We’ve all encountered toxic people at some point in our lives. You know the type: the constant complaining and negativity. The endless harping and hand-wringing about some problem that’s plaguing them but never seems to get solved. Their doom-and-gloom just seems to suck the light and air out of a room and causes others to flee at the earliest possible opportunity. Toxic people can be exhausting, infuriating, and a major source of stress.
If you’re stuck in a rut with a toxic person and find your blood pressure rising on a regular basis, put journaling to work to help you counter that stress, manage your emotions, and remain calm. Journaling enables you to step back, calmly assess the situation, and develop steps to counter the toxicity.
Writing is an ideal tool for exploring the many, insidious variations of toxicity. Toxic behavior has a way of creeping into relationships, making it hard at first to spot it and deal with it effectively from the get-go. Journaling provides the opportunity to write about situations, events, and circumstances that, upon reflection, reveal themselves as the products of toxicity and help you identify the source.
For example, some toxic individuals are conversational narcissists – they monopolize conversations and interrupt continuously. Others are control freaks, looking to control every activity, interaction, and decision. Then there are the ultra-negatives – the ones with absolutely nothing good to say about anything. The drama queens who thrive on chaos, emotional stress, and personal catastrophes. And let’s not forget the compulsive liars who can leave you exhausted from trying to figure out what’s true and what’s not. They can keep you running in circles with everything from fibs and little white lies to outright whoppers.
Journaling is a great way to sort it all out. It’s a chance to write down the events and evidence that enable you to expose the toxicity for what it is and how it affects your relationships with friends, family, and co-workers. Writing about these toxic situations also enables you to separate yourself from the toxic person or persons and gain some mental space that will enable you to reclaim peace-of-mind and your own sense of self.
Try this. Start your daily journaling with this title: “Who I am Today” and follow it with some free writing to help you understand where you are mentally and how you’re thinking on any given day and at any given time. Focusing on yourself prevents you from focusing on them. This, in turn, will help you gain a better, more positive view of who you are and provide the mental tools with which to stay grounded and resist falling prey to toxicity. Feeling confident in yourself will enable you to avoid getting drawn into all the toxic drama and stay out of needless arguments. Remember – you don’t have to attend every argument you’re invited to.
The lesson to be learned here is that life is too short to be wasted on negativity. Everyone deserves to be happy and to achieve that happiness requires surrounding yourself with positive, supportive people who are as interested in you as you are in them. Toxic individuals are a drain on your emotional well-being and an unnecessary distraction. Journaling can help you immunize yourself against their toxicity and be your best.
If you want to learn how to manage stress caused by toxic people, please download the free eBook titled The Journaling Guide to Manage The Stress and Strains of Life. If you need to take action now, then please check out our new course, Detox your Relationships.
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