When we’re not feeling so great about ourselves, it’s easy to turn our focus on someone else. It feels so much less painful for us to criticize others than ourselves. But in order to truly feel better about yourself, you need to be better and do better. Don’t cave to the temptation of gossip.
Those superior feelings of being more awesome than someone else won’t last.
Gossip is never a productive use of your time. Condemning others behind their backs is simply a temporary way to make you feel better about yourself, your decisions, or your circumstances.
Once the immediate smugness spreads that grin across your face it will fade quickly afterward because you’ll realize how vicious you allowed yourself to be toward another person. Then comes the feelings of guilt, shame, and inadequacy. Especially once you realize those people around you joining in with your gossipy speech are probably saying similar things behind your back as well.
So, fair warning: the feeling of superiority you feel after knocking someone else down is fleeting.
Prove to yourself and the universe that your life’s adventure, success, and joy are much more important than a fleeting moment of drama about someone else.
If you’re gossiping it’s probably because your self-confidence is non-existent.
If you need to ridicule someone else in order to feel any sense of being a fabulous human being, you have a pathetic amount of self-confidence — or none at all.
It’s time you realize how much of a badass you truly are. There isn’t a single other person on this planet exactly like you. That revelation alone should cause you to realize how amazing you are.
Insecure people gossip. They belittle, ridicule, and backstab for attention.
Confident individuals avoid gossip because they know they don’t need its negativity taking up space within their minds or hearts. They’d much rather spend their energies on more positive things.
Giving unsolicited advice is the same as gossiping.
Do you have the bad habit of telling everyone and anyone what they should be doing, or saying, or thinking? Don’t fool yourself into thinking this is because you want to help those around you.
Unsolicited advice comes from a place of feeling better than whoever you’re speaking to. It gives you the same temporary good feeling about yourself as if you gossiped about that person behind their back.
If you’re dealing with a friend, listening is always a better alternative to passing out unwanted advice anyway.
Why do we gossip?
It’s not always easy to think of something new, interesting, or compelling to discuss with friends and family. But it’s lazy and unnecessary to take the easy way out and choose a person to pick apart.
Negativity — especially in the form of gossip — is highly contagious. We all want to fit in around others. So when one person starts to talk about someone negatively, it’s often difficult to avoid joining in.
But it’s time to put your foot down. You’re better than all that!
Partaking in gossip is a choice. By gossiping you’re choosing to surround yourself with negative energy that will surely affect your conscious and subconscious indefinitely — meaning it will follow you forever.
Why would you expose yourself to such damaging vibes?
How do you eliminate gossip from your life?
If you’re trying to surround yourself with positivity and high-vibe energy, then spending your time gossiping and with gossipy people is a huge waste of your time and spirit.
Gossip is the sneakiest form of negativity because at the moment you feel better about yourself in comparison to someone else you’re ridiculing. And gossip is detrimental to you as well as those who are the subject of your conversation. Gossip’s toxicity has the potential to envelope all those within earshot.
So avoid everyone whose conversations always include gossiping about the new neighbor’s wife, or your friend’s kids, or anyone else.
If you happen to find yourself among a circle of friends or family who start weighing in on whether or not Susan’s husband is having an affair, or Charles’ son is gay, or Megan’s about to file for bankruptcy simply walk away. Or if you’re feeling brave and confident, announce to everyone your new no-gossip rule and steer the conversation to something much more positive.
Remember, gossip is a choice. So choose wisely the words that come out of your mouth, and those you’ll listen to from others. Choose yourself and your future happiness over the negativity and toxicity of gossip.
Words have the power to destroy as well as the power to heal. Why wouldn’t you choose the latter?
If gossip or unsolicited advice (more accurately called criticism) is coming from your mouth you’ve just proven to everyone how heartless and indifferent you can be. Any chance of presenting as a kind, honest, and reliable person will no longer exist for you.
And remember, gossip’s negative qualities are affecting you and your future as much as whoever’s the subject of your beratement. Gossip’s toxicity leaves a permanent stain on us that signals to the universe exactly what we deserve.
