The upside of FEELING DOWN

Why it's time to ditch toxic positivity for good

- MADISON BOGISCH

Whether posts of celebs captioned #blessed plague your social media or someone has told you to keep your chin up, you've probably experienced toxic positivity in one of its forms.

Though you'd think a pandemic, floods or even an outcry against the damaging movement by Drew Barrymore would be enough to end civilisation suppressing negative emotions, it's still a thing.

Discipline Lead (Counselling) at the Australian College of Applied Professions Kate Witteveen says though exercising gratitude in times of crisis is beneficial, it's harmful if we ignore negativity entirely.

"If we rush to the gratitude, without acknowledging the difficulties, we are likely to fall into toxic positivity," she says. "Negativity is not a bad thing when it facilitates a realistic evaluation of a situation."

Witteveen says while it's unhelpful to focus exclusively on the bad stuff in life, acknowledging the negatives has some positive outcomes.

IT KEEPS US IN TOUCH WITH OUR FEELINGS

Though it might seem like you're doing the right thing by shoving your negativity into a metaphorical cupboard and throwing away the key, Witteveen says refusing to acknowledge negativity is a form of denial and dishonesty.