As true as “you are what you eat” is “you are who you hang with.”
This is not going to be a long blog, but I feel that it is a necessary blog. It’s also unlikely to stick to my usual format of a one sentence “paragraph” followed by an approximately 100 word paragraph. What it hopefully will be, is something to make you think, to challenge you, as I have been challenged. I’m hoping to make it a part of a series of blogs about different ways I’d like to challenge myself.
This has been one bizarre, difficult year, and I am partly to blame.
I’ve always tried hard to be as physically healthy as my budget could allow for. Where I’m at with this currently is: I ensure I get daily exercise, try to limit my alcohol and sugar intake, avoid excessive sun exposure and I gave up smoking. The area where there’s most room for improvement is alcohol consumption. This is something that has been a constant struggle for me since my late teens, but I’m slowly but surely heading toward a place where I can drink socially without going overboard and being physically and socially self destructive.
The new challenge I am facing is that of realising and removing toxic people from my life.
It was actually drummed into me as a child that “you are who you hang with” but I never really gave it much credit. I’ve often sought out friendships with people who are different, people who are hurting, and people who are misunderstood. Without realising it, this has let in a few people who have influenced me in very destructive ways. It has taken other people pointing things out to me to notice that I’ve been taken advantage of by certain people in my life for years.
Well, what do you know, I’ve actually accidentally stuck to my usual blog writing format.
I love that I have people from all walks of life around me. I love the diverse range of personalities that I get to witness. But I need to remove the negative influences that have crept in. I need to get rid of the one sided relationships, the people who I’ve always been there for, who are never there when I need them in return. I need to remove the people who want to change who I am as a person. I need to remove those who are just around to use me to get where they want to be.
Toxic intake is not limited to food and drink, and all toxic intake is just as damaging as any other form.
If I’m still hanging with you, if I’m still working with you, if you’re still on my facebook, if I converse with you on twitter, I hope you’re here to stay, because I don’t see you as a toxic influence, and I really hope I never do. If you’ve noticed my smile becoming more genuine over the last few months, if you’ve noticed my bounce returning, if you’ve noticed the brightening of my eyes, it can only be because of one thing. My social detox has already begun, and I like where I’m heading…
Xo Paige.
