Ending Toxic Attitudes, Parenting, Marriage and Workplaces: A New Path To Ecological Sustainability There is a tragically overlooked topic in the conversation about ecological sustainability. It is how psychologically toxic attitudes and toxic interpersonal relationships contribute to, if not cause, the toxic physical environment and depletion of natural resources that human beings expand minute by minute around the globe. Demonstrations of ecological sustainability and ecological compassion (preserving natural wonders out of the sheer love for them) are thwarted by the unsustainable toxic psychological patterns that make us physically ill and destroy our most intimate relationships. As long as we continue poisoning ourselves and one another with toxic emotional and relationship patterns we will continue to poison our relationship with our natural environment. The ecological devestation that dessimates ou forestry and wildlife and poisons our water, air, soil, livestock, sea life, river life, lake life, fruits and vegetables can be traced back to the influence of insensitivity and downright cruelty that is being bred into our children through what we can call “Toxic Parenting”. We parent toxically when we react to the child with anger and stress, and make matters worse when we make the child responsible for the negativity that we demonstrate. The child who is over-exposed to this develops “human numbness” that permits him or her to continue the cycle of destroying the nature of our world cruelly and callously. When we demonstrate unkindness toward the child we teach the child to ignore the inner guidance of compassion. We see adults being “poisoned” by psychologically toxic workplaces where back-biting, petting personal rivalry, criticalness and suppression of individual talent and inspiration is the daily norm. These adult then come home stressed out and burned out with only negativity to share with their spouse and children. We see toxic marriage breaking the hearts of the children exposed to them as adults viciously attack one another with mean words or worse and justify their cruel conduct by pointing out what the other did to deserve it. There is nothing more toxic than justifying a vicious attack, because no marital problem was ever resolved with vitriole. We see ourselves walking around with toxic attitudes and mindsets as we pass through internal emotional waves of unhappiness, resentment, envy, anxiety and greed; and toxic thoughts that focus on negative possibilities that fill us with anger, discouragement and dread. The epidemic of emotional toxicity, which translates into a negative attitude toward life itself, is now driving humans to act for their own extinction, albeit unconsciously. In other words, people are so angry and unhappy they are blaming life itself for their plight, instead of doing the psychologically healthy work of looking within to dispel the illusions that cause them to feel and behave so negatively. This anger toward life is fueling a kind of mass-suicide pattern that leads to species annihilation as we destroy our natural resources. The good news is that there are psychological anti-toxins that we can begin employing right away to detoxify ourselves and our relationships to make a world of ecological difference. It starts by looking inward to recognize the waves of negativity flowing through us. The next step is to not mentally justify those toxic waves by thinking about this or that person, condition or thing outside of us as the cause. Simply relate to that wave of negativity as something you are responsible for cleaning up within yourself. This simple shift in attitude toward the negativity begins to dissolve it, making way for the healthy light of more loving wisdom to fill our hearts and minds and guide our healthy and healing ways. As we release ourselves from our toxic attitudes and toxic ways of parenting, relating and functioning in the workplace we will make headway toward greater ecological sustainability. Cultivate toxic-free patterns of parenting and marriage. Call 770-364-9580 or email to discuss your couples' counseling and parent counseling options. Also call or email to learn about bringing me, Bob Lancer, to your school, business, association or community group to present an inspiring and enlightening talk or seminar on "cleaning up" our relationships with our children and with our spouses. Click here for the date of my next my next Parenting Seminar in Atlanta, GA. |