Post by Admin on Mar 29, 2017 8:08:29 GMT -5
Came across a blog about the dark side of Positive Psychology. While this blog post doesn't have the word Mindfulness in it anywhere, perhaps it should have. In Greg Bratmarx's March 4, 2017 blog (Google+) he begins,
Everyone wants you to be happy: Self-help books dish out advice on how to stop worrying, boost happiness, and banish negative thoughts; bosses want to see smiling enthusiasm in the workplace; and the only way to respond to “how are you?” is with a joyful “great!” But according to Svend Brinkmann a psychology professor at Denmark’s Aalborg University, the culture of positivity has a dark side.
Happiness is simply not the appropriate response to many situations in life, says Brinkmann, whose Danish bestseller Stand Firm: Resisting the Self-Improvement Craze is published in English by international publisher Polity this month.
Even worse, faking it can leave us emotionally stunted.
I believe our thoughts and emotions should mirror the world. When something bad happens, we should be allowed to have negative thoughts and feelings about it because that’s how we understand the world he says.
Life is wonderful from time to time, but it’s also tragic. People die in our lives,we lose them, if we have only been accustomed to being allowed to have positive thoughts, then these realities can strike us even more intensely when they happen, and they will happen.
There’s nothing wrong with those who have a naturally sunny disposition or who enjoy the odd self-help book, says Brinkmann. The problem is when happiness becomes a requisite.
In the workplace, for example, where performance reviews often insist on focusing on positive growth rather than genuine difficulties, demanding displays of happiness is “almost totalitarian.” Brinkmann likens insistence on employee happiness to “thought control.”... to read the rest (please do), click here...
It just seemed to me that Svend Brinkmann is pleading for more Mindfulness, without saying so explicitly, being with emotions of all sort in ways taught by MBSR is an answer to his lament. Still,thought this blog was an interesting take on the mindfulness theme /meme. Other opinions welcomed!
Happiness is simply not the appropriate response to many situations in life, says Brinkmann, whose Danish bestseller Stand Firm: Resisting the Self-Improvement Craze is published in English by international publisher Polity this month.
Even worse, faking it can leave us emotionally stunted.
I believe our thoughts and emotions should mirror the world. When something bad happens, we should be allowed to have negative thoughts and feelings about it because that’s how we understand the world he says.
Life is wonderful from time to time, but it’s also tragic. People die in our lives,we lose them, if we have only been accustomed to being allowed to have positive thoughts, then these realities can strike us even more intensely when they happen, and they will happen.
There’s nothing wrong with those who have a naturally sunny disposition or who enjoy the odd self-help book, says Brinkmann. The problem is when happiness becomes a requisite.
In the workplace, for example, where performance reviews often insist on focusing on positive growth rather than genuine difficulties, demanding displays of happiness is “almost totalitarian.” Brinkmann likens insistence on employee happiness to “thought control.”... to read the rest (please do), click here...
It just seemed to me that Svend Brinkmann is pleading for more Mindfulness, without saying so explicitly, being with emotions of all sort in ways taught by MBSR is an answer to his lament. Still,thought this blog was an interesting take on the mindfulness theme /meme. Other opinions welcomed!