Monday, June 28, 2021

Toxic Positivity: An Illusion of Optimism


A belief that no matter how difficult the situation is, one should always maintain a positive mindset and have a “good vibes only” approach to life, neglecting the harsh reality, on the contrary, can be put down as Toxic Positivity.

There is a misconception that you being mentally healthy means being happy all the time. Many must have come across these expressions where they say: keep your chin up, or be positive, and who hasn’t heard the advice: when life gives you lemons, make lemonade? I’d like to suggest that you keep your chin up where and when it is needed and do whatever you want with the lemons in your life. Good mental health comes from feeling a full range of emotions, happy and sad, comfortable and uncomfortable, “positive” and “negative”. 

Positive thinking and optimism have their own benefits, toxic positivity on the other hand is being in denial of the really difficult emotions and putting up a falsely positive façade. It is the mindset that even when faced with hardship, people should maintain a positive attitude. While toxic positivity is usually shared with the simplest intentions, it lacks compassion. It can exist in your own self-talk as well as when connecting with others.


Here are some signs that positivity has turned toxic: 

 • Brushing off rather than facing your problems and emotions 
 • Feeling guilty or shameful for experiencing “negative” emotions 
 • Avoiding or hiding from uncomfortable feelings 
 • Only focusing on the positive aspects of a painful situation 
 • Being too hard on yourself for feeling varied emotions. 

Toxic positivity takes positive thinking to an overgeneralized extreme. This attitude doesn't just stress the importance of optimism; it minimizes and denies any trace of human emotions that are not strictly happy or positive.




I believe that everyone experiences their highs and lows at some point in their lives. Similarly, when I was going through such a phase in my life, I observed that I was being too hard on myself. I constantly kept telling myself, ‘This is just a phase, be strong, you can do this, don’t feel sad, not a big deal, keep distracting yourself.' To my surprise, this kept me motivated for the time being, but soon enough I would lose motivation and start feeling anxious again.

In this process, I realized that for ages we’ve been taught to embrace and celebrate all our happy emotions and hide sad emotions because they make us look weak. We need to normalize embracing all our emotions, whether they're happy or sad.

Effects of Toxic Positivity: 

Just like anything done over limits, when positivity is employed to hide up or silence the human experience, it becomes toxic. Toxic positivity can silence negative emotions, demean grief, and make one feel under pressure to pretend to be happy even when they are struggling. This disconnects you from your own self and all negative feelings keep piling up which ultimately leads us to feel depressed for many days.




How to deal with Toxic Positivity: 

Emotions can never be escaped; one cannot run away from emotions. We might distract ourselves for the time being but they are going to come back instead We need to accept the fact that, ‘I don’t feel okay today' and that is completely alright and help ourselves not hold onto negative thoughts and let them go. By not putting much pressure on ourselves and embracing all the emotions we can deal with toxic positivity. Nobody is perfect, everyone is flawed which eventually makes us Human. Human beings are made up of all the happy, grateful, sad, anxious, and stressful emotions. When we start listening to our body and mind and identify what we’re feeling our soul gets connected to our bodies and creates a more peaceful and healthy mindset.

- Bhargavi Visave (Team SYNC Snippets) 

Monday, June 21, 2021

International Yoga Day 2021: Connecting the body, mind and soul.

"Yoga is the journey of the self, through the self, to the self." - The Bhagavad Gita 

Yoga is the art which focuses on bringing harmony between the mind and body. It allows you to get one step closer to a healthy living. 

The practice of Yoga has several benefits like reducing the levels of stress and body-wide inflammation. It helps improve strength, balance and flexibility. 

This time we are celebrating International Yoga Day from the comforts of our homes. Let us help you look on the inside and reconnect with your inner peace from the luxury of being at home. International Day of Yoga (IDY), Yoga day or Antarashtriya Yog Divas is an annual event celebrated all over the world on 21st June, since its inception in 2015. 

SYNC, the Fitness Club of H.R. College organizes an engaging 3-day workshop for the celebrations. Given the current situation this year, the celebration will take place from home. International Yoga Day is the flagship event of SYNC. Every year IDY is celebrated with more and more enthusiasm by students, teachers and the non-teaching staff of H.R. College of Commerce and Economics.

 

On this International Yoga Day, we have a line-up of blissful yoga sessions conducted by instructor 'Sumit Chadha' from Kaivalyadhama, who will look to energize, rejuvenate and engage students from home to help them during these tough times. The theme for the International Yoga Day is "𝐁𝐞 𝐰𝐒𝐭𝐑 𝐲𝐨𝐠𝐚, 𝐁𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐞"

 
During this ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, being confined at home for such a long time due to work from home and online lectures can be mentally challenging for us. When we are all bound to live a restricted life under the constant fear of infection risks, it is natural for anyone to develop anxiety. The continuous flow of negative news, the inadequacy of daily resources, it adds up to growing anxiety and depression amongst us. 

When our mind is flooded with the uncertainty of the future, we often experience sleepless nights causing fatigue. Many of us are unable to relax our mind during this time thereby increasing the stress on our mind.

Yoga aasanas and meditation can play a vital role for our healing; the practice of Yoga can help boost our immunity. Kaivalyadhama is one of the best oldest, most traditional and scientific yogic health centres world-over, allowing practitioners to experience Yoga holistically. 

One of the most unique concepts that the centre has been following over the years is Yoga under medical supervision. As per this feature, registered doctors check each member before assigning them a customised Yoga program. Thus the 'Consultation+therapy' concept is followed.

Every year a yoga instructor from Kaivalyadhama conducts this workshop for SYNC. To honour our event, we are pleased to have Mr Balram Talreja grace the celebration. Our esteemed guest is a Yoga Teacher, Health Consultant, Counsellor, Motivational Speaker and Life Coach with over 28 years of experience in the field. He has successfully conducted more than 16,000 Yoga classes.

Yoga has proven to be very helpful in these tough times, why not kick-start your journey today? The practice of Yoga brings us face to face with the extraordinary complexity of our own being. In yoga the pose begins, when you are ready to leave your comfort zone! Join SYNC in its celebrations on 21st June and reconnect to your mind, body and soul!

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