The ex who keeps coming back when you’re finally happy. The friend you keep fighting with.
We all have those people in our lives. We want to keep them around because we think they’ll change, but deep down, we know they never will.
Something I learned after multiple repeats of letting these people back into my life even though people told me not to is it’s okay.
It’s okay to let go. It’s okay to never talk to them again. It’s okay to block them on social media.
If they are causing you to hurt, if they’re the reason for your stress, your anxiety, if they’re the reason why you can’t sleep or eat...let them go.
They are toxic. They want to make you feel bad about yourself because it makes them feel good. You don’t deserve that.
You deserve to be happy. You deserve to be successful. You deserve to have a wonderful support system full of friends, family and peers that cheer you on, not hold you back, not tell you that you can’t do it.
After I learned that I could live my life without these people in it, I became so much happier. I started getting involved more at school. I’m so much busier than I was before, but I enjoy doing what I do and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.
One thing I like to do when I am struggling with toxic people is to look at quotes on the internet. As cheesy as that sounds, some of these hit home. These are a few of my favorites.
“The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot move forward.”
― Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience
“Letting go doesn't mean that you don't care about someone anymore. It's just realizing that the only person you really have control over is yourself.”
― Deborah Reber, Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul
“You will find that it is necessary to let things go; simply for the reason that they are heavy. So let them go, let go of them. I tie no weights to my ankles.”
― C. JoyBell C.
“Letting go means to come to the realization that some people are a part of your history, but not a part of your destiny.”
― Steve Maraboli
Letting go of toxic people in your life doesn’t make you a bad person. Not at all.
It means you’re growing up, becoming mature, becoming the bad-ass world-changer that you were meant to be.
Sometimes, we make mistakes, sometimes we let these people back into our lives because we love them, because we believe they will change, because we believe they are good people.
But they’re not.
Toxic people never change. They never outgrow their immaturity and they will continue bringing people down to continue feeling better about themselves.
Do yourself and your future a favor: tell yourself that it is 100 percent absolutely okay to let go.