Toxic positivity is the assumption that despite a person’s emotional pain and turmoil, they should only have a positive mindset. It can harm people who are going through difficult times. Rather than being able to share genuine human emotions and gain unconditional support, people who are faced with toxic positivity find their feelings dismissed, ignored, or outright invalidated.

• “It’s okay to not know completely what you want or what you should be doing and to stumble a little bit.”
• “Finally understanding it’s ok to cry. It’s ok not to be strong. It’s ok to not know the answers to all of your questions.”
• “If you want to make people around you happy, you have to find your own happiness first. Being selfish isn’t always a bad thing. Try to only think about your happiness when things are too stressful. It’s okay to do that.”
• “It’s okay not to be okay. It doesn’t mean you’re broken. It means you’re strong enough to endure the hard times.”
• “Don’t be so hard on yourself”
• “Some days I’m okay, someday I’m not.”
• “In order to get better, we have to be worse first”
• It’s fine to be able to stand on your own, admirable, but I think you also need to prove to yourself that it’s okay if you don’t have to. That it’s okay to choose not to be alone. To choose to let someone support you, emotionally and otherwise.”
• “The first step is always the hardest. But once you take the first step, things will get easier from then on.”