Disarming and Diffusing the Doomsayers

Surely you have met them. I had in my office one guy who always seemed to know what is going to happen in the future for our company, our promotions, the market in which we operated, the fate of the government along with inflation rates. A wise guy you may call him but personally I felt extremely depressed whenever I met him in the office. I also had the misfortune of being called at the same party which was being thrown by my boss for some colleague's retirement. Though all my interactions have been brief, but I remember it always ended with some notes on future calamities even if it included details about the deteriorating health of one of our colleagues.

I used to thank my lucky stars that the world has more positive people than this person. But over the years I have met several others – who are chronic depressives themselves who spread a lot of ill feeling amongst people around. The basic truth about such people that I have come to realize is that any attempt to change them is fruitless. So it that is ruled out, the best strategy is to gear up your mind to face such doomsayers with as much patience and understanding as possible and then make your quick exit from such company. Here are some home-grown tips on the art of handling perennial doomsayers:

Understanding that the person has a habit of predicting the worst for the future, you should not take everything he or she says to heart.

The best strategy to handle such situations is to have an unbreakable belief in positivism yourself. Thus you must concentrate more on developing a positive outlook towards life and people so that you are more prepared to handle such encounters.

Remember a lot of negative people are also aware that their negativism is not well appreciated by those around. Either they are incapable of coming out of their old habit or they do it only to see people getting disturbed. This is their way of sharing some 'food for thought' with the listener.

Instead of getting emotional and angry, agitated or confrontational with such doomsayers, you could find a way out of such situations and leave without leaving any bitter feelings.

If the interaction with any doomsayer rubs off negativism in you, quickly try to get out of the negative mould and set your eyes on things which are positive for you. Think of situations and people who bring out the best in you and try to move in with such positive situations.

In case the negativism gets the better of you – try meditation to soothe your mind. Any agitated state would dissuade you from taking any positive measures in life, so the faster you can get out of that mind set the better it is for you. Go to a quiet place, sit still, close your eyes and let your entire body relax. Each and every muscle of your body parts must relax, while you set your mind at rest.

Though perennial doomsayers are as part of life as anything else, this does not mean that you get bogged down by their pessimism. Remember life still holds many things which are precious and beautiful. The problem is that most of us do not know the way to access them. Did you know that your best friend as well as your slave could be your mind? Train it the way you want it and you could see some amazing results – including efficient handling of perennial doomsayers.