I really enjoyed this piece. It speaks to toxic positivity and negative denial, neither of which promote authenticity! For me, toxic positivity causes shame because it makes the argument that we should be so ,so grateful, all the time ,regardless of the situation. For example, “Your leg is broken?-well, at least it’ll heal. Think of all the people who are amputees!” Being grateful that my leg will heal will not dissipate the discomfort of the break, the restrictions incurred, or a myriad of other things that would cause the patient to feel down, Two things can be true at the same time - you can be sad that your leg is broken and grateful that that’s all that’s wrong. Denying either emotion is not healthy.
Negative denial is totally ignoring problems because you’re a “good vibes only” type of person! Again, another inauthentic state and impossible to live in. We just need to be honest with ourselves about how we are feeling and stand firm in that knowledge- when you think about it, for the most part, you are rarely wrong about how you are feeling. Would you agree? So, just accept it and don’t ignore or deny.
Whoa, this is quite the contrarian take. Which is good. Always good to keep you readers on their toes, so they don't quite know what to expect from you. (That helps "open rates," as the say.)
I really enjoyed this piece. It speaks to toxic positivity and negative denial, neither of which promote authenticity! For me, toxic positivity causes shame because it makes the argument that we should be so ,so grateful, all the time ,regardless of the situation. For example, “Your leg is broken?-well, at least it’ll heal. Think of all the people who are amputees!” Being grateful that my leg will heal will not dissipate the discomfort of the break, the restrictions incurred, or a myriad of other things that would cause the patient to feel down, Two things can be true at the same time - you can be sad that your leg is broken and grateful that that’s all that’s wrong. Denying either emotion is not healthy.
Negative denial is totally ignoring problems because you’re a “good vibes only” type of person! Again, another inauthentic state and impossible to live in. We just need to be honest with ourselves about how we are feeling and stand firm in that knowledge- when you think about it, for the most part, you are rarely wrong about how you are feeling. Would you agree? So, just accept it and don’t ignore or deny.
Whoa, this is quite the contrarian take. Which is good. Always good to keep you readers on their toes, so they don't quite know what to expect from you. (That helps "open rates," as the say.)