#GENUINE OPTIMISM MEANING HOW TO#

Gather your courage and problem solving skills, make a list of possible solutions and start working on it. Learn the difference between the things you can and cannot change. There’s often something that can be done to improve your situation.Even though chronic illness or tragic life events can have a huge impact on your everyday life, you’re also still you. Don’t fully identify with your problem or diagnosis.

Instead of pushing your sadness away, the trick is to find a way to deal better with it, so you don’t get stuck into a negative spiral. What matters is the overall balance between the negative and positive emotions. Even positivity expert Barbara Fredrickson says that negative feelings are a normal part of life.

Avoiding hurtful emotions works kind of like a boomerang – they come back when you least expect it to hit you in the face.

Don’t push negative feelings away.It’s perfectly normal to feel sad, angry, frustrated and hopeless when hardship strikes.

If you’re going through tough times and the emotional rollercoaster that comes along with it, here are some strategies to cope better and rebuild …. You’re not to blame for everything that happens to you, and you’re not solely responsible for the solution.

#GENUINE OPTIMISM MEANING HOW TO#

How to Convey Genuine Positivity Instead of Toxic Positivity 1. If the standard positivity isn’t the best way to help, what can you do or say to convey genuine optimism? You can’t fast-forward to better times without going through the process of feeling overwhelmed, venting your emotions, organizing your thoughts and experimenting with different coping strategies. Everyone has their own journey to go through. “Oh, that time when I was ill, I just pushed the pain and all those negative thoughts away.”īut in our hurry to help our struggling friend, we stop listening to their story. So we project our own somewhat similar situation onto others. People often don’t know what to say, and they (we!) have a hard time really putting themselves and ourselves in someone else’s shoes. The thing is, most of the time those hollow phrases are actually well-meant advice. Instead of searching for ways to deal with the situation, people may start to doubt themselves, at a time when they need their confidence the most. Guilty for ‘contributing to their problems’, for ‘not being strong enough’ to get better by themselves. Toxic positivity strips someone away of the validation they deserve and leaves them feeling ‘guilty’. In these cases, smilingly telling someone “don’t worry, you’ll get through it” or “think happy thoughts” doesn’t help – it hurts. Clinical depression and anxiety are medical conditions that cannot be cured by positive thinking and lifestyle changes alone. But when someone is diagnosed with chronic illness or lost a loved one, it’s normal to go through stages of grief – sometimes more than once. Sure, if someone’s down over a ruined meal or failed work assignment, you can tell them to just cheer up. This kind of toxic positivity completely overlooks the severity of some situations. Thanks to ‘ The Secret’ and it’s Law of Attraction, there’s even a popular belief that you just need to send the right thoughts out into the Universe and the Universe will answer your prayers.Įven if your problem is largely outside of your control, the underlying message seems to be, “If only you’d thinking positively/eat right/follow this program, then you wouldn’t feel sad and sick.” If you can feel healthier and happier by thinking positively, the reverse surely must also be true: the reason you’re still not better is because you’re not positive enough. Cultivating positive feelings like joy, hope and inspiration also builds good mental habits such as attention, resilience and optimism, which in turn buffer the potential negative effects of stressful times.īut anyone’s who’s ever been seriously sick knows there’s another side to positive thinking and health.īecause the positivity culture puts a lot of responsibility on a person’s shoulders. Positivity has been linked to lower levels of stress, stronger immunity, better cardiovascular health, increased feelings of physical and emotional wellbeing, and even a longer lifespan. There’s a tricky relationship between positive thinking, health and happiness. Over the past decade, experts have promoted positivity as a simple but highly effective tool to lead a happier and healthier life.Īnd rightfully so. When’s the last time someone told you to “just be positive” after sharing your struggles?

Genuine optimism meaning