Positive thinking can be a massive trap of bypassing. Life is not all positive and it doesn’t serve us to always try hard to see it that way while pushing aside the ‘negative’. We must give ‘negative’ – or ‘uncomfortable’ as I prefer to say – feelings the space they need in order to be processed. I’m not talking about wallowing in them or playing the blame game but acknowledging the facts.

At times life is hard, no matter if you have the perfect relationship, enough money, or other things you ‘should’ be grateful for. Yes, I’m advocating for practicing gratitude and seeing the good in every situation, but not as a means to escape the uncomfortable.
Emotions like anger, fear, disappointment, rage, pain, despair, and hopelessness need to have their space in the human experience. Suppressing them in-evidently causes more ‘damage’ in the longer run. You don’t want to accumulate a pile of rubbish you sit on.

That being said, once such emotions have had the space they needed, it’s valuable to look at things from a different and more positive perspective. You will know when it’s time to move forward, create an action plan and focus on the positive again.