NEGATIVE PSYCHOLOGY

The Joy of Feeling Better by Trying to Feel Worse

Whenever I’m surrounded by people who are into positive psychology, I usually start feeling sick. Positive psychology is about filling your life with as many “good vibes” as possible. But the catch is, it often leaves people terrified of anything negative — so much so that they end up suppressing huge parts of their emotional lives. If you only smile because you’re burying your anger, jealousy, or grief, you are not practicing positivity, but falseness or denial.

A lot of people are so afraid of negativity that they force themselves into years of fake positivity. But when frustration and pain are bottled up too long — like steam in a pressure cooker with no release — they eventually blow. And when they do, the crash can last for years.

The truth is simple: every human being carries the full range of emotions — joy, anger, jealousy, love, sorrow, hope, and more. I don’t have a problem with positivity itself. But if you want to be genuinely positive, you also have to accept that you carry negative emotions. When you can even welcome your negativity, it stops being something dark and threatening — it can actually become part of your positivity. That’s what authentic positivity looks like: being real without having to suppress anything.