Perpetual Positivity Syndrome

Perpetual Positivity Syndrome (PPS) is the addictive need to default to positivity under any and all circumstances. One of the most common obstructions to awakening on the healing path, it prevents a maturation in the deep within because sufferers refuse to be present for all that is. Symptoms include: a constant need to find the light in every situation, a tendency to forget or “rise above” the negative aspects of their partners, an inability to fully support and hold the space for another’s suffering, and a turning away from the painstaking work demanded by life’s challenges. Instead of forging a grounded, discerning optimism in the grit and grime of daily life—they jump to the light, while averting the shadows that inform it. They habitually bliss-trip, when lessons are waiting in the wings to be integrated and embodied. 

Those who suffer with PPS are often of the illusory view that they had perfect childhoods or that they have moved beyond the shadow. In most cases, their obsessive clinging to the “positive” is rooted in their own unresolved emotional material: pain and anger that will only come back to haunt them. At the end of the day, there can be no light without shadow, and no substitute for hard-earned transformation.

I get that we prefer it to be happy and positive, but that’s just not where much of humanity is. Many of us are overwhelmed with pain, undigested sadness, unexpressed anger, unseen truths. So, we have two choices: We can continue to pretend it’s not there, cover it over, shame and shun it in ourselves and others, distract and detach whenever possible. Or, we can face it heart-on, own it within ourselves, look for it in others with compassion, create a culture that is focused on authenticity and healthy emotional release. If we continue to push it all down, we are both creating illness, and delaying our collective expansion. But if we can just own the shadow, express it, release it, love each other through it—we can finally graduate from the School of Heart Knocks and begin to enjoy this magnificent life as we were intended. Pretending the pain isn’t there just embeds it further. Let’s illuminate it instead."

Jeff Brown

Grounded Spirituality