Life Coach Martha Beck has once again given me something interesting to consider. In the May edition of “O” Magazine, she identifies six types of people who will steal your good mood and drag you down to their level of misery—if you let them.
Martha calls them Puppy Kickers, Exploding Doormats, Deflators, Secret Keepers, Cannibals and Dementors. You can probably imagine what each of those types of people do to spoil your mood. Personally, I lump them all together and call them Emotional Vampires.
When you’re all excited about your new car, they’ll either tell you a story about A) someone who was killed in a car just like that, B) how much money you could have saved if you had waited until the new models came out, or C) the number of recalls that particular manufacturer has had in the past decade.
EVs strive to zap the joy out of just about anything. Going on a trip abroad? They’ll tell you about the recent terrorist activity in that country. Get a promotion at work? The number of extra hours you’ll have to put in won’t be worth it. Lost 10 pounds? You’ll never keep it off. Meet a new man? Better do a background check.
Raining on parades is their specialty. My specialty is eliminating them from my list of friends. I mean, really, who needs them? Don’t we all already have mothers?
I hope you laughed at that last line. It was meant in gest, but it makes the point. Mood stealers are all around us. The best we can do is to consciously choose not to be an Emotional Vampire ourselves.