Ways To Avoid Negative Peer Pressure
A lot of people have seen themselves doing what they normally would not be doing and have entered one form of trouble or the other simply because they gave heed to pressures from their friends. You will be surprised the influence your peers can have on you to act against your will, so you need to stop it on time. If you can overcome peer pressure, then you have won a very strategic battle of life. In fact, if you can rise up and say "no" to peer pressure, then you have achieved a state of mental awakening and psychological enlightenment. Here, we shall take a look at the potent ways to help one to avoid the influence of peer pressure.
The first way to avoid peer pressure is to check the kind of peers and friends you stay with. I remember the statement my mentor once made; "the river can only drown the person that it sees their legs." That means if you do not come close to the water, you cannot be drowned. In this context, the truth is that the peer that you do not have cannot put pressure on you. If you know that someone or a group of people normally put pressure on you to do what you do not like or what is not right, then you have to stay away from them. You may not be able to change the friend from negative to positive, but at least you can choose to change them as friends.
It is worthy to note that no one is forcing you to be friends with someone nor is it a must to keep company with someone. If something positive is not coming out of your friendship with someone, then you do not have any reason to be friends with them. More so, your destiny and your future is more important to you than trying to please someone by being friends with them. After all, you are not here to please people nor to allow peers to pressure you into doing unwholesome things but to create impact. I have come to realise that it is far better to have fewer friends that will add positively to your life and cause you to be better, than having plenty of friends that will lead you into unimaginable troubles.
The next way to avoid negative peer pressure is to pay attention to your conscience, instincts, and inner voice. Trust me, everyone; as a free gift of nature; is born with a working conscience. This is why you will know and perceive when something is wrong and when it is right. If something does not seem right to you or if it is constantly in disagreement with your conscience, then you need to stay clear from it. The reason why you have a conscience is to discern between good and bad, right and wrong, and then make your own choice. But to make the right choice, you need a will to make it.
No matter how someone presses you to do what negates your conscience, you should not give in to it. If you start to go against your conscience, which is like your natural police, then you are constantly damaging it and before long, it may become inactive. This is why you see people do all manner of wrong and unwholesome things without even giving a blink; because they have seared their conscience, and this may have started from supposed little peer pressure which grew monstrous over time. If your friends want to make you to do something that you perceive as bad, then you should not allow it.
There are times that you do not need to explain your decisions, just say the "no" and walk away without mixing emotions to it and without allowing anyone to emotionally blackmail you. Instead of trying to stay with people that make you to do bad things or put you under pressure to go into one form of vice or the other, then it is better to stay alone. Remember that your future is a function of your actions of today, so do not allow peer pressure to make you take the wrong action.
Thanks for reading
