Perpetual Positivity Syndrome - the birth of yet another syndrome?
So I was tagged in a post of a good friend of mine in this provocative creation of a new term entered into the linguistic realm of the english language. Look it up in Google if you doubt my statement about it being a term that got birthed into the digital infrastructure just today. Perpetual Positivity Syndrome aka PPS.
Never heard of Jeff Brown before I got curious because his post has triggered a desire in me to respond to his provocation.
The provocation is simply directed towards those spiritual seekers that make it a habit to try to seek positivity in any circumstance in what he calls an “addiction” like manner.
What is your addiction?
I remember well that Viktoria Boutenko - a raw food celebrity - has introduced or entertained the concept of food being an addiction. While I do not intend to discuss the various addictions we consciously or subconsciously fall victim towards nor do I want to get into the analysis of what constitutes an addiction at this point, I want to address however the notion of considering “defaulting to positivity under any and all circumstances” as a possible new syndrome.
Jeff goes on to describe some of the symptoms like the need to find light in every situation or not holding the space for other’s suffering - probably addressing the knee jerk reaction of an empath to want to help a sufferer instead of helping them to hold the space through that valuable experience.
He sees life’s challenges as growth work and argues that those that suffer from perpetual positivity syndrome might assume that they had a perfect childhood and believe they don’t have to deal with “shadows”. I guess what he is addressing is the thesis that we all have aquired trauma at one point in our individual evolution into adulthood - if we are aware of it or not.
Consequently the obsessive clinging to the positive is supposed to stem from unresolved pain or anger emotions that won’t go away if not addressed as there is “no light without shadow”.
No gain without pain?
The underlying suggestion is basically that there is no gain without pain. In other words hard-earned transformation is unavoidable in a world where light does not exist without the dark.
I have to agree with Jeff that there is reason to recognize a trend in spiritual seeker circles to look for instant relief by turning towards whatever feels better in any moment of challenging shadow processess manifesting themselves.
While most people would admit that the desire to feel good in a world that seems to become more challenging and complex by the day as we interact increasingly with all corners of this round ball (I purposely have triggered the new flat earth theorists which might have also added to that stated complexity) is a forgivable addiction or at least a healthy desire to shine a bright light into one’s environment, it is a useful and hopefully revealing task to further analyze that behaviour or desire.
I think I can elaborate why this topic triggers reflection and response within me at this stage. I have basically spent the last few dozens of years of my interaction with this outside world I find myself in, analyzing what I consider the outside shadow manifestations, while potentially and even possibly neglecting my own inner growth and shadows in the process.
Are we a society of members with unresolved trauma?
My way of dealing with my own trauma (won’t get into those here as it does not add to the discussion) resulted on one level in turning towards info-junkieness. Another possible syndrome that expresses itself with an addiction of reading thousands of books and trying to get to the root of the human condition and the problems this species is facing today as it gets increasingly difficult to take a position that everything is evolving just fine on a global scale level.
I won’t engage in listing the ongoing symptoms of poverty, hunger, lack of the most basic needs to live a decent life, war etc. etc. as I could easily be countered that these issues exist only in my perception and I just blow up my own negativity-obsession by not wanting to let go of thinking about these issues.
However I would like to look closer into one of the possible symptoms of why many people would struggle with challenges they are facing in today’s inter-connected world.
My provocative statement offered for further discussion is the following:
The vast majority of individuals on this planet live within the dynamics of a global system of central banking institutions that forces nation-states to increase their methods of coersion and violence towards the members of those nation-states in order to further its own self-preservation.
This trickles down to an increasing amount of ongoing unwanted and destructive conflicts within the individual members of those nation-states as well as amongst these individuals due to a subtle process of scarcity that is a direct result of the central banking system.
The evil or shadow component in this system is that it is set up in a way so that every individual member of this nation-state society structure is actively contributing to the furthering of this increasingly worsening scenario - every single day - not to say every single hour or minute of just surviving by participating in fiat money based value exchange.
The libertarian movement is one of those that are recognizing this conundrum and are trying to find solutions to this problem that is not trivial at all. As I have come across the work of George Donnelly recently I feel very compelled to invite anybody that resonates with the libertarian philosophy to evaluate his goal to voluntarize the world by 2064. Here are his thoughts in his own words:
As an additional attempt to persuade you to assess his suggestions I offer the following which I came across just recently:
I Wanted To Change The World
When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world.
I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation.
When I found I couldn't change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn't change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family.
Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.
Author: Unknown Monk 1100 A.D.
Are we all facing an epidemic of increasing challenges?
And lastly I want to offer you another topic which I feel might turn into an epidemic that is suppressed by certain interests for reasons I won’t get into here that will possibly affect society on a large scale and induce massive challenges for many people. I say this as a father of a special needs child that is experiencing those challenges now since over 9 years 24/7.
The other reason why I’m trying to bring awareness to this topic is because I know that an uncounted amount of parents are too absorbed to deal with their challenges daily to even voice their input towards this topic to the public. So here is a recent post I’m referring to discussing the documentary Vaxxed.
I will answer any and all comments to this post and encourage anybody to engage in this important discussion about the Perpetual Positivity Syndrome.
I will just offer the statement that I love from Abraham Hicks that I feel explains it all, "There is no getting to the bottom of anything, there is no bottom."
To me a positive vibration is a learned skill and I think it is always in our best interest to cultivate that habit. What I think you are referring to though are those people that are desperately try to put on the positive front when underneath they are lying to themselves. The high vibrations of a positive attitude can not be faked.
I think your bottomless statement suggested by a channeled energy might have endless wisdom in it ;-)
What I think is being suggested is to consider NOT to always go the next better feeling in any given moment - but to consider holding the moment to see if there is some growth potential in it. That however suggests that we are here to growth emotionally, spiritually etc. which might not be such an outrageous notion as ongoing growth is what seems we are surrounded with on many levels.
It's not necessarily that the PPS suggests that people are lying to themselves but rather that they give into a suggested obsession with positivity rather than accepting the shadows in the more negative moments and the possible opportunity to growth with them instead of just making them come back when the next opportunity arises.
In a sense it opens the question up if we grow better or faster by accepting and integrating our own shadows more often than we seem to be willing to do.
From a voluntarist perspective one could argue it is merely a choice that anybody can make as each one of us is dealing with the consequences of our own choices and there is intrinsically nothing wrong about that in a bottomless philosophy ;-)
And what if feeling negative, or feeling positive are just choices? Nothing better or worse than any other choice. What if every thing in our reality has no value except what we place on it? What if it was as simple as a choice? Do I want to feel great or do I want to feel down.
“The mind is a universe and can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”
― John Milton
Makes a lot of sense to me. In this context it might be the decision to deal or not or never with whatever might trigger a negative state using PPS - if it holds merit to exist as a syndrome at all ;-)
If we support and accept free will - then we also have to be consequent and accept the consequences of our respective choices about how we feel ;-)
I agree with John Milton.
Really enjoyed the piece. Seeing light in every thing isn't possible and not even healthy. What we should focus on is mindfulness so we stay in the moment as it occurs, learn from it, use it to our best advantage and perceive each moment non-judgmentally.