Five Most Likely Reactions To Negative Situations

One thing that remains constant and out of our control in life is that people will always step on our toes.

There will always be times when our good deeds will be misunderstood, or taken for granted.

There will be times when those we expect some level of respect and loyalty from will betray our trust.

And while all these things are out of our control because of how dynamic human beings are, there is one thing that we have full control over;

Our reaction.

Now, life as uncertain as it is has decided to throw some tantrums at us and it’s a normal thing, but what do you do when these tantrums are thrown at you?

Well, there are five possible reactions that humans can exhibit whenever their patience is tried.

They are;

Judging.

This seems to be the easiest and rashest reaction that most people make when they are wronged or met by an unpleasant situation; they start judging immediately.

They find different ways to attribute the problems of their current situation to other people and never themselves. They spend time criticizing those that they feel are responsible for their mishap rather than finding a solution to the problem at hand.

This response to a negative situation does more harm than good to the person involved because it makes the person incapable of loving and accepting criticism.

Mother Teresa once said: “The more we judge people, the less time we have to love them”, and this is a bitter truth because you can’t love someone you always find fault with.

The next possible reaction to a negative situation is;

Self-doubt.

This approach is employed by people that prefer to blame themselves rather than others for their gloomy days.

They underestimate their abilities and as a result, question their competence whenever things go south.

This makes the set of people that reacts this way very unhappy and unforthcoming.

They rarely take risks because they doubt that they will deliver optimally and because of this, they miss many opportunities.

The greatest skill anyone can master is to observe themselves without judging and if these self-doubters can learn this skill, they will see that there’s a completely different world outside the canopy of inferiority complex they built for themselves.

Leaving the extremes of reaction, we have;

Waiting

Here, rather than taking any step, an in-depth analysis of the situation is made and then decisions are made later on according to their findings in this stage.

This approach to negative situations can’t be considered to be good or bad till the outcome of this stage is seen (which can be good or bad).

As a result, this stage is considered a bridge between the “bad” and “good” ways to react to a negative situation.

We have treated the two “bad reactions” so let’s delve into the two good ways to react, shall we?

The first among them is;

Self-awareness

In this state, we try to take full cognizance of the situation and see what we can do better to relieve the tension in the air, here we don’t blame anyone but we don’t vindicate ourselves either.

Here, we try to take control of the situation and understand what we want and how to achieve it even in that unpleasant situations.

Here we give power to ourselves by nurturing ourselves and being assertive, slowly easing ourselves out of that tight corner.

This can be a very hard skill to master but once mastered, it will mark a new point of productivity for us.

The last among the five approaches seems to be an irony of the first approach and can be very difficult to employ especially because of our egoistic nature.

It is;

Connection.

Here, we don’t just look at the situation from our point of view, we try to understand the situation from another’s perspective using empathy and love.

When using this approach to handle a negative situation, we are more concerned about the other person rather than ourselves.

We’re trying to see what we can do better for others to lighten the atmosphere, what we can do right for others, and how we can connect better for the greater good. In fact, when you adopt this approach, you’re simply giving a shot at peace at your own expense.

Now it is noteworthy to say that these approaches can be employed in any scenario as long as it involves another person and there is negativity in the air.

So the next time you want to react to a negative situation, ask yourself which of these five approaches you would like to use.

The last two approaches remain your best bet if you want to get the best out of the situation but hey, I can only but advice right?

I’ll leave you with a quote by Victor Frankl, it reads;

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

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