All of us know someone who is negative or who always seems to be having a bad time in their life. And while sympathizing might seem like the best way to help him or her feel better, sometimes you need to do more in order to live the positive life that you want to live.

1) Attracting what you want from life

Just as the saying goes, ?like attracts like,' the same theory applies to the circle of friends that you have.

Your mother was right; hanging out with ?bad' people can actually influence and impact the things that you want from your life. According to the universal laws of attraction, you want to increase the amount of positive energy in your life as much as you can so that you can attract positive things in return.

When you're around people that aren't positive in nature, this can weight on you and the strength you have for maintaining your own positive energy.

2) What the real issue is

The issue with these people is that they tend to perpetuate a cycle of negative thinking and thus negative results.

They believe that nothing good will come of their lives, so they attract negative things, and these occurrences cause them to believe that only negative things will happen to the. The cycle can continue forever.

And as a friend or an acquaintance of these friends, you might begin to believe this kind of thinking as well ? and become stuck in their pattern.

3) Breaking away from the negativity

However, you have a choice to make in your life ? do you want to live your dreams or not?

You can choose to remain friends with this kind of group of people or you can move onto other friends that are more positive.

In many cases, the easier way to deal with negative people is to stop spending time with them, or at least as much time. By finding friends that share in your positive attitude toward life and the things that you want, you will also increase your positive energy and begin to attract the things you want.

Of course, there are some people that you can not avoid being around ? family, coworkers, etc. In order to create a healthier relationship in these cases, you will need to be willing to be different than their behavior dictates.

This means being able to stop, assess what they have said, and find a positive way to address it. You will also need to set boundaries as to how much negativity you can handle and then step away from conversations or situations that start to exceed these boundaries.

4) Tactics for dealing with negative influences

Because you may never be able to avoid negativity entirely, you will want to have a few simple strategies to help counteract this type of energy without spreading it as well.

When someone says something negative, ask them why they feel that way? This causes people to reconsider what they are saying and perhaps change their thought process. On the other hand, you might also get a lengthy discussion of exactly why they feel miserable.

When someone talks about a bad string of events, try to change each event into a positive action. For example, if they got a bad parking space at work, congratulate them on having more exercise opportunities.

You want to try to switch their dialogue around so that you can find the positive side of the conversation ? even if they can not.

Practice positive affirmations ? When you silently repeat to yourself a positive phrase, you can help your mind stay focused on positive things. For example, thinking to yourself, "I am content and happy," over and over can remind you that you actually are happy overall.

5) How to attract positive people

When you want to create a more positive life for yourself and start attracting the things you want, you'll want to start associating with people of the same mindset.

Why not try to arrange a weekly group for positive thinkers and those living by the universal laws of attraction? You may be surprised to see just how many people want to do what you're doing too. All you need to do is gather everyone together.