Toxic Positivity ⛔️

Toxic positivity. It's a phrase I recently learned, and I've been thinking this for many years and didn't realize it was a thing. I want to talk about it really quickly. So I've done lots of videos in the last few months on what I believe to be the reality of a very changing world order. Of a potential revolution, whether it's a financial revolution, a power revolution, or even maybe a war. I've been talking about the government and how they've pushed up inflation intentionally, or through lack of understanding the implications of their decisions, like for example lockdowns and pandemics. And I've been talking about how the banking system is essentially a way to control you and money. And a lot of people have been saying I'm very negative and, oh, we just need some good news. And it's funny how I've just found this phrase, toxic positivity. So have you heard the phrase toxic positivity? Positivity before, because I hadn't heard it until I started to do more research. Now, I'd always thought, or certainly for the last 8 years or so, that every upside has a downside, and that negative emotions, they have a purpose, otherwise they wouldn't exist. And actually, sometimes negative emotions can be very useful and practical, like worry and anxiety can be good to stop you from making blatant mistakes. The fear of being judged can be good to keep you performing in a social environment in a way that doesn't get you ostracised, etc. So I've always thought that negative emotions have a place and shouldn't be dismissed and overlooked. And also, in the world of personal development, "Oh, always be positive. Yeah, you can be positive 24 hours a day, 24/7, 365. Yeah, you could just be positive." 'Just be positive. Don't bring any negative vibes here. Only positive vibes here.' Yet they're very negative in the way that they say it. So let me give you a few definitions. Toxic positivity involves dismissing negative emotions and responding to distress with false reassurances rather than empathy. Let me say that again because I'm spitting my words. Toxic positivity involves dismissing negative emotions and responding to distress with false reassurances rather than empathy. Let me know what you think about that in the comments. Toxic positivity is an obsession with positive thinking. It's the belief that people should put a positive spin on all experiences. Well, let's see you, um, push your kid out into the middle of the road and have them squashed by a lorry and die and spin positivity onto that. Toxic positivity is a dysfunctional approach to emotional management that happens when people do not fully acknowledge negative emotions, particularly anger and sadness. So let me know what you think about this phrase toxic positivity, and if you're seeing it, because I am seeing it in the world where people are being a bit delusional about the reality of what's going on and the stage of the cycle we're in, and the fact that inflation is wiping out their money, and the fact that the government are banging up taxes is so hard that your cost of living is the lowest it's been since the Second World War. And people are calling me negative for this. Now, I'm not going to say, oh, you're just being toxically positive, or that's toxic positivity. But I do think that sometimes just a one-sided, or let's just be positive, or everything has a positive spin— I think that can be somewhat delusional or one-sided. Now, I actually had a deep discussion about this with one of my friends, a friend who's been a friend of mine for 12 years. He actually purchased one of my NFTs. He owns one of my podcast episodes. And we discussed the maybe myth of the positive movement and mindset, and how personal development is a bit rife with rah-rah positivity, but maybe it has a toxic positivity. So, um, just write yes in the comments if you'd like access to the video or audio episode that we did together. Just write yes. It's free. It's on my Disruptors podcast, but we went deep dive for probably 90 minutes on the personal development industry. Of course there are upsides to it. Without the personal development industry, I'd be toxic negativity. But exactly, Kelvin has just said balance in everything. So yeah, balance means upsides and downsides, positives and negatives, good and bad, easy and hard, etc. So if you just write yes in the comments, I'm going to give you access to this, um, deep dive discussion we did. A friend of mine for 12 years now, we discussed, um, the personal development industry. We discussed toxic positivity, although I didn't really know it was a phenomenon then. I only found it out in the research for sharing the show notes of this episode. Um, we discussed the downside of positive thinking and always be happy. And also, I don't know if you've ever had someone say, "I just only want positive vibes. I only hang around with positive people. No negative vibes. Anyone who's not positive can fuck off out of my life." So the irony here is people who only want positive vibes are often negative about only wanting positive vibes and negative about negative people and can't handle negativity. So there's a— someone said it's a bit of an an oxymoron. It is a paradox completely. So just write yes in the comments if you'd like access to this episode. It's free. It's on my Disruptors Podcast. I'll give you the video and audio link so you can either listen or watch, because I think this discussion needs to happen a bit more. Because what's, what's happening right now is we've got this big polarization of emotions where, um, we've got this polarization of political parties. This polarization of the rich and the poor divide, the polarization on social media where we've got the left versus the right, and, you know, we've got this toxic masculinity versus, you know, I don't know, gender non-binary, non-definable. So we've got this very interesting world where we've got these polar opposites that have become extreme and not cohesive. And I actually think there is such a thing as toxic positivity, and it's a phrase I recently learned, and I just wanted to share with you what your thoughts are on it, if you've experienced it. So let's delve a bit deeper into it. Let's see what we can find online about it. Just write yes in the comments if you'd like access to the deep dive 90-minute discussion I had with a friend, business partner, um, owner of one of my NFTs, on personal development, the downside of personal development, the upside of personal development, toxic positivity, people just looking for one-sidedness, being delusional about all sides. I remember a mentor of mine said, um, that all emotions have a purpose, otherwise they wouldn't exist. So sadness, anger, jealousy, anxiety, worry, guilt, shame, you You know, these emotions that we're trying to probably run away from and hide from and disown, they actually have a very good purpose for us. They give us really good feedback. They help us grow. But if we try and ignore them, or we become toxically positive, which in some ways the personal development industry has somewhat created, a one-sidedness. Here's the thing with positivity as well. The more you strive for being always positive, the more you feel a fraud and actually feel quite, well, you just can't live up to always being positive. Therefore, you feel very negative because you're striving for a delusion of one-sided positivity. So again, lots of paradoxes and oxymorons going on here. So for example, Mead here has said, "Strangers I feel I can't be around, certain negative personalities." On the one hand, I get that. I think we should be around people who lift us up, but we should be around people who give us constructive feedback. We should be around people who are further ahead of us, but we should be around people who aren't that we can pull up. So if you just surround yourself with one type of person, you're missing on another type of growth. And often people who only want positive people around them, that's actually a sign of their own weakness and their own toxic positivity. You know, like for example, what gives me the right to say, well, 'No, you can't be on my lives and you can't be.' Only positive vibes. Anyone else who's negative, 'You're negative, I don't want negativity, leave me alone. I only want positive people.' That's actually a pretty negative thing to say that you only want positivity. So anyway, this was something we discussed in detail on this episode of Disruptors. Just put yes in the comments if you'd like access to the video or the audio on it. Let me know what you think on this concept of toxic positivity. The excessive and ineffective overgeneralization of a happy, optimistic state across all situations. A dysfunctional approach to emotional management that happens when people do not fully acknowledge negative emotions, particularly anger and sadness. An obsession with positive thinking. The, the belief that people should put a positive spin on all experiences. So these are some of the things that are defined as toxic positivity. I can see lots of you putting yes in the comments, so, um, I will, um, go and comment in the comments after this is finished, and I'll share with you the video and the audio link, and you can choose, um, which— whether you watch or listen. Exactly, Marlene, toxic positivity is toxic, basically imbalance or one-sidedness or delusion or fantasy. Is, um, can end up being toxic. It is unsustainable to always be positive, and sometimes you have to learn from the negative emotions, bathe in the negative emotions, feel the negative emotions, push through the negative emotions, and not be delusional, not try and get rid of one side of your personality and one side of the emotional spectrum that you have that clearly is useful. Negative emotions are useful in keeping you safe and warning you from threats and Dangers. And a few people are saying here they are trying to join Rob.team. So if you, if you just type in Rob.team, Rob.team, then you should be able to join there. It should be easy. Jeannie has said toxic isn't necessarily, necessarily negative. Very true. If something is really painful and difficult, it can actually force you into change. If an emotion is so negative that it really just obsesses your awareness, you might actually do something to remove that negative emotion, and you might improve an area of your life. If you do something that you should feel guilty about, guilt is a useful emotion to give you feedback to maybe change your behavior. So really what emotions are is feedback. Emotions are feedback to the environment so that you can better navigate safely and with a a growth mentality, this very difficult environment that we're always in. We're always threatened by the environment, by nature, etc. So we need to be always on guard. And negative emotions are warnings, and positive emotions are rewards. That's the way I look at it. So trying to dismiss all negative emotions is basically to dismiss warnings, to dismiss safety. To dismiss growth. It's just it doesn't feel very nice, and human beings are always looking for the shortcut. Therefore, we always want to get rid of the emotions. But if we don't— if we try and get rid of the emotions without understanding what's caused the emotions and what's beneath them, that's going to be more toxic than being, you know, positive. Anyway, let me know what you think. Write yes in the comments if you'd like access to the episode that I did with my friend My friend and I have been in personal development for 27 years between us, so it's not like we're anti-positive personal development and anti-positivity, not by any means. It's just wanted to get some balance to the discussion and, um, talk, you know, finding out through my research through this episode that toxic positivity is a definable thing now. Wanted to know your thoughts on it. So write yes in the comments if you'd like access to the full episode. With my friend and my business partner and I talking for 90 minutes on the personal development industry, on many of the people in the personal development industry, on this toxic positivity and our very differing opinions. In fact, nearly argued about this, um, because I think positivity to an extreme is just pure delusion. I think positivity to an extreme is just pure fantasy creating, and the bigger the fantasy you create actually the more pain you're going to create for yourself when you get hit down with reality. I don't know if you've ever been infatuated with anyone. That's essentially a major fantasy. And then when you realize they're human and they have flaws and they have faults, the more you pedestalize them, the more they're going to go in the pit when you find out the reality. Um, and the more of a fantasy you have, the worse the reality is going to be experienced because you created a delusion. So let me know what you think about toxic positivity and just write yes in the comments if you would like access to our deep dive discussion, and I will share after this video our thoughts on toxic positivity, on the imbalance of the personal development industry, on the delusion of one-sidedness, and on making sure that you have a small gap between fantasy and reality. The bigger gap between fantasy and reality, the more pain you will experience. If this is a subject you're interested in, just write yes in the comments. I'll give you the video link to the YouTube, the audio link to the podcast. It's on Disruptors, um, and I think it's a good discussion to have. So thanks for tuning in. Hit the share button because actually there's a lot of negativity going on in the world right now. I get that, but it's necessary. It's necessary to warn you about the banks, to warn you about taxation, to warn you about inflation. To warn you about the revolution that's coming, to warn you about starting your own business, to warn you about scaling your own business, to warn you about making and managing and mastering your own money, to warn you about having passive and recurring income, to warn you about having digital assets, to warn you about making sure that you're on multi-platform so you can't get cancelled or deplatformed from one and then it's over, to warn you, um, to become an entrepreneur, to warn you to get your taxes down and your income up. I've been doing so many of these warnings, and thousands of people have joined rob.team to get better financial education and knowledge, to start and scale their business, to make, manage, and master money. Because those people have seen the warnings as reality, not as doomsdaying. But some people have been saying, oh, Rob, you're— someone called me the, the doom monger of Europe, the biggest doom monger in Europe. No, no, no, no, you can't just meditate away this revolution that's coming. You can't do your incantations and visualisations and Russia and Ukraine will stop having a war. And think positively and taxes will come down— That's absolute freaking nonsense! But a lot of people are living in this delusion and I want you to live in reality. And that's one of the reasons why I launched rob.team. To help you get real, to take personal responsibility for your financial education, to help you learn to make, manage, and master money, to help you convert your information into income, your content into cash flow, what you already know into cash flow, to start a business, to scale a business, to, to build digital assets and create multiple streams of recurring income. So if you'd like to learn how to do that and avoid this toxic positivity Avoid this delusion. Just go and join Rob.team. All you have to do is type Rob.team into a new window. Rob.team. I give you financial reality. It's not happy-clappy positivity, you know. Is it can-do? Yes. Is it upside-focused? Yes. Do I believe in you? Yes. Do I believe anyone can learn how to be a millionaire or make managing master money? Yes, but it's dosed with reality and the challenge that it takes and the work that's required and the sort of anti-system attitude that you need. So just type in rob.team, rob.team, and there you can join for less than a large coffee, one-third of the price of Netflix. Get in before I put the price up because I'm building a new user interface, and I'll be putting the price up. But you can join there. Yes, you can get it in Canada. You can get it in any country in the world. Just type in Rob, Rob.team, Rob.team, and there, for less than a large coffee, you can cancel any time with no contract. You can learn practically and tactically how to start a side hustle, how to build multiple streams of income, how to deal with the reality of what's going on in the world right now, and not just survive but thrive. And turn it into an opportunity. Because one thing is for sure, delusion, it's not going to work. Toxic positivity is not going to work. Living in fantasyland or meditating your way out of this or visualizing your way out, this is not going to work. It's time for practical, tactical productivity and to make sure that you arm yourself with the knowledge to learn earn and invest. So thanks for tuning in. Go join rob.team right now, less than a large coffee, cancel anytime. My members area to help you be an entrepreneur, start and scale a business, get better financial education and knowledge. There's loads of masterclasses. There's one coming up on how to hack viral growth. There's one coming up on mindset and money. There is 21 ways to monetize social media, a past masterclass. Class. There is the Content Creation and Monetization Masterclass. There is the How to Automate Sales and Marketing Masterclass. There are the 5 ways to— the quickest 5 ways to $100K Masterclass. They're all there in Rob.team. I can see a load of members in the chat. So go join, just type Rob.team into a new window. And let me know what you think about this concept of toxic positivity, whereby there's a dysfunctional approach to emotional management that happens when people do not fully acknowledge negative emotions, dismissing negative emotions and responding to distress with false reassurances rather than empathy. An obsession with positive thinking and a belief that people should put a positive spin on all experiences. Toxic positivity, not going to work in the world we're in. You need a dose of reality. So thanks for tuning in, thanks for following my work, thanks for all the kind comments. Please do hit the share button if you wouldn't mind. Thank you, um, for all the kind comments about the content here. Go join rob.team. It costs you less than a large coffee. You can cancel anytime. I'm not a rah-rah toxic positive kind of guy. I'm a kind of relatively balanced kind of guy. I'll warn you about the threats, but I'll present you with the opportunity. To make, manage, and master money. And Rob.team can teach you how to do that. And it's just easy to join. There's no contract. You can cancel anytime. There's hundreds of hours of content in there in the past, all recorded, and regular content every week in the present and the future. Zoom masterclasses, masterminds, courses and resources, live events. And to join, no contract, you just type in R-O-B rob.team. Rob.team. I'll see you there. Also, if you do want to get to gain access to that Disruptors episode on toxic positivity and the deep dive discussion on the personal development industry and how to get your head around being a proactive, productive person and helping yourself in the self-help industry, Without the delusion of toxic positivity. Just type yes in the comments, I'll give you the link. Just type yes and I'll give you the link to the episode on video and audio, you choose. I'll see you there. If you don't risk anything, you risk everything.