Toxic Positivity

The word positivity itself means to have a positive attitude towards life, in other words, it means to have an optimistic way of approach of dealing with different situations that one can come across. It suggests identifying the negative aspects and making the best favorable outcome of it. A positive attitude also yields a healthy lifestyle. Its beneficial in many ways as positive thinking can result in reducing the amount of stress, depression it makes one better with the coping skills during times of hardship. One can work towards positive thinking by self-talk for instance.

Instead of saying I have never done it and one can say, it's a great opportunity to learn something new, or another instance can be I am not confident enough do it, which can be replaced with I will give my best while doing it ( the trick is to remove the negative words like not, never, no ).

One needs to be careful when one has an obsession with positive thinking. It turns out to be toxic. After all, everything is good within its limits an excess of anything can be bad the same even applies to positivity. 

The prominent misconception about positivity is the feeling of happiness all the time. Toxic positivity might sound good to the ears, to be cheerful and happy all the time but it's not good for mental health. Being positive all the time can influence communication problems in any relationship. Thinking positive all the time can destroy ones ability to solve problems. Let's imagine a fight between you and your best friend if you both don't decide to sit and sort things out it and rather ignore the conversation thinking it is too negative - doesn't it directly mean u are running away from your problem and living in a world of denial where everything is happy and positive.

Blind optimism is also a cause of toxic positivity. No doubt in the fact that optimism gives you hope. Take an example of an examination you buy your required books but till the time you don't go through the pain of studying it but hoping great results will set you up for failure. 

Experiencing pain is a part of human life. Pain is required for your mental and physical development. It helps you grow into better and a stronger human. Imagine if no one talked about racism or women's rights or any social injustice and if everyone was happy all the time, then nobody would have the motivation to make positive changes in society. 

Toxic positivity comes into action when people start silencing negative emotions like sadness, grief, anger fear or nervousness and pretend to be happy in the name of positivity. It's normally caused by avoiding uncomfortable emotions and by only focusing on the positive aspect. 

Running away from your problems is never a solution instead of thinking why did this happen to me one has to think about how can I make this situation better, what did I learn from it.  Instead of waiting for something good to happen and a godsend an angel to come and rescue you, you need to help yourself you stand up for yourself. To be optimistic doesn't mean to wait for something good to happen. You are responsible for your life. You have the power to turn tables the way you want. You might not be able to change someone's way of talking with you or how someone is backstabbing you, in general, a persons behavior but you can change the way you deal with those things.

Happiness is merely a state of mind being positive all the time won't let you achieve it but instead accepting the negative aspects and converting them into your strength and standing up for yourself, to being with people who not only make you happy but also help you grow results in happiness. Ending this blog with a quote somewhere along the lines of what krishna once said - जो पाप करे वोह पापी, जो पाप् साहे वोह महा पापी ।