Toxic positivity is on the rise – but what is it and why is it harmful?

Do you always have to put a happy spin on things? Toxic positivity could do us more harm than good

Toxic positivity might be a friend who dismisses your feelings and tells you to ‘look on the bright side’, instead of acknowledging why you’re upset.

Ever since Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret became an international bestseller, people have been obsessed with the power of positive thinking. The book gained fame for popularising the ‘Law of Attraction’ – the idea that thinking negatively or positively can attract more of these things into our lives.

But a growing school of thought suggests this relentless brand of positivity can have a harmful side. You may have heard people using the term ‘toxic positivity’, which considers that if we’re always just looking on the bright side, we can fail to process important emotions like sadness, fear and grief, that ultimately help us to heal.