Welcome to Episode 348 of Live Happy Now. We all know that positivity is good for us, except when it isn't.

And today's guest is going to teach us how to tell the difference. I'm your host, Paula Phelps,

and this week I'm joined by Whitney Goodman, the radically honest psychotherapist and founder of the Collaborative Counseling

Center in Miami. Whitney is the author of the new book, Toxic Positivity, Keeping It Real

in a World Obsessed with Being Happy. She's here to talk about what toxic positivity is, what it does

to us, and how to manage it in ourselves and others. So let's find out what she has to say.

Whitney, welcome to live happy now.

Thank you so much for having me.

Well, this is a terrific topic for us because it's something we're starting to hear a lot about.

And it can be confusing because, of course, we always think of positivity as being a

good thing. I mean, we are live happy. So, of course, we love positivity. But your book gives so

much great insight into toxic positivity. And to kick off the conversation, can you explain to us

what toxic positivity is and then tell us how it's different from healthy

positivity? So toxic positivity denies an emotion and tells us that we should suppress it. And

when we use toxic positivity, we're basically telling ourselves and other people that this

emotion shouldn't exist, it's wrong, and that we can try really

hard to eliminate it entirely. And I really look at toxic positivity as being the unrelenting

pressure to be happy all the time, no matter what the circumstances are. And when we compare that

to healthy positivity, healthy positivity is when

we're able to make space for reality and hope, right? So we can recognize the value of seeing

the good, but allow people to arrive there at their own pace and to reach their own conclusions rather than sort of like

pushing this on them. And you had your own journey with toxic positivity, which you described

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