Many people have realised that our busy and stressful lives need some balance. They are flocking in droves to gymnasiums all over country. Others are even engaging Personal Trainers who, themselves, are experiencing boom times in international quest for fitness.

It seems that people everywhere are becoming increasingly conscious of their physical condition. Everybody wants to feel younger and look younger. But what about mental conditioning? Sadly, too many people do not have time to build mental muscles by educating themselves. Sure, Joe and Jane Citizen read newspapers, watch television and listen to radio programs. But is that education? It could be argued that these media are a form of negative education. You see, most of news flowing through to us is full of doom and gloom.

Negative sells. Editors know this. They also understand that most people are negatively tuned. That is why they skew their editorials with a negative disposition. We see glaring headlines like "Car Crash Kills Six" or "Fourteen People Die in Suicide Bombing."

For most people, doom and gloom is eminently believable. The more they are fed, more they believe.

Try this little test:

Assume somebody called you and informed you that you had just won a big lottery prize. Then, directly after, somebody else called you saying you were subject of a tax audit. Which story would you be inclined to believe?

Let's now qualify this a little more. What if you knew absolutely that you had bought that lottery ticket from an outlet that has a history of selling winning tickets, and you also knew absolutely that your tax return had been filed by a highly competent tax accountant? What would your instinct tell you to believe?

Understand this - power of negative is far more powerful than power of positive. It is so easy to let that little self-talk gremlin inside your head influence you in a negative manner.

What I am talking about are Hannibal Lecters of society. Toxic people.

Toxic people enjoy telling you every reason why you can't or shouldn't do something. Tell them an idea and they will tell you it's no good. They hope that you won't achieve more than they can and really don't want you to succeed. They whine, they complain, they spread rumors, they are prone to ugly moods - a thundercloud follows their every move. They are doomsayers. I'll bet you already have someone like this in mind as you read these very words.

Unlike Hannibal Lecter of "Silence of Lambs" fame, toxic people are not trying to eat your flesh. No. Toxic people want to consume other things - your confidence, your self-esteem, your dreams, your ambitions, your goals, your desires. I think you get picture.

The best thing you can do if you find yourself in presence of one of these people is to run, hide, make other plans. Just get away from them as fast as you can. The least amount of time you spend with them better.

Toxic people will attempt to indoctrinate you with huge amounts of negative input in a very short space of time, so it is imperative that you limit your time with them. They are easy to recognize. Their language gives them away. Every time they open their mouth out comes a litany of everything that is wrong with them, you, world and other people.