Sometimes it can be extremely difficult to stay away from toxic people. They can be everywhere, and often they hide their true intentions.
However, there are 8 effective steps how you can remove their toxic influence from your life.
1. Stick To Your Established Boundaries
Toxic people are people who are constantly trying to push your boundaries. Don’t allow them. Don’t let them mess with your head and manipulate you into doing or accepting something you are not comfortable with.
2. Don’t Let Them Pull You Into A Crisis
Toxic people are excellent manipulators. They can make it seem like ‘they need you’ and they ‘can’t live without you,’ but they only use those words as a means to involve you in some kind of drama. Toxic people love drama. They deliberately create dramatic situations to attract more attention to themselves. So, try to stay out of their drama.
3. Don’t Expect Them To Change
The one thing that you must understand in order to successfully remove toxic people from your life is the fact that they (almost) never change. They may say to you that they will change, but don’t believe them. Most importantly, don’t offer to help them change. They will drag you again in their toxicity.
4. Own Your Weaknesses And Mistakes
When you find yourself in a toxic situation, you will realize that the toxic person will try to exploit your flaws and use them against you. You can stop them by simply being in touch with yourself and by being completely aware of your weaknesses and owning them.
5. Understand Projection
One step of removing toxic people from your life is understanding that they are projecting onto you the parts of themselves that they don’t want to accept or even acknowledge. So, they pour all their suppressed anger and self-hatred towards you.
6. Be Careful Because They May Resist
Toxic people can become angry and throw tantrums whenever they feel exposed or ignored. They are angry because they no longer can manipulate you and use you to their own advantage. Don’t let them throw their anger at you. Stay calm, and simply walk away from the situation.
7. Choose Carefully Your Battles
Be wise when it comes to choosing your battles. Arguing with toxic people can cost you a lot of time and energy. You don’t need to answer to their provocations. Don’t waste your precious time by dealing with toxic people. Instead, spend that time and energy focusing on things that make you feel good and on relationships that genuinely make your life better.
8. Surround Yourself With Healthy Relationships
Removing toxic people from your life can be an incredibly painful process. Especially if you deeply care about them. So, in order to maintain your strength and deal with the sadness, you must surround yourself with good and positive people who make you feel happy and safe. Those people will remind you once again why you decided to sever the ties with the toxic ones.
Image: Harley Wilson
