Do you ever get sick of being positive?
So much of this world of self-improvement, coaching, this kind of way of thinking, where we’re trying to make our lives better, we’re trying to live better lives here.
And a big part of that is really in the mindset, where we interpret things in a way that is useful to us.
So exact same life, exact same circumstances, but two different people can make different things out of it through how they react and how they choose to interpret it.
So there is a lot of power in having a positive interpretation for whatever’s happening, and finding a way to see the bright side.
And by doing this, we can live in sunshine, and we can shine some more light in our lives.
So all of this is valuable, I believe.
But it has its limits.
There are times when it can certainly be taken too far, where it becomes this kind of suffocating positivity.
It’s like whatever happens, oh, just cheer up.
Just look on the bright side.
No matter what.
Any time we start to have a negative appraisal of something, it’s “No, no, no.
You have to be grateful for what you have.
You’re wrong if you try to be negative about something.
You need to stay sunny all the time.
Make that sun shine.
It becomes like this requirement, that if it’s taken too far, it feels like we have to kind of choke ourselves off and just not allow ourselves to feel what we’re feeling.
And then we see part of ourselves as being somehow wrong, and we label this feeling wrong, and then we come up with this whole rationalization, this whole reanalysis of well, actually, it’s good.
Oh, I lost all my money, but it’s actually good, because it allows me to have a fresh start.
And yeah, that’s great.
But we can’t force that kind of reinterpretation.
It’d be wonderful to have some of that.
But when we have this endless “Be positive, cheer up”
mentality, this “good vibes only”
way of looking at life, I find it very understandable when some people just be like “No more.
I can’t stand any of that self-help nonsense about being positive, and manifesting what you want, and all this kind of vibes stuff.
Just stop it already.”
It’s like this feeling of breaking free when you can finally just accept “No, I am angry.
I am unhappy.
I am not full of sunshine and roses about my situation.”
And there’s something very useful about that, I think.
Because if this message is taken too far, it really just starts to become fake.
Affirmations: “I love my life.
I love everything about my life.
I’m thankful for everything.
I have nothing but happiness in my life.”
You take that, you just keep doing that, and there’s like this divide that opens up between the way you interpret life and reality, you could say, or what’s behind it.
And we eventually just go into full rebellion against that positivity.
So, as much as, in general, I think having a positive mindset is one of the biggest things, it’s one of the most important things, having a combination of gratitude for what we have and also optimism for what we might have, and a willingness to work towards a brighter future: all of that is part of a good life, as far as I can see.
But let’s not let it become a prison of positivity.
It’s OK to have a bad day, to have several bad days, to be unhappy about some things, and just be OK with not being OK.
Be OK with a little bit of negativity sometimes.
It doesn’t hurt to curse and complain sometimes.
We don’t have to be these kind of abstracted beings of perfect positivity.
So if you’re having a bad day, have a bad day and do what you have to do to get through the next day.
#haveabadday #benegative #positivityprison