Being an empath, I'm sensitive to negativity and prone to absorb it quite easily. I'm especially sensitive to collective negativity that dominates any group. When I was exposed to such collective negativity about a year ago for a few hours, I had to spend half a day the following day in bed to restore my positive energy.
Quite a few people, including some of my former coaching clients themselves, have asked me how I cope with the negativity of coaching clients in the first few sessions in which they are asked to share with me the problems they are facing and want to solve. To my surprise, I've never absorbed this specific negativity. I seem to have learned instinctively to be compassionate instead of remaining empathic.
Recently I experienced (again after a long while) a few incidents of the same type in which I absorbed the negativity of individuals, and in one case I had to spend several hours in bed to restore my positivity. Now I feel an urgent need to defend myself agaist the negativity of not only social collectives but also of individuals.
As far as the negativity of individuals is concerned, I started some time ago to distance myself from not only negative people but also narcissists and those who say stupid things. This has helped me keep my peace of mind, at least online.
The recent few incidents in which I absorbed individual negativity involved people I know who started an argument with me about controversial issues about which we have opposite views. I couldn't just walk away from them. I was dragged into the negative spiral of escalating arguments with them instead.
I've encountered and will encounter such people. One thing I know for sure is that I can't change them and their opinioins. So the biggest challenge I'm facing now for self-defense against this specific type of negativity is to learn to deal with people who have absolute (blind) faith in themselves and aren't open to other opinions. I can only change myself, or to be more precise, my thoughts and the way I respond to them (instead of reacting to them). I don't know yet how.