Original Publication Date May 15, 2012

Hello Prosers! I wrote this many years ago and decided it would be a great topic of discussion for today’s reblog and per my usual habit, I have edited my copy and included extra material for your reading pleasure.

Many people have touched on this topic, so I doubt I have anything new to add but we will explore it nonetheless. Over the years, I have made it a practice to weed out toxic individuals from my life. I make this practice applicable to family members, friends and co-workers; no one is exempt. Life is challenging enough and it is so hard to maintain peace of mind that I do not see the purpose in tolerating intolerable people. I lack the tolerance and temperament to deal with these type of individuals on a regular basis. They serve no real value in my life, and although I know there is a lesson to be learned in every situation, I limit the lessons I have to learn from these type of people.

There are some toxic people that you have no choice but to interact with on a regular basis; does not mean you cannot set boundaries and keep your distance. Toxic people not only feed off of negativity, they disguise their toxicity with various manipulation tactics. They are exhausting people to deal with and I have never mastered the tolerance it takes to keep them around for very long. As with anything else, there are levels to the toxicity of the people we regularly encounter. I thought I would list some of them here as I know we all have come across someone like this at some point in time.

Let’s start with the all too familiar person that likes to throw regular shade, say snide remarks and belittle others. Their MO is to repeatedly take jabs at you because they feed off of your reaction and enjoy feeling superior to you when deep down they are the most insecure people walking. In the past, I was known to give as good as I got. In maturity, I simply laugh at them and refuse to play the fool. They hate and I do mean HATE, to be ignored so I happily ignore them. Why should I waste my energy on these pathetic individuals?

How about the restless souls where drama often follows them wherever they go? They always seem to be in strife with someone and of course, it is NEVER their fault. These people are the ones arguing with the grocery clerks, with their coworkers or arguing in the comment sections under Facebook posts. They are never at peace with anyone because they have no peace within. They are miserably unhappy and will make you absolutely miserable if you allow them to do so.

But the last one I want to discuss is the narcissist. You need to avoid these individuals at all costs. They are beyond toxic and have been known to ruin the lives of others. All anyone has to do is conduct a Google search on narcissistic personality disorder and a plethora of information can be found. Our society is full of narcissist but thankfully, there is enough information available for everyone to guard themselves against the toxicity of this kind of person.

Toxic equates to people who are emotionally draining, who are consistently negative or basically disrupt the peaceful balance in my life. Everyone handles toxic situations differently but for me, it is distance followed by elimination.

Until we explore this topic again, keep reading and reading and reading my blogs over and over and over again. LOL! I don’t mind, really!! 🙂

Author Mara Prose

COMING SOON!