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You're in a good place now. You are listening to
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Perspectives with Ashley burgets Hi and welcome back to the
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Ashley Burgess podcast. Today. I want to discuss positivity, toxic positivity, negativity,
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and realism so that you can understand better the people
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around you, perhaps even yourself, where you're coming from, your perspective,
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your emotion. I find that when people are around certain
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people in their life, it brings more creativity, more happiness,
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more joy I see that when we're with different types
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of people, whether if they're negative or even toxically positive,
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it can bring us down, hurt us, make us feel bad.
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And so it's good to be able to look around
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at the people we spend the most time with, whether
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it's at work or home, and be able to understand
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are these the people that we need to be surrounded by,
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and how do we look at it? Because there's different
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ways of looking at things. Sometimes we're not aware when
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somebody is super negative, and sometimes we're not aware when
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somebody is toxically positive because we really don't know some
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of those things you're not really catching on. We give
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a lot of excuses, or maybe somebody's been through a lot,
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even though most of us on this planet have been
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through a lot. We tend to give passes to certain people. Well,
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they've had a hard life, or they've gone through this
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and that, and so we allow that attitude to be
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even though that attitude is actually continuing the issue within
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their own life. The more we give out of something,
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the more we receive with that something right. So the
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more we're there for people and we're helping people and
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we're doing what's right, the more we get that back. Now,
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there's some situations where you don't where you're spending time
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with people that do not provide, do not help out,
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even to some degree, maybe taking your energy. So let's
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first begin with understanding. What I would like to talk
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is negativity. When I think of negativity, I think of pessimistic.
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I think of somebody that's very skeptical, somebody that's very disagreeable.
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They're constantly disagreeing with you with regards to absolutely everything
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you bring up. So it's always a worst case scenario.
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There's a biasness to their negative thought process, and it's
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almost like they get a energy or a high off
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being super negative. And I want you to think about that.
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You know people that their whole life is about being negative.
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It's about being negative. It's about presenting the negative thought process.
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It's about pushing their agenda or their thoughts, and in
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those factors, they create other people to have anxiety, maybe
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other people to stop working as much because they're like, oh,
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why should I? I mean, nothing's gonna work anyway. I
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also find that the more negative somebody is, the more
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this actually frames their entire life, so they see everything
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in the negative light. Everything's a chronic complaint. There's like
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constantly bad things happening on the horizon. And I also
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find that there's a lot of self criticism but also
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a lot of blaming others in a victimhood reality. Okay,
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so it's more about, look what's happening to me. This
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person did this to me. My life is so horrible.
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This person did this to me. It's not about taking
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ownership about Okay, even if something happened to you, how
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do you rise above that, take control and get your
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life back on track. Because the impact of negativity creates
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mental fatigue, It causes poor decision making. It causes somebody
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to think in a very negative and narrowing perspective, like
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there's no other options. And what I've found is that
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when you're around somebody that's negative in a personal relationship,
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a work relationship, or friendship, that the negativity is like
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an illness. It's like a virus, and it begins to
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like get all over everybody, right, it gets all over everybody.
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It's even like in a work scenario when you have
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one person that is really super negative in the office
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and you try to avoid this person, but they seem
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to be everywhere and they're constantly talking about worst case scenario,
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and it really begins to impair the relationship because many
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of you either fall into it where you begin to
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adopt the negative thought process, or you begin to get
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sucked in to this person and all of a sudden,
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your entire concept of reality begins to shift and you
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start seeing this negativity. Or you're the opposite where you
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try to run from this person. And sometimes some of you,
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you know, are like me in a way where it's
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almost like you're trying to help them get over this negativity,
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but it's like you can't handle being around negativity, so
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it just literally rubs you the wrong way. You're trying
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to get out from being around them. You're trying to
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move on, and anybody can overcome negativity. That's not an issue.
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Anybody can overcome that. The problem though, is that a
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lot of people get off on it. It's almost like
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they get a double mean high from being more and
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more negative, like they actually get something from it. And
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that's why it's the same when you deal with people
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that want attention no matter what, even if the attention
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is bad, they still get off on it. So they
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might push you and push you and push you and
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push you, you know, pushing all your buttons, getting very angry,
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you know, being very rude, putting you down, calling you names,
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and eventually you lash out and you can see like
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this chess shard grin on their face because they got
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what they wanted. They wanted you to lose it. They
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wanted you to get mad, and then you feel bad
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about getting mad. But they got that hit, you know,
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it's like they got they got that hit of cocaine.
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They got that hit, and they're like, ooh, that feels
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really good, and so they like that. They roll around
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in that negativity. They roll around in this kind of stuff,
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and unfortunately, if you're hanging out with somebody that's rolling
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around in this stuff. You're gonna get dirty too, because
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you really can't keep a positive outlook when someone is
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constantly negative. You can try, but it's like having the
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fight of good versus evil. You are going to feel it.
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It is going to be a constant anchor. It's gonna
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be something holding you down. It's like two cinder blocks, right,
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It's gonna be holding you down. It's very hard to
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overcome that. It's very hard to stop this type of
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interaction and to try to change that person because that
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person has to want to change. That person has to
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want to change, you know. And so that's the thing
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is that, how you know, dealing with them can be
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very challenging, and I think negativity is like habitual, and
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so you know, some of the warning signs of dealing
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with negative people is there's that victim reality, like we
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talked about, And that's one of the biggest ones. Is
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one of the biggest keys I want you to catch
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on to, because most negative people are the victim in
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every single situation. It's not about what they're doing, it's
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what everybody else is doing to them. They criticize people,
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they don't compliment. They always find a fault and everybody
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they know. Everybody they see is either fat or this
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or that or ugly or whatever. There's always some problems.
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They're constantly complaining about everything. Nothing's ever good. The food sucks,
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this sucks, the atmosphere sucks, this movie sucks. Everybody sucks.
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You know. They see the worst in people, so instead
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of seeing good in people, they actually see people in
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the absolute worst light. They expect the worst in the situations.
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And that's why when I have clients who are dating
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or engaged or married to somebody that's super negative. They'll say,
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we took this trip and it was the absolute worst trip.
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Everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong. Well, that's
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because you have somebody right there making it happen. You
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literally have the person right there making it happen from
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your very eyes. Okay, so how are you ever going
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to get away from that? They lack, you know, gratitude
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for anything because they don't see anything as being good,
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and they bring others down to make them feel better.
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So if you're constantly with somebody that's bringing you down,
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you know, to make themselves feel better, they're not gonna
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stop because they're getting a high from that, right They're
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getting high off of that, and that's something I want
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you to think about. Now, let's move into what positivity is.
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Positivity to me is optimistic, it's being confident. It's focusing on,
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you know, your goals. It's really focusing on the things
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that you can actually kind of control, right, And it's
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about being hopeful. It's about being forward looking. It's about
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being constructive. It's about having gratitude. It's about not dwelling
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in the negative, because bad things can't happen, but if
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we dwell in it, they continue. If we dwell in it,
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then we fall victim into this reality. I also think
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that positivity is about, you know, gratitude. It's about being positive.
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It's about overcoming that negativity, being grateful for the things
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that you have, Grateful for the people in your life,
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grateful for the opportunities you have. You know, you might
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not live in a mansion, but you're grateful for your apartment.
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You might not be driving a g wagon, but you're
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grateful for your car. It's putting things into perspective and
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not having this you know, kind of negative delusion that
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you have around you. And so I feel like it's confidence,
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it's cheery, and it's active. Like when we're positive, we're
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being active. We're actively finding a better concept. We're actively
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consciously training ourselves to you know, choose differently. We're choosing
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to be effective. We're choosing to be consistent. We're choosing
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to get up early in the morning, get ready, take
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a shower, get ready. But for the day, we're not
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being a victim, you know, we're we actually have hope.
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We actually know that we can change things, we can
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do things. There's a positive role, a positive experience. And
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I feel like it's about having encouragement. It's about feeling encouraging.
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It's about encouraging others. And it's and you're looking for
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a successful outcome. Now it doesn't always happen, right, that's
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you know, But it's not about that. It's about having
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that resilience. It's about being empowered. It's about having that
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feeling of saying, hey, I am doing these things, having
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that compassion for other people, having kindness, being kind, having
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empathy for other people. These are very important aspects. But
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I want to share with you there are some people
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that go the extreme other way. That's what we call
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toxic positivity, and that's something totally different, that is not
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positivity at all. It's toxic positivity, and it is about
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excessive it's about overly optimistic. It's about not seeing the
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other side. It's about suppressing any type of negative. It's
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about suppressing things to a harmful degree. It's this forced happiness,
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this force optimism. And so that's really problematic in its
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own right because a lot of times when people have
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a problem or there's an issue and they share it
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with somebody that's toxically positive, that toxic positive person almost
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shames that person and saying, why would you even feel
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this way? This is crazy. You should not be feeling
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this way. You should not be feeling this way. You
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should be positive about this. You know, Hey, my mother
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just died and it was really painful. You should get
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over that. You should be grateful, Like what's wrong with you? So,
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you know, as far as positive positivity is concerned, it's okay.
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Like when you're positive, you're okay to have other types
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of emotions. You're just trying to be positive. You're working
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on positivity for the most time. You're trying not to
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sit in negativity. You're working on that. But the toxic positivity,
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to me, is almost just as bad. As a negativity
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because that person is denying themselves the reality of life,
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and they're also denying the people around them. Oh you
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will be positive, Oh you will do this, you will
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do that. And so a lot of times, instead of
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practicing self compassion and compassion for others, you're almost like,
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you know, getting angry at people and putting them down
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and guilding them because you know they're not positive all
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the time. Right, So it's like the successive positivity. It's
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like excessive. It's like everything has to be happy. Everything
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is just positive good vibes. Only get over the status,
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get over the hardship, move on. It's complete emotional suppression.
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It's complete force positivity, and it's an invalidation of feelings
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because there's a part of life where it's not always easy,
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and there's sometimes you just have to look at stuff
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in a realistic way. And so what I really think
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about in my life is, for the most part, I'm positive, positive, positive, positive, positive.
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But I also feel like there's more of the time
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that also I'm positive, But I also sit in an
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area called reality realism. Realism it's just how things are, okay.
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So there's things that are happening in this world that
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I do not like, I do not agree with. There's
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things that are horrible and violent. I mean from everything
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from animal testing to the files to children who are
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everything that's happening in our world, right, I mean, there's
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some good things happening, sure, but there's some really really
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bad things. And so we have I can't sit there
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and be positive about all these things, like well, that's okay,
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this is great. No, we have to accept the reality
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of some of these things. And in that process we
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don't want to get lost in any sort of negativity,
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because there is a rabbit hole, right You can be
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realistic about something, but if you don't watch out, you
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can crank down that rabbit hole into negativity. And so
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I do feel like realism is just like focusing on
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you know, just being realistic. And I know that realism
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is some degree. Some people would say it was a
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literary movement in the nineteenth century, and yes it is,