Too Much Positivity is Problematic
Having a positive attitude can be helpful at times, but there is such as thing as too much positivity. When a positive outlook leads you to avoid dealing with negative thoughts and feelings, this is known as toxic positivity.
What Is Toxic Positivity?
This can occur when you dismiss or reject negative emotions. A healthy outlook involves acknowledging all different kinds of emotions you feel, including anger, sadness, and other negative emotions. When you ignore these emotions, you’re focusing too much on happiness and positivity. This can end up having a negative impact on your mental health and well-being.
Effects of Too Much Positivity
Being overly positive can affect you in several ways, such as leading to feelings of guilt when you have negative emotions and causing you to avoid thinking about or discussing uncomfortable feelings. You might also admire people who always seem to be positive, setting you up with unrealistic expectations about your own life and experiences. You might only acknowledge positive aspects of bad situations as well. This can lead to you suppressing negative emotions, which can be harmful.
Being overly positive can hurt your relationship with others. You might make them feel like they can’t relate to you when you invalidate their feelings. Only focusing on the positive and dismissing their negative emotions can also make them feel worse about themselves.
How to Handle Negative Emotions
Instead of being overly positive, try a technique called affective labeling. This involves labeling negative emotions instead of ignoring them. When you label them, this can help you acknowledge them and learn to handle them in a healthy manner. Building resilience can also help. When you’re resilient, you’re able to adapt to unpleasant or negative experiences using self-compassion and acceptance.
When interacting with others, showing validation and empathy can help you avoid being too positive. This involves asking them questions about their feelings, offering help, and showing that you understand and accept that they’re having negative emotions.
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Thank you kindly Dr.Marks. I really needed to read this at this exact moment.
I think this is a well written advice based upon real-time events.
Please never back down in making these articles available- it aids self development and validates even the smallest progress made on implementations overtime.
May Jehovah God continue to inspire you Dr Tracy!
Thanks so much Lorna!