Hello Share The Love Sunday readers! This week I have had some strange experiences surrounding betrayal, negativity, confusion and naysayers. Well, I should say naysayer because really there is only one. This got me thinking about how we sometimes outgrow friendships or realize that some of our relationships aren’t exactly healthy for us. Sometimes there is only so much negativity a person can take. Or, what about the friend that steals your ideas or does what she can to make you feel inferior? We know these people make us feel bad, but what do we do next? How do we stop being friends with someone? How do we untangle ourselves from the web (both literally and figuratively) we find ourselves caught up in? How do we stop being friends with someone and most importantly how do we do it nicely? So, with a touch of curiosity and a hint of desperation I did what I do best: I turned to Google for the answers.
So, without further blubbering, here is what I have found on Google about how to stop being friends:
Alex Williams wrote in The New York Times: It’s Not You, It’s Me. People discuss their experiences and the pros and cons of being direct versus using white lies to end a friendship. One woman, Ms. Johnson, said the following about ending a friendship with someone who was always putting her down, “My main point was that life is very short and fleeting, and I value my happiness enough to eradicate the negative energy…”
Ryan O’Connell wrote Everyone Should Get Rid Of Their Toxic Friends and highlights some reasons why.
On the Tiny Buddha website contributor Katy Cowan examines how to have compassion for toxic people without letting them affect our happiness and how we can only be responsible for own experience in Toxic Friendships: Accepting, Forgiving and Moving On.
When to end A Friendship: How to identify when a friend is toxic and needs to be purged from your life by SpiffyD on Hub Pages.
An entire blog on Friendship. The Friendship Blog created by Irene S. Levine, PhD. She answers questions from readers and addresses many topics related to friendship. You could spend hours reading peoples stories and her comments on them.
If you find yourself unfriended on Facebook this article from Psychology Today might help you with feelings of rejection Unfriended? 5 Ways to Manage Online Rejection.
How to Unfriend Someone On Facebook Without Actually Unfriending Them from WikiHow gives you step-by-step instructions for adjusting your Facebook page. A good way to slow down on what you share without making a clean cut break.
I hope these articles on how to stop being friends helps some of you navigate through some of these painful or awkward relationship moments. I think protecting your own happiness and state of mind is very important. Nobody can do that for you.
Also, don’t listen to naysayers they are mostly just jealous because you are awesome. YOU ARE AWESOME!
Happy Sunday Reading!