Is It Time To Clean Your Relationship Closet?

Although it is not currently Spring, it is never too early or too late to do a bit of relationship "Spring Cleaning".  Are there people in your life who should not be there?  Should you try to repair toxic relationships or move on?  

Here is an article that will help to tidy your relationship closet. 

Read the Article

Toxic Friendships

According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2009), friendships are intimate relationships with a mutual concern for the welfare and wellbeing of the other. Some things that friends may do for each other: spend time, perform duties, give advice, etc. Most importantly, friends genuinely want the best for each other.

Friendships that lose this most important relationship feature may become toxic. Toxic friendships lack sincerity, compassion, concern, and support. They do us more harm than good. Toxic friends are overly critical (of themselves and others), perpetually negative, very competitive, jealous and spiteful, self-involved, abusive, and often unapologetic.

Signs of a toxic friendship:
      Are emotionally drained after contact with your friend?
      Is your friend consistently negative in their interactions with you?
      Do you make bad decisions when with them? Or by their influence?
      Are your friends and family opposed to spending time with this person?
      Do you feel that you give more than you get in this relationship?
      Are your needs often unmet in the friendship with this person?

If you can answer yes to 2 or more of these questions, it may be time to clean up some hazardous material!

Toxic Chemicals

Students in my Parenting and Family Development course call me the "plastic  lady" because each semester I give a scary lecture about the dangers of plastics.  I urge them to discard water bottles left in their cars, use ceramic and glass containers in the microwave, wait for plastic bottles to cool in the fridge instead of putting them in the freezer, and use glass or BPA free plastic baby bottles, etc.

After reading the following article, I will have additional warnings about 4 more toxic chemicals that we encounter everyday.

Enjoy! 

Common Toxic Chemicals