The Urban Dictionary describes toxic positivity as “the belief that, if you stay positive, you will overcome any obstacle,” to such a degree that you invalidate natural emotional responses and the person having those feelings.” People think they’re being helpful when they offer such advice as “You’ll get over it” or “Just be positive” or […]
Sarah Schuster writes about toxic positivity, including her take for how Brené Brown describes empathy. Sarah concludes: “If sympathy is shouting down at someone while they’re stuck in a hole, empathy is getting into the hole with them. If ‘toxic positivity’ is telling someone to just “look at the bright side,” support is putting yourself […]
Harvard Medical School’s Dr. Helen Riess is an expert on the neuroscience of empathy, including developing online evidence-based online empathy training. She says, “We are all connected on a neurobiological level far more than we have previously realized. Consciously or not, we are in constant, natural resonance with one another’s feelings. When we are engaged […]