We, unfortunately, live in a world where it is not so uncommon to be constantly around negative people and situations. When a person doesn’t know how to guard against negativity their day can quickly go from good to bad and potentially from bad to miserable. Thinking positively, though a wonderful idea, is far easier to preach than to actually do. So wouldn’t it be nice if there were some tips on how to guard against negativity?
“Learning to defend against negativity is very important. Only when a person is able to stay in a positive frame of mind are they truly capable of achieving the happiness and success that they want and deserve in life” says John Culbertson.
John Culbertson is a professional psychic channel and spiritual teacher that has been helping students to develop spiritually since 2000. He helps them to develop their intuitive abilities, understand the world from an energy perspective, and even to guard against the negativity of the world. He has spent much of his life studying various spiritual pursuits and paths and as a result, has accumulated a lot of insight into new age spirituality and this thing called negative energy. In 2010 he released his first book titled Psychic Self Defense and Protection: An Energy Awareness Guide.
Here are Mr. Culbertson’s tips for guarding against negativity.
Visualization Tools Reinforce the Conscious and Subconscious Mind
Things like imagining yourself in a white light, pretending you’re surrounded by a blue bubble, mirrors, or shields, or mentally putting worries and problematic people into a box can help a person feel better prepared to deal with negativity.
Prayers and affirmations help set the proper tone
It doesn’t matter what religion a person follows, prayers and affirmations help to create the right mood within which eventually reflects positively in the external world outside.
“In the name of God/Buddha/Mother Earth/the Architect of the Universe/All that Is, protect me from the negativity of the world and help me to only be surrounded by love and light.”
Another example would be the prayer of archangel Michael or the affirmation “I am surrounded by love and peace.”
Surround yourself with positive people and hobbies
Create a supportive network where the people within the network know how important positive thinking is. Culbertson tells us that “it’s true that what we spend our time around and dwelling on has a profound impact upon us, our mood, and our disposition.” So when you find yourself feeling down, blue, or upset it’s time to either find like-minded positive people to hang out with or engage in a hobby that has an uplifting feel to it.
Let people know when you need to vent and ask them to let you know before they vent to you
“Many times simply by knowing ahead of time that someone is about to vent, a person is capable of mentally and emotionally detaching themselves enough so the venting isn’t going to personally impact them. In my field, we call venting without warning downloading or dumping energy onto another and it’s a big no-no.”
The same holds true for giving and receiving bad news. It’s better to prepare someone for it as opposed to springing it on them unexpectedly.
Set and respect boundaries
“If there is one important tip I could give everyone it is that they must learn not only how to set healthy boundaries, but also respect the boundaries of others. Whenever we set an important boundary we are mentally and energetically creating the ultimate form of protection in our life. Knowing that we have the power to tell another person no and to walk away from them if they can’t respect us and our boundaries, regardless of who they are, is one of the most empowering feelings in the world. Likewise, by respecting the boundaries of others we do our part in helping to produce positive energy in the world.”
John further expands on this by saying “Our families and loved ones are often the worse culprits. We tend to allow them to get away with putting us and our ideas down far more often than we allow others to do the same. We need to be especially firm with them. When they start to complain, guilt trip, be mean or any variation we must be willing to walk away from them with a reminder to them that we will be more than happy to listen and/or give them our full attention once they are more pleasant in their thoughts and behaviors. If you wouldn’t let a stranger on the street say or do it to you, you shouldn’t allow a family member or loved one to either.”
Deep breathing and meditation reduce stress and thereby negative feelings and emotions
“Dr. Herbert Benson, a medical doctor, wrote a wonderful book called The Relaxation Response. In this book he outlines the importance of meditation, what science has determined it’s effects are on various physical and mental health conditions, and outlines how best to do it. The biggest mistake people make with meditation is that they think it’s hard or complicated. Quite the opposite. Meditation is simply about taking the time to breathe and focus the mind. Merely by doing this a person is ushering in a variety of benefits – among them is the benefit of being more relaxed and thereby less susceptible to stress and negativity.”
