10 Jun 5 Ways to Remove Toxicity From Your Life

Everyone talks about removing toxicity from your life, but it’s way easier said than done. It’s a process that doesn’t happen overnight, and requires a lot of patience and practice to get it right. 

Whether you have toxic relationships in your life, negative feelings or emotions, or intense situations you struggle to deal with, your wellbeing is impacted and can have detrimental effects on both your mental and physical health in the long run. 

Not sure how to begin? Here are five ways you can begin to decrease the toxicity within your life starting today:

Set Boundaries

Even if you can’t remove a toxic person from your life completely, it’s still important to create and uphold boundaries with them. For example, if there’s someone in your family or a person you share many mutual relationships with who consistently pushes your buttons, makes snide remarks, or acts negatively towards you in other ways, try only meeting with them in bigger groups or while out in public. The presence of other people may impact the way they talk to you, or at least offer a barrier if things do get out of hand. 

You can also set a boundary of not answering the phone every time they call, or limiting how often you see or talk to them altogether. Small steps can often have big, positive impacts for your mental and emotional health — and that’s nothing to feel guilty about. 

Separate Yourself from Unneeded Drama

You might know people who habitually gossip or always seem to fill you in on the latest drama they’re involved in. However, there’s a difference between being a good friend by listening to their struggles and getting personally sucked into the issue at hand. Try your best to avoid picking sides or getting defensive with them. Gently change the subject or maybe even call them out — sometimes people need a healthy dose of honesty.

Limit Time on Social Media

As much as we all would love to view social media as the perfect way to keep in touch with people and support one another, most of us know by now that there’s also a lot of negativity on these networks — and it can be really easy to let it get you down. 

In fact, recent studies are showing that the more screen time we have in the social media world, the more likely we are to feel lonely, depressed, unmotivated, anxious, and have lower self-esteem. To give your mental health a boost, find ways to keep yourself off of Facebook or other social media networks: read a book, go for a hike, meet up with friends in person, write in a journal, or work on a new project. Make a habit of doing things so exciting and fulfilling that you don’t even feel the need to pick up your phone for hours at a time. 

Find Acceptance

Sometimes the toxic parts of our lives come from the anger, frustration, or anxiety we feel towards people who don’t act the way we want them to. Instead of looking outward and expecting them to change, we should look inward and practice acceptance: they may never change or be the person we want them to be. 

Letting go of the need to control the situation or person can be a freeing and positive experience, although not always an easy one. Don’t be afraid to make your needs known, but don’t take it personally when things don’t go the way you want them to. Accepting people and situations for what they are and making the best of them feels much better than obsessing over how things “could” or “should” be. 

Practice Self-Care

We’ve talked about self-care before on our blog, but we bring it up again today because that’s how important it is. Internal toxic buildups can fester if they aren’t addressed, leading to a variety of other problems like energy blocks, physical tension or pain, sleeplessness, and/or feeling lost, stuck, or depressed. 

By spending time focusing on yourself — especially if you haven’t been in quite some time — you can flush out negativity while simultaneously opening yourself up to new, more positive energy. Some of the most healthy forms of self-care include exercise, getting outdoors, having bodywork done, booking a spa day, taking breaks from work, spending time alone, traveling, and journaling. 

Other Self-Care Tools & Resources

Whether you’re looking for additional ways to reduce toxic elements in your life or you need a little extra guidance to make positive transformations, head on over to our Healing Resources page! We have a list of inspirational books and other tools you can start using today to practice self-care and help you live a life you love.