Let’s Speak about Toxic Positivity

Your takeaway at the end of this lesson: enough vocabulary, increased confidence, and  managed ideas so you can speak confidently about toxic positivity.

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You dismiss or brush off feelings that aren’t “positive”. You feel guilt or shame for experiencing “negative” emotions or speaking about it. Books are giving you advice on how to do positive self-talk. Social media bombards you with positive vibes. Well-meaning friends and relatives reach out to tell you what to do to stop the negative feelings. All of them are good and can come in handy to varying degrees.

But what if feeling bad is just part of life, like the sun and the moon? What if part of the suffering of feeling bad is not wanting to feel bad? What if we allow our suffering to be true: it is OK to feel bad. But we still suffer and struggle and try really, really hard to “fix” it when we feel bad.

It might have come from the holistic approach of positive movement. Whatever the origin is, the belief that suppressing negative emotions lets you forget them can be damaging, and may take its toll on our relationships.

This obsession with positive thinking is called toxic positivity. Let’s learn more and discuss it with others.

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