Sarnika A So can you tell me what is tax positivity
Okay. So can you tell me what is tax positivity? Tax positivity is kind of like telling people to always stay positive even though their circumstances are is clearly not fitting the situation and telling people everything’s always going to be okay. And essentially having a positive spin on practically everything. The basics are kind of like how everyone posted on social media, only the good side of what’s going on in their lives.
And it shows others that they’re not at where they probably should be compared to everyone else. And essentially it makes people feel like they should be doing more and they should be working themselves a lot harder and just trying to reach everyone else’s standards. I mean, it kind of makes people think that they can’t talk about things that aren’t going well, especially if you say that you have a high achieving personality and you’re always doing a lot more than you should be and you’re always posting your accomplishments.
Then it kind of turns you into someone who can’t talk about your struggles or your struggles wouldn’t be validated. And so when people are posting about their accomplishments, that it makes other youth always think I should be doing that, or I’m not going to fit into the group if I’m not doing certain trends.
And so it also makes you feel like when they do have a family struggle or educational struggle, then it’s not good enough to talk about. And it’s not good enough to be public about when you’re showing people your accomplishments and achievements, everyone supports you, and everyone is happy about it. But when you’re telling other people that they should be at that level, or you’re using your accomplishments and achievements to show other people that they’re not doing good and that they should be doing better is where it starts affecting your mental health.
How do you think we can respond without being toxically positive? I mean, the basic practices of empathy would be really important, essentially just validating other people’s emotions and struggles and telling them that it’s okay to feel not okay, and it’s okay to have emotions that aren’t happy or aren’t positive, and that although that might last for a while.
And although things might be okay, it’s okay to feel like everything’s going to fall apart sometimes.