Toxic Relationships – navigating through the unavoidable ones

Here's The Thing...Lauren Cardinale, CMS-CHt, FIBH, CPC

We’ve all been around someone who we know is not good for our state of mind. It can be relatively easy to avoid someone when we have the choice, but what about when we don’t? There are definitely going to be moments in your life when you’re going to be around, and will have to manage, a situation with a toxic person. How do we DO that? Ultimately, a toxic person is bad for you - and the reason is that often they are not readily recognized as being very toxic. You could go days, months, or even years and never even know how much damage they are causing in your life. It can be very stressful to not be able to decipher between who is really trying to be a positive influence in your life, and who isn’t. To protect yourself from a toxic person, you have to be able to know one when you see one. There are always signs – it’s a matter of being able to identify them. And, as we learn to identify them, we can either develop a healthy relationship with them, or release them. Get to know how to spot a toxic relationship, how we participate, and how it affects us.