What are the signs, characters, and common features of gossipers?

The first step to break the habit of gossip, like everything else, begins with knowledge. And this knowledge should be the knowledge of ourselves. We should know ourselves. Know who we really are, not who we think we are. We should be conscious of the habit of gossip. We should recognize the features, the way it may enter our conversations, the different forms that they may take, the people who maintain it, and we should know the clarity if we have this habit or not. Because most people think that they are not involved in any gossip, even they are doing it every day. Nobody will admit that they are a gossiper. So where is the gossip coming from? Nobody wants to be knows as this “criminal”. But for sure, most of us are gossiper, and we are deluding ourselves, we are not honest to ourselves. Because of that, we cannot stop the gossip. If we don’t admit it, how we can stop it?

What are the signs, characters, and common features of gossipers? You ask yourselves:

1. Am I the type of person who always brings up past incidences in my conversation, most talking about things happen in the past?
2. Do I have grudges against people over long period of time? When somebody does something to me, I can never forgive him, always feel bad toward him?
3. Am I the type of person that if a friend of mine make a single mistake than I will have nothing to do with him or her anymore?
4. Am I the type of person who brutes over trivial social mishaps?
5. Am I the type of person who focuses on negative character of people?
6. Am I the type of person who always looks on somebody that I can always tell my problem to? Do I always need somebody to listen when I have problem?

If we have all or most of these characteristics, then it means that we are gossipers. These are the common characteristics of the gossipers. If we have most of them to one degree or another it means that we are actively involved in gossip. Of course gossipers are in different levels. There are leaders and there are followers. There are experts and there are commoners. So we may not necessarily be the worse, but just being one is bad enough. How many of us here when we hear somebody begin to gossip get up and walk away? For sure, if we regularly sit and listen to gossip, we are doing the gossip itself. So, if we recognize that this habit is in facts, a part of our characters, then we have a chance to correct it. This is the beginning point, with the knowledge. Who am I really?