Humans are powerful. We constantly impact one another. It can be as simple as someone cutting you off as you are dashing down the highway. BAM! Their emotional energy jumps out of their vehicle and into yours. Before you know it, you go from perfect happiness to ticked off. Scarier yet, their ripple can continue unless you toss it aside and choose not to pass it on.  

A ripple is a wave of energy. Ripples come in different sizes, can be positive or negative, and can make a person’s day or suck all the air out of a room in a nanosecond. It’s the negative energy ripples you must learn to navigate as they can increase your emotional stress. These ripples can quietly suck your positive energy and leave you feeling the need to fight or flight.

Decreasing your emotional stress helps you increase your productive action. When you are productive, you feel good, and this turns on your motivational switch. This productivity literally fuels more positive energy, and away you go. 
 

Of course, when negative energy takes the lead, your productive action decreases, which increases your frustration and stress. This slow drain of energy over time causes burnout. 

In today’s dynamic world, there is an overwhelming air of anger, despair, and burnout. Though you can’t stop other people from rippling all over you, there are ways to manage their negative ripples. 
 

• Change your environment. Whether you take a brisk walk or go into another room, standing in a negative ripple tends to trigger a negative reaction. No one wins. 
• Look at who is rippling and try not to engage. When someone is in a negative spin, your efforts “to help” are generally not considered helpful. Just like you, they must choose their mindset. You don’t control it. 
• Ask yourself an empowering question to help you shift into a mindset that serves you and gets you back into the connected side of your emotional brain. Here are a few I like to use:
  • Who do I want to be right now?
  • What can I do to stay out of their negative ripples? 
  • What matters most here to me?

For more on your emotional brain, check out HEADTRASH, the Leading Killer of Human Potential, or visit www.dumpheadtrash.com for free resources to help you dump your HeadTrash™ and have more of what you want.