People are annoying. You can’t live with ‘em and you can’t live without ‘em. They trigger all our emotions and often inconveniently so. It would be great if we could be happy without needing others in our lives, right? Then we wouldn’t be vulnerable to so much conflict and heartbreak. If we could just find a way to rely solely on ourselves for serenity, then life would be so much simpler.

But we are human beings–Not robots. And human beings need other human beings. Our relationships fuel our lives. Pursuing relationships is natural. It is unnatural to let them go. This is why we hold on so tightly to the toxic ones.

To make matters worse, we need others to teach us to love ourselves. That is why our parents are so crucial to our self-esteem. How we see ourselves comes from the way our Mom and Dad felt about us when we were children. Did you learn that you are worthy of being loved?

When we are certain that we are loved, then we believe we are loveable. There is a myth that you have to love yourself before you can let others love you. This is a load of crap! There is no way to love yourself unless you surround yourself with people who authentically love you.

You’ve got to get rid of the pretenders who don’t really give a damn about you! The ones who give you mixed messages. The ones who bring up misery about yourself and your life. Know when to hold em. And know when to fold em.

Just because you’ve known your BFF for 20 years doesn’t mean she is good for you. You know she takes sadistic pleasure in all your failures. She says crap about you behind your back. The truth is you don’t really even like her anymore either. It’s time to say So long’.

And blood is not necessarily thicker than water. If spending time with your Mother results in self-loathing then don’t spend time with her. You’re not going to be able to change her. She’s never going to get it’.

The people who make your life a living hell need to be put out with the garbage. I know it is difficult to decline invitations and start doing something other than family dinner’ every Sunday. But you are going to have to if you want serenity in your life.

Unless, of course, you prefer to live your own personal hell right here on Earth.