How to Hush Online Haters

An online presence is pretty much mandatory if you're in any kind of business these days. Be it with a website and/or social networking, perhaps even in a forum. But with that online presence comes a dark side. A dark side that provides an opportunity for the shadow side of people to make their presence known.

These parasitic people are called "haters". These are people who are miserable themselves and look for ways to make others miserable too. They can suck you dry of any positive energy you might have.

Haters like to make fun of people. They like to find flaws and find ways to discredit what you're trying to do or say. Their sole purpose is to spew hate.

Some haters think they're funny. They're not. They use their right to free speech to hurt others. They don't have internal filters. Haters want to get you riled. And they have found themselves a voice online while also remaining anonymous. This gives them bravado they likely wouldn't have if they were in a face to face situation.

Haters often troll various sites in order to find places to leave hateful comments. That's their online motto. Those of us who have to deal with such haters on a regular basis sometimes find it difficult to get past the negativity.

I've received my share of hateful emails and comments throughout my sites and social networking pages over the years. Sometimes they come in clusters, which makes them that much more challenging to deal with. That's because it's so easy to take what haters say personally.

So how do we deal with haters? How do we hush them? How do we stay focused on our mission or our dream without feeling discouragingly unappreciated by people with nothing better to do than try to make our lives miserable?

Three words: Forgive. Delete. Forget. It really is that simple.

Haters are looking to spar. They have issues. Issues that have nothing to do with you. It really is all about them. You're just their outlet. A way for them to vent. A way for them to get attention they don't deserve.

But they are toxic to you if you take what they say personally. Don't allow them to get under your skin. Simply forgive them. Say it out loud when you've gotten to the place in the comment where you realize this is a hater: "I forgive you." No anger. No frustration. No attachment.

Then use your delete button. No surprises there given the graphic above, I'm sure. Don't give haters air time. Don't read beyond where you identify the comment as coming from a hater. Don't retaliate with venomous words of your own. Get rid of it. The sooner it's out of sight, the sooner it's out of mind.

Last but not least, forget them. Really. Forget them. They aren't worthy of your time. They aren't worthy of your upset. They aren't important in your life. You give them importance if you keep them in your mind.

I typically say a heartfelt, "I send you love, light and healing energy" at the same time I unceremoniously hit the delete button, which is a signal to me that it's no longer my problem. This wasn't always the case. I used to take it so personally. But no more.

I've learned to dissociate. And you can too. By doing so, you end up hushing haters. They want attention. When you don't give it to them, they actually move on. They look for war elsewhere.

You work hard enough to manifest your dream, to build on your mission. So stay focused on your goals and aspirations. The next time you encounter an online hater, remember: Forgive. Delete. Forget. Then continue on being awesome!