Toxic positivity is the belief that people should maintain a positive mindset no matter how dire or difficult a situation is. While there are benefits to being optimistic and engaging in positive thinking toxic positivity rejects all difficult emotions in favor of a cheerful and often falsely positive façade.
Having a positive outlook on life is good for your mental well-being.1The problem is that life isn't always positive. We all have painful emotions and experiences. While often unpleasant, those emotions need to be felt and dealt with openly and honestly to achieve acceptance and greater psychological health.2
Toxic positivity takes positive thinking to an overgeneralized extreme. This attitude doesn't just stress the importance of optimism—it also minimizes and even denies any trace of human emotions that are not strictly happy or positive.
On this episode AJ and Bless dive into Toxic Positivity and the pros and cons of it.
