Addressing Toxic Relationships, Starting with Your Own Soul - Cyndi Dale
(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)
We’ve all been there. Maybe we are there, stuck in a toxic relationship. We perceive the other person as negative, pessimistic, troubled, and irritating. As much as we’d like to blame them for all the troubles, however, we know that we “let” them “trip” our button. It’s like they are surrounded by a dark cloud that makes us cough not nice words right back at them.
It’s one thing if we can avoid the person. Sometimes this isn’t possible, especially if we’re related to that special Pigpen (the character in Charles Schultz’s cartoon strip, Peanuts, who is surrounded by a cloud of dust). What if our poisonous pill is a parent, sibling, child, co-worker, or even our spouse?
There are a lot of great books and systems featuring techniques for taking the sting out of our lethal interactions. After all, we really don’t have to bite back. We can choose to leave the kitchen when our mother is criticizing our cooking for the umpteenth time (a common occurrence in my life as frankly, ...
http://kajama.com/addressing-toxic-relationships-starting-soul/
We’ve all been there. Maybe we are there, stuck in a toxic relationship. We perceive the other person as negative, pessimistic, troubled, and irritating. As much as we’d like to blame them for all the troubles, however, we know that we “let” them “trip” our button. It’s like they are surrounded by a dark cloud that makes us cough not nice words right back at them.
It’s one thing if we can avoid the person. Sometimes this isn’t possible, especially if we’re related to that special Pigpen (the character in Charles Schultz’s cartoon strip, Peanuts, who is surrounded by a cloud of dust). What if our poisonous pill is a parent, sibling, child, co-worker, or even our spouse?
There are a lot of great books and systems featuring techniques for taking the sting out of our lethal interactions. After all, we really don’t have to bite back. We can choose to leave the kitchen when our mother is criticizing our cooking for the umpteenth time (a common occurrence in my life as frankly, ...
http://kajama.com/addressing-toxic-relationships-starting-soul/