Do you shield yourself from those that drain you?

Yes, I am talking about, the eternal pessimists, the drama divas, the narcissists, those who disrespect and mock your beliefs and in general people that try to run or ruin your life.

We all have people problems and those difficulties can make us feel bad.

To make the bad feeling go away, we have to channel all our efforts into solving our problems. At least that’s what we think.

The reality is different though.

If focusing on your problems and trying to tackle them head-on with all the effort you can muster works, why do you still have so many people problems?

Our lives are filled with many challenges. We have relationships with our spouses, partners, children, and other family members. They often include conflict of some sort. Our relationships with our friends, neighbors, bosses, and co-workers are demanding as well. Our culture loads on additional concerns like crime, prejudice, violence, and discord. Then remember that all of us scrap with personal problems such as stress, anxiety, depression, self-doubt, addiction, and worries about our health, finances, and future.

When you look at the above paragraph, we can have some days that we feel that we are ‘being put through the wringer’. Do you think that those that suck the life out of you, don’t have day like this?

How we handle all of our personal problems can leave us as happy people or as spiteful, rude and internally upset. Yes, it is human behavior that is the single cause of the challenges we all experience. Yes, people connection issues.

Imagine you have a problem right now because this ‘particular’ person is dragging you down. Perhaps this has happened recently, so you don’t even need to imagine it, it is very fresh in your mind. Most of us have experienced this.

Now, to solve this issue, naturally, we do the only thing that we’ve been taught to do when it comes to solving problems: Focusing our attention on it and create a solution.

Therein lies the issue about our human nature. Humans have two choices; we can use our intelligence, creativity, and ability to improve our lives. Then on the other hand, humans also behave in highly dysfunctional ways that create many of the issues mentioned earlier.

A question; have you personally been part of any of those people problems with others?

If you answered ‘no’ I want to witness you walking on water as well. Of course, we all have our faults, so we need to keep this in mind. In fact, I would make the suggestion that the first time you experience this in the next day or two to do this;

• Listen to the person,
• Smile over what is being expressed, then
• Instead of thinking; How can people be so wrong about this? Ask yourself have I ever said or did something that was questioned by another person.
• Answer this question; Did you like being corrected?
• Then accept that you’ve probably thought or said the same complaint over an issue at one time in your life.

Every time you find yourself slipping back into annoyance about another person, think about your past behavior, and realize that being resilient to this one incident can make you a better and less critical person to be around.

You can do it, can’t you.