Movement against aggressive positivity

More sensitives are talking about embracing the full spectrum of the human condition. The alternative is too often spiritual bypass, avoidance of shadow work and thus denial of reality as it is. Thus among those who study movements in the spiritual communities on this planet at this time there is the “movement against aggressive positivity.”

My practice is to accept what is.

This isn’t about becoming nonresponsive to what is around us. It really means being able to respond with presence rather than reactivity.

Moods, mental states, emotions, feelings (negative and positive) exist on a spectrum. Human beings can experience any and all of the spectrum. It’s not an illness to feel shitty, even really heinously shitty, sometimes. It’s also not abnormal to get confused about the vast content of our psyches. This confusion can play out in numerous ways. Our society likes to pathologize these varieties of confusion. The DSM might be considered the book of pathologizing the human experience.

Given the state of humanity and the planet it’s a healthy sign to be struck quite heavily at least some of the time by the seriousness of our times. We need only learn to be with ourselves — body, mind and spirit. That is what, as a species, we’ve forgotten. It’s what we need to relearn and it’s what we need to teach our children.

Life is filled with all sorts of experiences as well as emotions. I have often said, if you’re being real you’re being positive! We don’t have to affix a happy or stupid grin on our face. Cry, scream, rage. It’s all okay sometimes.

This video is talking about accepting it all.

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Journalist and author Oliver Burkeman offers an alternative “negative path” to happiness and success that involves embracing the things we spend our lives trying to avoid.

I saw this on Huffington Post today that is also in keeping with this idea:  Pain: A Love Story — Coming to Terms With the Human Experience

It hurts to be here. By here, I mean on this planet doing this human being gig. There’s pain… like right here, right now. Check it out and see. Pause for a moment and feel into your experience of being here. There’s pain…

Maybe it’s a dense ache… fluttering anxiety… quiet despair… building resentments… sorrow nipping… wide-eyed envy… rage barely touched… exhaustion… desperation… shame… hunger… desire… defeat… discomfort.

But the mind trip comes when we think that there shouldn’t be pain. “I shouldn’t be feeling this way,” or “If I were really doing the work, I’d be happier,” or “If I hit this target, made that money, got out of debt, then I’d feel free and happy,” or “If I could just meet The One and be in a truly loving and supportive relationship, then I’d be happy,” or “If I could just overcome my insecurities, fully express myself and be creatively fulfilled, then I’ll be happy.”…

...If we spent one-third of the energy that we spend on chasing happiness on getting better at being in pain, our experience of being alive would dramatically expand. We’d need to chase less and run away from less. (continue reading)

I love that. Getting better at being in pain rather than running from it’s inevitability.

And then there is this lovely quote by Camus, celebrating the whole shebang:

In the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love.In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile. In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, an invincible calm. I realized, through it all…that in the middle of winter, I finally found that within me there lies an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger–something better, pushing right back.  – Albert Camus

I’ve found that in embracing pain joy becomes that much more nuanced too. One can’t really run from pain and deeply experience joy both.

Other posts that touch on backlash against aggressive positivity:

• Reality is the full spectrum
• Show me all of you
• Marketing happiness
• The individuation process: growing into a mature human being
• Happiness for people who can’t stand positive thinking — a post about the book that the above guy in the video wrote
• On optimism (and positive thinking)
• Rethinking positive thinking
• A Hymn to the Glass Half Empty
• The razor’s edge: musings and then collection

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