By Sakuni Weerasinghe
It’s another Sunday morning. You wake up, make your morning cup of tea, and sit down on the couch to enjoy this peaceful holiday after what was a strenuous week. Your phone rings. It’s your boss calling you to ask for some work to be done immediately. As soon as the call ends, you take a look at your WhatsApp notifications. It’s your friends asking to hang out. You go into the kitchen to wash your cup and you notice the list of groceries you need for the week stuck to the door of the fridge. You’re exhausted, irritated at having to work on a Sunday, sad that you aren’t able to join your friends for the evening, and nervous about how they will feel about you cancelling a meet-up yet again. You take your phone into the living room, let out a big sigh, and plaster a smile on your face as you snap a picture for Instagram, captioning it “Sundays Fundays #positivevibesonly”.
This can be anyone’s day. Juggling work, a part-time degree, a social life, and, well, life in general as an adult can get tough at times. However, we often keep these struggles “behind the scenes” as we snap and post on social media exuding happiness, excitement, and a sense of positivity, although the reality may starkly differ. If you scroll through any social media platform, you will hardly come across anyone posting adult life as it unfolds. The whole breadth of human emotions is ignored in favour of “positivity”. But is this actually positivity?
The need to show off only positive emotions and the portrayal of a state of optimism across all situations, irrespective of the honest experience of the person, can be termed “toxic positivity”. It is considered to be toxic, as the person’s authentic emotional experience is dismissed, minimised, or invalidated during the process of maintenance of this mask of optimism. It is completely normal for a person to experience a full spectrum of emotion from happiness or excitement to anger, jealousy, envy, greediness, disgust, or resentfulness. When we demand ourselves or others to retain a positive mindset irrespective of the situation, we are conveying the message that experiencing anything besides positivity is “not okay”. Thereby, we are denying this totality of human experience.
Some forms of toxic positivity include:
- Avoidance of experience of true feelings
- Hiding/masking any experience that is not considered “positive”
- Brushing off emotions or experiences that create discomfort
- Shaming oneself or others for experiencing and expressing anything other than “positive” emotions
- Making invalidating statements or giving unhelpful advice such as “just think positive”, “things could be worse”, “think positive thoughts”, or “look on the bright side”
- Insinuating that a person should just “be grateful”