So positive it’s negative – how to recognize ‘toxic positivity’
We hear it (and maybe use it) all the time: “Just look on the bright side!”
I’m guilty of this myself. Trying to push down negative emotions in exchange for forced positivity when things get tough.
And while it can be helpful to thinking positively when facing challenges, this week I learned too much of this forced positivity can be toxic – thus the term “toxic positivity.”
“Toxic positivity is when somebody avoids all negative thoughts or feelings, pretending everything is going well when it is not,” Melissa Dowd, a therapist at PlushCare, told me.
This is something we may bring onto ourselves by not allowing negative thoughts and feelings, but it’s also something we can cause other people to experience.
How can we recognize we’re doing it?
It may look like offering others a simple solution for a complicated problem that we know nothing about or not allowing people around you to appropriately express negative sentiments.
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Can you be in love with more than one person?
We see it all the time in movies: Someone has feelings for, or even loves, more than one person. The plot revolves around them facing the difficult decision of choosing who is right for them.
But can it happen in real life? In this week’s column, Millennial Therapist Sara Kuburic examines if we can love our parents, children and friends simultaneously, why couldn’t we romantically love more than one person?
If you are currently trying to make a decision, she suggests considering the following:
- What aspects of yourself come out with each person?
- Do you want to commit to one or both of them?
- Who are you compatible with?
- Are you truly in love or are you infatuated?
Not sure the difference between those last two terms? She breaks that down as well:
click here.
Today’s reads
- This week’s advice column: My grandma shared pictures of my baby so I blocked her. Am I petty?
- Study shows meditation can reduce anxiety just as well as medication: What you need to know
- Is alcohol a depressant? The effects of alcohol, binge drinking on the body
- Voluntary celibacy and the sexual empowerment of saying ‘no’
- What is ALS, the rare disease making it ‘impossible’ for Roberta Flack to sing?
- Is Thanksgiving as burned out as we are? Top 2022 trends include simple menus, value ingredients
Today’s pet
Meet Zorra.
Thanks to Steve Scott for sharing this 2.5 year old Old English Sheepdog!
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