Have you noticed some people who you avoid most of the time? People who are always resentful, complaining, or spreading negativity.

We all might know of at least a couple of them at our work or in our personal lives. This behavior is called “Bitterness” and as much as we hate being around bitter people, we must also take a look at our personalities and see if we are being bitter persons to anyone else.

This self-introspection is essential for our well-being and for people around us to tolerate our behavior.

Let us now see the reasons why you may be a bitter person and 4 ways to overcome #bitterness.

Few causes of #bitterness

• Setting way too high standards for people around you – Expectations always hurt. More so, if you have very high expectations or standards for people around you. 

  For example, if you expect your junior team member to complete an assignment all by himself or herself even for the very first time, you are being unrealistic. The result would not satisfy you and you would turn bitter towards that person.

• Being unable to move on or #letgo – Forgiving and forgetting and two different things. We may not be able to forget an incident where we were hurt. But we can surely forgive the persons or situations around it. 

  Understand that you deserve to move on from a bitter experience for your own #mentalpeace.

• Not being content and grateful – “Gratitude turns something we have into ENOUGH”. We all have big dreams and wishes. However, if we keep thinking of our highest wants, we might turn to be a non-cheerful member in the group who is always dissatisfied. 

  The ideal way is to keep working towards your goal but at the same time being content with what you have currently.

4 Ways to overcome #bitterness

1. Accept your behavior and actions – Acceptance is the first step to correct any kind of negative behavior. Once you notice that some of your traits are spreading negativity, you will be more focused on how to get rid of them. Stop being self-advocate and stop saying to yourself that it is alright and not your fault.
2. Step into somebody else’s shoes – Now that you have accepted your past behavior and the results, try to re-think what could have been the ideal behavior. Step into the shoes of people who received your bitterness. You might have frowned on or been angry with someone when all you needed was just a break from your exhausting day. Think and analyze the situation.
3. Explore your hidden interests – Most people turn bitter just because they are holding on to things way too long or simply because they are unable to do few things they want to do in their lives. If that is the case with you, divert your mind with your hobbies, interests, or passion. A happy mind can never have bitter thoughts.
4. Forgive yourself too – Yes! Most people are bitter not because of the behavior of their surroundings, past, or people. But because they are utterly dissatisfied with their actions or some difficult situations.

Self-evaluate if that is the case with you and take your time to forgive yourself. You must be kind to yourself first before you do that to anyone else.

Having said this, we must all accept that life is uncertain at times. However good or bad the situations are, we must try to be rational persons who do not further spread bitterness to people around us.