Each item that we consume helps to either heal us or poison us. It is not just food that nourishes our bodies, but also everything that we see, hear, taste, smell and feel. From the books you read to the air you breathe, all that you consume is a source of nourishment.
Every single conversation that you have will positively or negatively impact you. Review your relationships. Do these connections nourish love and support, or do they feed self-doubt and anxiety?
Often we encounter people who fuel our insecurities and drain our emotional wellbeing. If you notice this to be a trend for a certain person, they may be toxic. It is important to take a step back, assess the relationship and care for yourself.
Below is a guide to help you starve the negative aspects of your life so that the positives may be nourished. You will learn to identify toxic personality traits and how to protect yourself from them as well as how to heal any toxic behaviors that you may have.
Selfishness: Can you think of anyone that asks for your support through all of their problems, yet when you need help they are never available? This is a key trait of a toxic person. Unless it is about them, these people don’t care. They do not support you and they definitely do not go out of their way for you. Conversations are almost always about them, and you will frequently find yourself cut off the moment you can finally get a word in.
Negativity: For a toxic person, something is always wrong and nothing is ever right. They often display their negativity through sarcastic comments and complaints. They focus on problems rather than solutions and may frequently suck all the positivity out of you.
Manipulation: To get what they want, toxic people often try to control you. These people are experts at playing your emotions and using them against you if needed. They may be very subtle with this, leaving people unaware that they are even being manipulated until it is too late.
Triggering Other’s Guilt: Toxic people tend to “guilt” others into getting what they want. If they are being accused of something, they may shift the conversation by bringing up irrelevant details about something you did years ago. If they are looking for attention, they may persuade you to drop what you are doing and spend time with them. A common example would be “if you really loved me you would come to see me tonight instead of going to that exercise class.”
Lacking Empathy: Unable to empathize, toxic people cannot comprehend the feelings that another person is experiencing. They don’t take the time to understand another person’s situation because they are too wrapped up in their own world.
Jealous and Judgmental: A toxic person feels a need to believe that they are the “best”. If something positive happens to another person, they become upset that this event did not happen to them as well. These feelings are often released through judgmental gossip or criticism. This is their attempt to lower your self-esteem and in turn, increase theirs. They try to build themselves up by tearing others down.
Telling Lies: Whether it is to get themselves out of a situation or to make themselves the hero of the story, toxic people may frequently lie. They might create an entirely new scenario, twist an existing story around or just remove essential facts. Either way, this action leaves it difficult to trust what they are saying.
Victim Mentality: A toxic person will never admit they are wrong. Rather than taking responsibility for their feelings or actions, toxic people often blame anything or anyone but themselves. They are always the victims and they thrive off of others’ attention and compassion when they play this role.
Disrespectful: Needing always to be put first, toxic people will hurt anyone that they feel threatened by. They will not stop to respect you or your feelings. Often they may say very painful things and later play them off as a joke.
Center of Attention: Toxic people will do anything for attention. They love being the star of the show. Attention is their main source of validation; it makes them feel important. If there is ever a dull moment they will create a crisis just to enjoy watching people try to help them.
Spending time with a toxic person can leave you feeling emotionally drained and unfulfilled. They subtly attack your self-esteem and may leave you with a negative attitude. Although you may feel bad for them, your wellbeing must be a priority. Here are some steps to protect yourself from toxic people:
Now, you may be great at noticing these traits externally – but have you searched within?
WHAT IF YOU'RE THE CAUSE OF TOXICITY IN YOUR LIFE?
Unfortunately, we all have unhealthy personalities deep within us that negatively impact our lives. We may consider them “issues”, but haven’t fully wrapped our minds around these traits and haven’t made an effort to change them. Character Traits of Happy People
Take a minute to review the list again. Are there any toxic personality traits that you can see in yourself?
Ask yourself: would you want to hang around with you? Be someone you want to be around. Your mission isn’t to please everyone, but are you bringing negativity to your environment? Today, you have the power to make incremental changes to evolve into a greater version of yourself.
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Call it intuition, instinct, or a gut feeling: if we followed it, we just might be a lot happier. Intuition is a skill we are all born with, but one we submerge in the business of modern living.