Let’s stop it with “good vibes only”, shall we?!

self

Mar 2

Written By stacy digregorio

Radiate positivity...IF you are feeling positive. Instead of “Radiate Positivity,” how about "Radiate AUTHENTICITY"?!!

Let's pause for a moment and talk about toxic positivity. ⁠

Toxic positivity is the belief that you should always keep a positive mindset no matter what you are feeling. The truth is, we are human and experience a full range of emotions. Jon Kabat Zinn calls it the “full catastrophe” of human experience.

Sadness, anger, fear, and worry are all part of being human. There isn't a single person who hasn't experienced those emotions, and yet...they are seen as "bad." 🤷‍♀️⁠

A scientific study called Hiding Feelings: The Acute Effects of Inhibiting Negative and Positive Emotion was done out of Stanford University HERE. The study had subjects mask their feelings while watching a sad movie.

“…the most striking feature of emotional suppression common to all emotions we have studied thus far (both sadness and amusement in the present study and disgust in our previous! studies) is the enhanced sympathetic activation of the cardiovascular system. This suggests that suppression of both positive and negative emotions exacts a palpable physiological cost.”

So, even science says that “good vibes only” is a load of bs.

Signs of toxic positivity:⁠

- hiding your true feelings⁠

- feeling guilty about certain feelings⁠

- brushing things off, "that's just how it is."⁠

- minimizing or shaming other's experiences "it could be worse."⁠

What we can do instead:

Paying attention to our own unwanted emotions can give us valuable information about ourselves and how we interact with the world. Listening empathically to someone experiencing "negative" emotions (instead of telling them to look on the bright side) can move your relationships from superficial to real. ⁠