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Showing posts from March, 2020

Lies of Positivity Culture and How to Counter Them

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I have had conflicted feelings about  positive thinking  for as long as I’ve been aware of the concept. I want to support it. There is increasing  scientific evidence  to suggest that positive thinking can improve mental health, stress coping strategies, recovery from trauma, and self-esteem. There are copious resources in  self-help books ,  therapy ,  motivational speakers , and  websites . Positive thinking proponents insist that you can change your outlook, rewire your brain, be more successful, and be healthier just by turning your frown upside down and stop thinking “cannot” and start believing “can do!” It takes some core components from  cognitive behavior therapy , in that the goal is to change how you interact with the environment and to consciously shape how you process stimuli. I use similar techniques to change my self-perception, cope with anxiety, and to help stall  catastrophizing . There is certainly something to be said about how complaints and a completely n