-STAY POSITIVE ?-
Do you think staying positive 24/7 is a good thing? I would say a big NO.
Positivity can be dangerous. It can be more dangerous than negativity. I’m talking about Toxic positivity.
Still, confused? Then dive in to know about it in depth.
Toxic positivity is the idea that we must focus only on the positive emotions and aspects of life. Since our childhood, we’re taught to stay positive no matter what happens in our life, but we’re never taught how to deal with mental pain.
The thing about toxic positivity is that it shuts out negative talks completely to a point where a person is unable to express his/her trauma of emotions because of their “positive vibes only” circle.
Openly expressing to someone and being heard is one of the most prominent things people desire to get healed from their pain, but toxic positivity opposes it.
Science has proven that toxic positivity creates a mental imbalance of emotions in the brain between joy and sorrow. Life is a mixture of both, we can’t choose one. But if we force only joy through toxic positivity, it indirectly causes more stress and anxiety in the brain.
This pressure can ultimately lead to major mental health issues. It’s okay not to be okay. We have our highs and lows, but when we encounter a wave of sorrow we should not try to avoid it but take the time to grieve over it.
We need to give ourselves time and energy to slowly heal and get over the pain. You can’t just keep it inside you, you have to let it all out.
Imagine this scenario, you broke your arm and instead of putting a bandage around it to heal it, you continue using your arm as usual with a ‘Never Give Up attitude. What’ll happen to your arm?
The same case applies to your mental health.
When you’re emotionally and mentally depressed instead of forcing joy, use your bandage — the time needed for yourself to talk and grieve to heal.
If you’re someone in this phase of grievance, talking with a person you genuinely believe in can help. It’s alright to feel sad and grieve for some time than force positivity to give you a feeling of dullness in the long term.
We are humans, not machines. We feel good and bad. Happiness is a part of life and so is sorrow, either way, we must embrace them. We need time to heal not only physically, but also mentally.
The mind is more powerful than the body. It deserves the invisible bandage.
Make sure you take care of it.
Peace.
Content credit to Rupak Bardhan
Managed by Antima Dixit
Graphics by Shravya
