Do you find yourself denying or avoiding difficult emotions?

Do you often try to frame your experience in positive terms, perhaps at the expense of truly acknowledging how hard it might be?

The trend of toxic positivity has many of us trying to always put on a brave face and, in the process, built a habit of denying and invalidating our own emotional responses - all of which are valid and a normal part of life.

In this episode of Educators Moving On, Dr Shenelle DuBose explains what toxic positivity can look like in the realm of education and how we can start to catch it when we’re doing it to ourselves, highlighting in particular:

• Why we tend to try to make others feel comfortable by saying that we’re fine even when things are hard, and we might be struggling
• The ways that other people downplay or invalidate our emotional responses to challenging circumstances if we don’t maintain relentless positivity
• The “everything happens for a reason” response and the consequences of negating grief
• Holding both the awareness of the lesson and the blessing that comes with challenge
• How to identify if you have habits of denying or avoiding difficult emotions and how to shift into a place of validating them and taking care of yourself

“Toxic positivity is very dangerous, and it’s very harmful because it teaches you to avoid your true emotions and to also avoid emotional situations because you begin to discount or deny and dismiss difficult or unpleasant emotions. It also prevents you from growing from the challenge; when we have these instances that really take an emotional toll on us, there’s a lesson that we are meant to learn but there’s also a blessing that you are meant to receive on the other side of it. For every challenge, there is a lesson and a blessing.”

Dr Shenelle DuBose - S1 E27, Educators Moving on Podcast

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