There's an elephant in the room.
At some point, someone (not you!) will wonder if this Joyspiration thing is just some form of toxic positivity.
What is toxic positivity? There are a several variations of definition for the term, but for simplicity, I’ll use this one from Psychology Today: toxic positivity is the act of avoiding, suppressing, or rejecting negative emotions or experiences.
Joyspiration does not seek to avoid, suppress or reject negative emotions or experiences. In fact, it is the acknowledgement of these things that brought Joyspiration to life. In no way do we intend to create shame or guilt - that is the opposite of our mission.
What Joyspiration does hope to provide is support, community, and resources for finding joy amidst the negative emotions and struggles of all human experience. We hope to inspire in spite of our challenges - and sometimes even because of them.
I do struggle a bit with how much traction toxic positivity has been receiving. I would like to see toxic negativity receive at least the same attention. At a time when there are open, public forums being used for the sole purpose of criticizing, demeaning, or belittling our fellow human beings, perhaps our focus is misplaced.
Which brings us to the idea of the Karmic negative. A podcast (1) I recently listened to discussed the distance between who we believe we are/want to be (our souls) and how we act (our personality). The author interviewed noted that “The conflicts of a human’s life are directly proportional to [that] distance…”
I don’t know many of us who would like to be critical of everyone and always see the negative in every event of
our lives. Still, too often we act in exactly that manner. It creates more conflict in our lives and steals our joy. The cycle continues and grows creating karmic negativity.
We have the power to choose. We can choose to allow the negative to remain the focus of our lives or we can choose to focus on joy and inspiration wherever we may find it. We can also choose to support each other in our efforts to find and share it.
And there is nothing toxic about that.
(1) Podcast: Oprah's Super Soul Special: Finding your Authentic Power:
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