Avoiding Negative Energy Bombs on the Road of Life
Posted on November 12, 2014 by Holly Hansen, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
Have you ever been in a great mood only to have someone dump their negativity all over, ruining your bliss?
The other day, my spouse and I were driving along West Cliff Drive next to a smooth glassy ocean, remarking out loud how absolutely blessed we are to live in such a beautiful place as Santa Cruz, California. The air was a perfect 75 degrees, we had the windows down as we leisurely were driving, soaking in the wonderful day.
Suddenly the car behind us honked at us not once but a second time – it was startling and knocked us quickly out of our bliss. So we did the courteous thing and pulled over to let the car pass. The guy drove past us – giving us a dirty look and flipped us off.
We were shocked (as I am sure you would be too) – especially since we had pulled over to let him pass. In his car we saw 3 generations of his family (from his elderly mother to his wife and kids were in the car too). And for a while we were both pretty upset that this guy behaved so badly. We were driving leisurely but at the speed limit (as was everyone else) to enjoy the spectacular view of the ocean along the cliff – and this guy wanted everyone to rush or get out of his way so he could get to his destination. I assume based on who was in his car (multi-generations of family) – he was late to some kind of event and so anyone blocking him from his destination was in his way and was only going to agitate him, it just so happens we were the unfortunate ones who got caught up in his storm of negativity. It was in essence a drive-by negative energy bomb. Nancy and I went from a state of Bliss to Unhappiness in 30 seconds flat when he dropped that negativity on us. And as much as I would have liked to quickly recover when a total stranger leaves a wake of negative energy, it is not always easy to do. And in this case, we spent the next 20 minutes talking about what a jerk he was. Then I stopped myself and said to her, “That’s it. I am done. Our time is precious and I don’t want his negative energy any more. I am giving it back to him – since it was his in the first place” and we pretty much stopped talking about it and started to focus on enjoying the beauty around us once more. Bliss restored. The point is… you will always run into people throwing negativity bombs – but how and how long you react to them is your choice. You have a choice to ruminate, relive and stew over the negative bomb – which will only feed it and keep that negativity going – and make you miserable. OR you can allow yourself to recognize it wasn’t cool that person dumped an energy bomb on you but let it go or move on. One thing I aspire to (and we all should) – is when someone dumps a negative energy bomb on me – I want my default reaction to be compassion. Compassion to realize that person is hurting in some way – and be able to wish them to find their bliss again soon.