So, what is it? Well, in psychological terms, it's a sort of excess positivity or emphasis on being optimistic and upbeat.
The marketplace and the experimental lab that is social media is a very good example of this where there'll be lots of people who just literally put a gloss on a heartfelt post from someone in pain. It can be counterproductive as it can minimise how you/they are really feeling and not let you deal with it.
In this episode we discover:
· Why Chris met himself in this podcast as his intention (underpinned by his Northeast inbred care for others) is to help others and let them know that they've got that light at the end of the tunnel. But now he is learning to listen rather than try to fix it for them.
· Why Hema is learning to undo being the poster girl for positivity in hard times as she learned from past experience it was stressful and took a toll on her mental and physical health, her emotions, finances and relationships.
· Why toxic positivity stops us feeling our emotions and we can bury them so deep that they turn up in inappropriate ways such as panic attacks and anger.
· How Sarah is facing the loss of any children due to a hysterectomy by grieving and not allowing a happy face to be slapped on the experience as it was when she came through cancer.
· How people, who are uncomfortable with holding space with those in pain can avoid them and make it worse as with Mary Storrie whose daughter Rosie-May was murdered. After the even the most hurtful thing for her was when people crossed the road to avoid her as they didn’t know what to say.
· That it takes courage to allow people to show their emotions and not try to fix it. Like the song “How to Save A Life” (The Fray) it takes changing your default setting to just listening sometimes.
Plus, WTF! (Who to Follow: what or who has been influencing us positively this week).
