Avoiding Toxic Relationships To Beat Stress: 5 Questions to Ask Yourself

With so much on our plates nowadays, it's no wonder we are stressed to the max. One way to beat stress is to eliminate toxic relationships and why you should. I hope this helps you to beat stress.

Why You Should Avoid Toxic Relationships If You Want To Beat Stress

The relationships we have in our lives go a long way in determining our happiness. But did you know that unhealthy relationships can actually damage your health? One of the most common causes of stress is an unhappy relationship.

Relationships come in many forms. We have relationships with our parents, our siblings, friends, lovers, co-workers, and bosses. All or any of these relationships can have a negative impact on your stress levels, and your health. It might sound dramatic, but bad relationships can poison your body just as easily as spoiled food, or toxic chemicals. In fact, it’s proven that people who go through life in sustained toxic relationships have a higher chance of developing a heart problem, and of it being fatal. That’s right! The quality of your relationships can determine how long you live for!

In an ideal world, every relationship we have, no matter how fleeting or long-term, would be based on mutual love, respect, and trust. In reality, unfortunately, that’s very often not the case.

It’s common for people who are in toxic relationships to blame anything else but the relationship for the stress they are suffering. They say love is blind, so can you yourself be objective enough to realize the relationship you are in is bad? The answer is probably not. As humans, we tend to believe what we WANT to believe is true, and that makes us poor judges of our own feelings and circumstances.

Even if you recognize the cause of your stress as being the relationships you have with your significant other, your co-worker or a friend, it’s common to tell yourself that it’s just a phase and it hasn’t always been like this. Deep down they are a good person, the phase will pass, and you will live happily ever after once it does. Sadly that rarely happens.

Related Posts:

7 Free Apps to Beat Stress and Increase Productivity

9 Stress Reducing Foods You Need In Your Diet

7 Benefits of Being Happy

Reducing Stress: Top 5 Natural Remedies

So how can you recognize a toxic relationship and end it to beat stress it’s causing?

Start by asking yourself a few questions about the relationship that’s not going as well as you think it should:

Is the other person all take and no give?

Do you feel emotionally drained or robbed of energy after spending time with them?

Is the relationship more often than not full of drama, conflict, and angst?

Do you feel like you cannot express your true feelings or thoughts for fear of upsetting the other person?

Do you feel physically or emotionally threatened by the person, rather than supported and safe?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, there is a high probability that the relationship is causing you mental and physical stress and you are in danger of damaging your health if you do not find a way to end it.

It can be a scary thought ending a relationship, especially one you have been in for a while, and that was once happy. It can also be difficult when the toxic relationship is with a family member or co-worker. But you absolutely must take steps to change things if you want to eradicate the stress it is causing you.

Try to avoid spending time with the other person by occupying yourself with a new hobby or people you have a positive relationship with instead. Is it possible to get a transfer to a different department, so you don’t have to deal with the problematic co-worker? Could you ask another family member to intervene or mediate between the two of you?

Whatever course of action is appropriate to get yourself out of the toxic relationship you are in, keep reminding yourself that relationships should bring happiness and love, not stress and worry. You deserve happiness and good health, and nobody has the right to take that away from you!