Status Updates From Toxic Positivity: Keeping I...

If you lead with curiosity and seek understanding, the validation and empathy will flow naturally.

🤣 Complaining also tends to lead to the phenomenon of "one-upping," where someone tries to overshadow your complaint with their own. This is when you're complaining about your back hurting and your friend says, "Oh, you have no idea, my foot hurts so bad! I can barely walk."

Well I admit I had never thought of it in this way 😵

• An emotion is a physiological experience (like a rapid heartbeat or difficulty breathing) that gives you information about the world. It's a complex reaction pattern that is determined by the significance of the event.
• A feeling is your conscious awareness of the emotion itself.

But here's the thing: emotions aren't intellectual. You can't think them away or deny them out of existence. Emotions don't always tell the truth and sometimes we interpret them incorrectly, but they're there for a reason. Telling yourself that you shouldn't be feeling something won't change that reality.