The world is filled with toxic, unfavorable individuals, which I wish weren’t the case. They can also be utterly depleting. Consider your cynical buddy on social media, your unforgiving parent who is never kind, or your partner who just isn’t able to celebrate your success. These people must be dealt with and, if necessary, eliminated from your life since they are complete energy suckers.
Of course, you get to decide when and if someone needs to be put out to pasture. Everyone has a different limit for how much negativity they can take, and everyone has a different idea of what negativity is. One individual may find a comment to be hilariously sarcastic while another may find it to be a complete gut hit.
In order to move on, let’s first define what a negative person is generally speaking. This is “[someone] who complains and dumps their problems on you but doesn’t do anything to change their situation,” said Chinh Pham on the website PickTheBrain.com. one who is not encouraging. Someone who casts a negative self-image upon you. Someone who discredits your bold (and perhaps risky) judgments, huge aspirations, or bright ideas. You may disagree with me, but I think that is very accurate.
Here are some strategies for removing this kind of person and all of their baggage from your life if you’re sick of dealing with them.
1. Directly Up Inform them that they are being unkind.
Sometimes pessimists are unaware of how miserable they are making everyone else feel. They have made negativity and gloomy thinking a habit, and they eventually lose the ability to speak without making a snide remark. Tell them politely that they’re difficult to be around if that’s the case. It might be all you need to avoid having to put up with their whiny ways while yet keeping them in your life.
2. Engage with them in open conversation.
You might want to sit them down for a conversation if their negativity problem is truly bad—that is, worse than the occasional grating Facebook tirade. It could be vital to have a sincere talk with long-term bad partners or parents who have ruined your life for years. Just be sure to do it in a visible location. TheArtOfCharm.com notes that it’s not unusual for toxic people to become irrational or even violent. The likelihood of this happening can be considerably reduced by speaking to them in public. You can simply stand up and go if issues arise.
3. Put a social media block on them
You have thus called their negativity to light, yet nothing seems to have changed. Perhaps it’s time to start preventing those Negative Nancies from ever again appearing in your feeds. Although you might not be able to disable your mother or closest friend in person, you can disable their alerts. Or just shut down your computer and put your phone away. Simple as that.
4. Refuse to let them enter your life.
You have thus called their negativity to light, yet nothing seems to have changed. Perhaps it’s time to start preventing those Negative Nancies from ever again appearing in your feeds. Although you might not be able to disable your mother or closest friend in person, you can disable their alerts. Or just shut down your computer and put your phone away. Simple as that.
4. Refuse to let them enter your life.
Even if it sounds dramatic, you might want to think about breaking up if things haven’t improved by this point. (Or at the very least, don’t invite them to important occasions like birthday or Thanksgiving celebrations.) Regardless of your relationship with them, Pham stated that you are under no responsibility to maintain them in your life. Whatever the cause, relationships alter and develop through time—whether for good or bad reasons. Make efforts to get away from a negative person if they are taking away from your life rather than adding to it.
5. Stop bringing them up.
The next move is up to you now that you’ve taken the risk and cleared some of the negativity from your life. You need to quit mentioning them. This is obviously easier said than done, particularly if this unpleasant individual has integrated themselves into your life. However, “you are trying to set a new pattern,” which entails forgetting about all the consequences they’ve had on you, says Dr. Karuna Sabnani for the Huffington Post. The moment has come to move on and start associating with positive individuals.
6. Remove any unfavorable connotations
The drama that results from negativity might resemble an addiction. Even though you may despise it and the way it makes you feel, it may so readily reappear in your thoughts. Therefore, if you’ve decided to cut a gloomy person out of your life, take it a step further and get rid of anything that can serve as a reminder of them. Avoid reading previous emails and texts from this person, as Dr. Sabnani advised. If you can’t help yourself, click erase. Fill the emptiness and your free time with healthy activities.
On Facebook, they can be innocuous naysayers, infrequent whiners, or outright gloomy drags. After determining how dangerous the person is, take action to lead a happier, more peaceful life.
