I know all the talk shows and self-help books tell you to stay far away from the negative people in your life who put you down, hack away at your self-esteem and basically do everything they can to try and bring you down to their miserable, bitter level of existence.
It’s good advice.
Advice I try to follow 99 percent of the time.
But sometimes you find yourself stuck around someone who is a Poison Polly – someone who just oozes out her venom of cruel words until you find yourself covered in the sticky, horrid mess, and it begins to penetrate past the thick skin you’ve armed yourself with right down into your heart and soul.
Brief encounters can be unsettling but prolonged exposure can be damaging.
Remember, you aren’t a failure because a Negative Nellie somehow got past the shields you put up to protect yourself from people like her. Sometimes it just happens. Don’t beat yourself up over out. Take a deep breath and think about what you learned from the experience that can help you down the road.
To recover from the blackness Poison Polly has shot into you, seek out the things and people who lift you up.
Just this morning on facebook, I found several quotes that I loved and felt my spirit feeling a little lighter.
Especially remember this one.
Take those unpleasant encounters and use them to your advantage.
Capture the feelings, the words, all of the experience and build yourself a diabolical, evil character who gets their comeuppance at the end.
