Deepika Chopra

And so I think we pressure ourselves

And that's where the toxic positivity sometimes can come in because we feel like, oh my gosh, we need to fix this right now for this person.

They are coming to us.

We want to help.

We want to fix this.

And I would say one of the better ways to remedying that is to allow yourself and the other person to sit in what they're saying and try to challenge yourself to offer no solution.

but to just offer a safe space and a place for them to be vulnerable.

And you can still offer a response that's more rooted in real optimism, which acknowledges the difficulty that they're in and validates their experience and helps them and allows them to give them the space to process their emotion more honestly.

And then always leaving this small room for hope, you know, not slapping a

positive bumper sticker over it.

You could remind someone while you're sitting with them and validating all of this, that listen, you've been through hard times before.

I've been here for that.

I've seen it.

And I see this is a really hard time and I totally understand why it is hard.

Of course it's hard.

So you're not saying, and it's all going to be okay, but you are reminding them that they've been here before.

And at the same time, it's okay to be here and you're here to listen to them.

Yes, absolutely.

And I think we're taught at an early age that there is no room for negative emotions.

It is either a waste of your time and energy, or it is bothering whoever it is that you're telling it to.