Open the windows. Ok, it’s not your room, so you can’t. Don’t get in. Avoid the room. If you need to go through, limit to the minimum time. Etc.
The same applies to mental pollution, including the equivalent of passive smoking which is social media bombarding.
1. Filter noise and signals. Learn to scan information, find one or two gems, store them (pocket? [1]) keep going. It’s the mental equivalent to sniffing dogs. Spot the real thing. Bark.
2. Avoid chronic exposure to mental toxicity. That includes some UK tabloids of huge circulation and a significant number of cable or satellite TV stations. Add dead by twitter and the rest. Filter, filter.
3. Limit your interface with negative people. Have you noticed there are a few of them? If completely unavoidable, put some limits. You don’t have to agree to an exposure. Flee the place, abandon the meeting, get a bad, bad flu. Avoid.
I know, the above 3 are more protecting measures than proactive seeking of fresh air.
People have different ways of seeking positive contagious which will compensate for the inevitable mental pollution. Fresh oxygen can be found in good books, people who wake up in the morning thinking ‘possibilities’ versus ‘rain again’, and working with smart people who do not take themselves too seriously. If some of those things could be bottled, they would have a premium price.
If you are lucky and smart enough to (1) have mastered protection and (2) sort-of-conquered fresh air, do a favour to mankind: teach others how to do it.