Handling Toxic Situations

This guided meditation helps you remain grounded, clear, and emotionally balanced when facing toxic people or difficult situations. It supports you in protecting your peace, reconnecting with your inner strength, and responding thoughtfully rather than reacting from stress or fear.

Transcript

Welcome to your talk today, 7 Practices to Handle Toxic Situations with Greater Ease and Awareness. Denise Lisseth said, Like arsenic, Toxic people will slowly kill you. They kill your positive spirit and play with your mind and emotions. The only cure is to let them go. We've all been there, We've all experienced toxicity in our lifetime. Whether it's work, Family, Relationships that we've been in, Sometimes we feel like we can't always let go of the toxic people in our life because we have to deal with them, Especially if it's the workplace or some kind of family dynamic. So let's start with what toxic means. It's referred to as poisonous or harmful when you look it up. In a traditional dictionary, WebMD defines a toxic person as anyone whose behavior adds negativity or upset to your life. Of course, There are degrees of toxicity. There's abuse that causes trauma. There's toxic behavior. And there's also unhealthy, Unconscious patterns that we all work with to some degree. I think it's worth pointing out that there's also a distinction to be made between someone who's toxic and being triggered. Oftentimes toxic people will trigger us, But it doesn't mean that we have to sustain those triggers again and again. Where it brings up some sort of uncomfortable emotion within us. That's what often happens with triggering. But constant negative energy causes us emotional disturbance, Stress, Anxiety, And more. It lowers your mood, Your energy. It's dispiriting to be around toxicity. Sleep, Waking up in the night thinking about them. It can lead to bad health and digestion and it can negatively impact the quality of your thoughts. Some other indicators that you're dealing with toxicity is that you feel a constant pull on your energy, Like you're being undertowed and it's draining. You have less energy. It's like your balloon being deflated. Oftentimes there are power and ego dynamics that are going on where in toxic situations, There's a need for control. And also you don't feel supported in just being yourself. You feel like you have to change yourself, Compromise yourself in order to be safe in that toxic situation. With toxicity it goes hand in hand with narcissism. You're probably dealing with someone who is very egocentric. Their needs, Their desires always come first and if they don't they often use blame, Shame, Judgment, And criticism in order to control their situation or the people around them. And oftentimes there's a distortion of reality because there's constant gaslighting. My reality is more important than your reality. And there's often denial that is there in dealing with someone who's narcissistic. Oftentimes, When we are in these sustained toxic situations, Your sense of self-worth, Your value, And your reality can become small. You just sort of feel yourself withering away. And that's how you really know that you're in a toxic situation. It can feel really big and consuming, Like it's overwhelming you. And it's often in these situations we lose our sense of energetic space. So if you're ever finding yourself feeling confused, Disoriented, Accident prone even, And you're thinking about the word crazy, Like, Am I crazy that this is happening? Is that crazy? If that word keeps coming up in your head, You're likely dealing with a crazy maker narcissist. Oftentimes you can start to feel alone, Like your perspective doesn't matter. You may feel like you're invisible. Simple. And you begin to question or deny your own true experience. So this is what can happen when you're in these situations. So let's talk about the seven ways that you can begin to handle situations like these with more ease. And really awareness is key. Awareness is like the tool you want to work with. Anytime you're in a toxic situation is to stay aware and to be really honest with yourself you're going through. Oftentimes that's just recognizing, Okay, I'm in an unhealthy situation. This doesn't feel right to me. So that's the first thing. The second thing you want to do is consciously hold on to your own sense of reality and your own sense of self-worth. Because self-worth can start to feel eroded when you're in toxic or deeply stressful situations. So really understanding that your reality, Your perceptions are valuable and important in this situation. And that you can bring valuable insight and expression into what's happening. The third thing is to be willing to assert yourself. Your own will and to keep expressing yourself. Oftentimes in toxic situations, Especially in dealing with a narcissist, You will be punished for speaking your truth. You will be punished for being yourself. And that's where it starts. So to be willing to continue to express yourself, To say what feels right to you, What you want is really important skill to have in dealing in these situations. Of course, You always want to make sure that you are physically feeling safe as well. The fourth thing is to take new actions, Positive actions for your health and well-being. And again, This can be very triggering to someone who's a narcissist. When you start moving in the direction of health, You could be made wrong. They can make you feel bad. They can get mad. All kinds of negative emotions can start to come to the surface when you begin to move powerfully in the direction of what's good for you and what feels right to you. So be willing to take these actions even if they startle or upset the people around you. Really you want to refuse to be thrown because that is the biggest indicator of being in a toxic situation is that you feel thrown, Just totally off base. And so the fifth thing is to really remember and maintain your center of peace. To stay in your own center, Stay in your body. Oftentimes when we're in toxic situations, We begin to disassociate and leave our body. And oftentimes in that process, There is a kind of infiltration of energy that can also happen as we begin to space out or go into escapism or denial about what's happening. So learning how to maintain and hold your center is instrumental. To maintaining perspective, Being in your center, Being in your body. The sixth thing is boundaries. Learning how to have boundaries, Whether you speak those boundaries and say, This is what I can do when I have time for that, Or actually limiting your time and energy in those toxic situations. If you're anticipating spending time in a very hard karmic family dynamic, And you know you're going to be in a place together perhaps it's considering having your own space you know booking your own Airbnb booking your own having your own room and consciously having these types of boundaries and avoiding entanglement and enmeshment. Because entanglement and enmeshment can really begin to pull you under in any kind of toxic situation. Sometimes we feel like we have to give our power over. Maybe it's to an organization or a group because we're in need of what they have to give, Such as finances. So we begin kind of giving over a part of ourselves in order to get another need met. And it's important to just be aware of these types of exchanges that can create deeper entanglement, Codependency, And enmeshment. And lastly, Energetically practice intention setting. So before you even enter into these situations, It's great to just imagine that you're connected right to the center of the earth, You're supported, You're rooted, And set your intention for that time together. What is that time together about? Why are you there? And connect to a deeper meaning and purpose for yourself before entering into any situation that makes you deeply uncomfortable or doesn't feel healthy for you. Remember that you're not everyone's teacher and healer, That as much as we want to help people, We can never expect to change or heal a toxic person. If somebody is married or attached to the way that they are, The way they've been, To learn to accept who they are, Where they are in their journey, Their consciousness, And to learn Let go of any need on your part to try to change or heal unhealthy situations. We can only be responsible for what we do. For our own self, The actions, The speech that we engage in. And it's important to remember that. And when we reconnect back to our own center and know that that's enough, What ends up happening is that it's healing for everyone. Even those people who are in those situations, Those toxic situations. Taking the right action and staying aligned to your own sense of health is healing for everyone. Learning how to communicate, Be honest and expressive, Being yourself in your own center is a healing act in itself. Thank you so much for learning about how to handle toxic situations with more ease and awareness.