To Dwell Too Much.”
This phrase is intended to create the same effect as the phrase “Try to focus on the positive”– to show them how negative they have been acting lately. Essentially, you’re trying to make the negative people aware that they have been dwelling on their problems way too long without looking for a solution, but without sounding harsh. You can only hope that they listen to your advice and try to find a way out of the negative phase they are stuck in. In case they ignore your advice, you have still tried to get them thinking in the right way.
5. “Think Of Something That Makes You Happy”
This response works if presented in the right way. This general statement may need some elaboration, depending on the situation and person you’re dealing with. If the negative person happens to be someone close to you, and you say these words with genuine kindness, it increases the chance of them heeding your good advice.
6. “People Feel Your Negativity, And It Brings Them Down.”
This comeback is a lot more direct than the previous ones, so it has to be used cautiously. When you have to deal with a negative person who happens to be your boss or colleague, it might not be a wise move to use this phrase. On the other hand, if the negative person you are dealing with is a good friend or family member, this phrase may be the perfect one to use that conveys what you’re trying to say in a meaningful way. A good tip is to use a gentle, helpful tone and make sure that you don’t sound confrontational.
Read 11 Signs You’re Surrounded by Negative People and it’s time you think about a change.
7. “Plan Something Relaxing To Do This Weekend!”
While you are willing to lend an ear to a negative person who seems to be in a lot of distress, be careful that their complaints don’t bring you down. If they are talking non-stop about their issues and complain that they are very stressed out all the time– use this phrase to put an end to their complaints and offer a solution that might actually work. Tell them that you think that they badly need a stress-reliever! You can even suggest ways they can relax and de-stress themselves.
8. “Smiling Has A Way Of Making Us Feel Better!”
The thing with this remark is that it can go either way. You might sound corny and annoying to the person, or you might just achieve the impossible and make a negative person crack a smile! While asking a negative person to cheer up might not be the most welcome advice, in many cases, it helps add some positivity in an otherwise negative conversation.
Corny as it sounds, scientific research shows that the mere act of stretching your lips into a smile sets off a powerful chemical process in our brains that makes us feel happier.
9. “You’re Loved And Cared For.”
When nothing else works; use this phrase as the last attempt to get through them. When a person is feeling negative and hopeless, it helps to remind them that they are well-loved and not alone in their life-battles. Whatever they might be going through that’s causing them to feel so negatively about everything, there are people who care about them and want to help them out.
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