TOXINS

A toxin is a poison frequently produced by some higher plants, certain animals, and pathogenic bacteria that is highly toxic for other living organisms.  We are very concerned, as we should be, to exposure to toxins.  It is undisputed that toxins can have a negative effect on an individual up to and including death.  However, individuals in general, are not as concerned about toxic people, as they are about toxins that too, can have a debilitating effect on your  physical and mental health.  Research has shown us that negativity is not only harmful but contagious.  It can effect the quality of our lives in profound ways but, negativity is so ingrained in our environment that it is either ignored or acceptable by the majority.  I enjoy being a student of people.  Where ever I go and whatever I do, it shocks my conscious how individuals seem to want to live an angry filled life.  Here are just a few examples to stress my point.  For the baseball aficionados, if you ever watch a professional  baseball game, this, wanting to live an angry filled life, is a great example.  More often then not, if an umpire misses a call, or makes a bad call, you have what, Bill Cosby, called in one of his stand up comedy routine,  a conniption.  When he describes  how his wife reacted when she found out that he gave the children chocolate cake for breakfast.  To say she lost it would be an understatement!  So back to my baseball example of living an angry filled life.   When an umpire makes a bad call as aforementioned, the manager of the baseball team, usually a male in his late 50's or early 60's comes running out of the dugout like he was shot out of a cannon.  He is salivating, and either tobacco or gum mixed with saliva is dripping from the corner of his mouth down his sun baked wrinkles onto his neck and making a final permanent stop on his uniform shirt.  The veins on his neck look like they are hemorrhaging.  He looks like a bull ready to tear up the matador and shove the red sheet up the matador's ass.   Only to discover that the matador pulls back the red sheet and stabs the bull with a sword.  This is a grown man, dressed in a kid's baseball uniform, making several millions dollars a year, getting all worked up over what?  An alleged mistake that an umpire made.  And unlike the calm matador, the baseball manager shortened his life by exploding into a conniption.  Another example is the media.  Individuals, for reasons unbeknownst to me, love to see or hear negative news.  In my opinion, it appears to stimulate their adrenal glands and bring some excitement, although negative,  to a boring life.  This is so prevalent today in our polarized political environment.  If you really think about it, whether you consider yourself  a democrat or a republican, what it really means is that you will be upset approximately half the time.  So knowing this, why get upset?
 The aforementioned are self administered toxins that individuals voluntarily expose themselves to.  However, exposure to toxic people is just as brutal.  Some of the biggest impediments to success come from exposure to toxic people.  It can be from co-workers, neighbors, store clerks etc..., and family members.  They can all have negative effects on your physical and mental health.  You  can be a happy positive person but, prolonged exposure to negative people will suck your energy like a Mike Lindell cotton towel on his infomercial soaking up the water on a kitchen counter.  The real issue as I see it is not the negative encounters, because you really have no control over that but understanding the negative impact these people can have on you, and limiting your exposure to them.  In a co-worker situation, where they are talking about negative topics, maybe use the Irish exit maneuver and tell them that you need to get back to your work.  I'm not suggesting being unsympathetic but, you need to monitor your time in that environment and be truthful.  I suggest telling them that you need to get back to work.  If it's a family member, I hate to say this, but you should consider limiting your time with them as well, if they are negative.  I believe, at least for me, that it is easier to limit your time with a negative family member because they are family as opposed to a co-worker or supervisor because you may really need the job so, you can't be as blunt for fear of being terminated.  
 The real antidote for the road to physical and mental health is surrounding yourself with energetic and positive people.  People that will elevate you as opposed to demean and depress you.  But beware, once you elect a positive lifestyle, you may come across to the negative population as uncaring, arrogant and callous.  This is a small price to pay for living a long, loving, healthy and positive life.  Also remember that if you choose the positive option that, contrary to a negative person's opinion of you, you have chosen a love filled life and an appreciation of life because, that will be the sum total of what you will radiate and give to individuals you come in contact with.  Keep in mind that someone's opinion of you is none of your business.  I leave you with a quote from Booker T. Washington.  "Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company."
     Just a thought.
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