Question: I am at work sometimes as much as I am at home. How do we avoid the negative influences of others in the workplace?

Answer: The whole point is not that we avoid what are unavoidable, difficult conditions, but that we recognize the discomfort we feel belongs to our own resistance to these conditions. We are always able to use our circumstances when we are awake within them. Negative influences cannot cause problems to those who remain awake to their presence.

Question: There have been days where I am at work, feeling fine within myself, but the aggressive negativity directed towards me from so many individuals in one day is staggering and leaves me wondering what is going on.

Answer: Learn what it means to disappear to yourself, and then the activities or appearances of others toward you will be as a rain storm to the sky it falls through. This disappearing act of self can be done… in fact it is what this Work leads us to wherein at last we are free from negative influences, regardless of their source.

Question: Is there a way I can protect myself from the negative influence I have to face from people around me? I still find myself vulnerable, and it affects me sometimes.

Answer: There is no greater protection from negative influences than our realization that we are never in a neutral environment. Said differently, safety from darkness begins with recognizing it. As you awaken to the unconscious state of others, you will naturally withdraw yourself from your formerly unconscious relationship, i.e. identification, with these same states. Go to work.