Blood-related Toxic Relationships Are Though to End, but How about The rest?

What would you do?

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

It's hard or harder than you may have imagined it would be when you played the moment in your head all those times, and I know you thought about it countlessly because that's what we, empaths, do. As difficult as our lives may be, we always find a way to think about others more than we do about ourselves, always careful not to hurt them when that's what they do to us — constantly.

Often, the toxic people in our lives are dear to our hearts. We love them more than we should. They are parents, siblings, sometimes children, lovers, friends, or long-time business partners. With some of them, we have blood ties, while with others, we share invisible spiritual ties, which almost feel like karmic burdens.

It's very difficult to break up with any of them for good, especially when relatives are involved.

More than seven years ago, I got into my therapist's office crying my heart out because my mother treated me like garbage. It was right after my grandmother died, and my mother, who was the main caretaker for her mother, was obviously struggling to cope with this big loss, which she wouldn't admit hurt her so much. So instead, she asked me to stop crying so hard for my grandmother, insinuating that I was showing off…