An encounter with a mean person can ruin your day. It can also leave you frustrated, doubting your sanity, and sometimes even affect your self-esteem. Mean people often catch you off guard with their nastiness because it is the last thing you expect since the norm is for all humans to respect the space of the others.

Nasty people do not have to ruin your day or your life in case you share some space with them. You can learn how to live with them and protect yourself from their bad attitude and venom. Below I am going to show you several things you can do to become immune to their harsh words and behavior and live your life peacefully.

Refrain from taking it personally
Do not take the actions of the mean person as directed too only you. Understand that it’s their nature and they treat everyone that way. Therefore it’s not that they singled you to treat you nastily and treat other people well. When you look at their behavior this way, you will be less bothered by their unbecoming conduct. Believe the best about the mean person. That they are not mean on purpose but because of some things going on in their life.

Demonstrate positive behavior
To help the mean person change from their sour attitude, try behaving the way you would want them to behave. The person may be using meanness to show that they dominate you. You should in such a case act in a way to show them they are the ones in charge. Do not give them your power but give them responsibility so that they feel in control.

Cut them some slack
If the person, let’s say it’s a co-worker, is not mean to you every day, then don’t take their attitude to mean they don’t like you but understand they may just be having a bad day. Probably someone rubbed them off the wrong way and they are irritated or they are only in a mood swing for reasons they also cannot control.

Talk to them
You never know what the mean person could be going through. They could be having bottled up feelings that they have no one to share with. Find out the reason for the nasty behavior so that you understand the root cause. Therefore you must think about the questions to ask them to have them open up. They will be excited to give answers most likely to questions about their personal life. This will allow you to get to the bottom of the matter and offer them lasting help.

Walk away
Leave the nasty person alone and go on your way to get away from the situation. This will take power away from the mean person, and they will not escalate the situation.

Try helping them
Find out if the person is depressed or frustrated with life and help them or help them seek professional help. This help might help you the mean person change their attitude and their life and turn around to be better people in society.

Be kind to the person
Treat the nasty person with kindness as it may be the thing lacking in their life. Life might have become complicated at some point and left this mean person with bitterness that he is trying to project on to other people. You can counter the pain with compassion so that the person can know that somebody acres.

Try humor to deflate the situation
Crack a joke to try and get the mean person in a good mood. This will divert his attention and even catch him off guard. Unless the person is really out to get you and hates you, they will be hay to hear something funny and they will forget their sourness for a moment. Then you will have time to get away from them or they might even take a liking to you.

Challenge them for bad behavior
If all else fails, confront the mean person and let them know you won’t have them treat you in a nasty way. Be categorical that you won’t take such behavior from them and you will take a kind of action against them. The person will understand they cannot treat you; however, they please and will respect your boundaries.

Keep away from them
If the mean person is someone you can avoid, do it at all costs as it will give you peace of mind. If the person is found in a particular shop or store, avoid the store and go to a different one or have a different person serve you. If it’s someone you work or live with, avoid them at all costs unless you must. If you can’t avoid them just be kind to them despite what behavior they portray.

To wrap up
Coming into contact with or living with a mean person is no mean feat, but you don’t have to suffer in silence. You can coexist with them without getting affected every time they rub you the wrong way. You can even help them cope with their meanness by showing them how to behave or calling them out for their behavior.

Similarly, you can take their meanness to mean they have issues they are dealing with in their life and their attitude is not about you. You can win them over by being kind and maybe even using humor. Whichever method you use, you don’t have to live in terror of a mean person. Use one of the ways we have discussed to take control of the situation.

Lovely write up but eh my pattern is tick for tac.

From experience, When avoiding such people,they tend to always pick on you always. Show them 'accute' madness and they will always behave themselves around you.