Are You Practicing Emotional Avoidance and Calling It a Positive Mindset?

Have you ever caught yourself avoiding uncomfortable emotions under the guise of staying positive? I have—many times.

For years, I thought that by pushing aside feelings of sadness, frustration, or anxiety, I was maintaining a "positive mindset." But in reality, I was practicing emotional avoidance.

Here's the truth: positivity can sometimes be a mask for emotional bypassing—a way of sidestepping the feelings we don’t want to confront. While we think we’re being optimistic, we’re often burying unresolved emotions that quietly drive our behaviors and decisions. This is dangerous territory because when you avoid your emotions, you short-change yourself. You miss the opportunity to work through them, clear them, and script your path forward from a place of authenticity rather than from unresolved pain.

Consider this analogy: if you were upgrading your computer hardware, you would expect that the software would also need to match the new level of intricacy....The same applies to your internal and emotional systems. If you don't upgrade your internal viewpoints and emotional frameworks, you’re operating at a limited capacity!

You can only be as happy and successful as your internal system allows. Without addressing and expanding your emotional awareness, you risk staying stuck in old patterns and unfulfilled relationships.

In my own journey, I realized that the more I avoided my deeper feelings, (and instead put a smiley face band-aid on the cut instead of clearning it and healing it....so to speak) the more I was stuck in reactive patterns and still never getting the outsomes and consistent uplevel that I was seeking. Instead of responding to life with clarity and new found intention, I was acting out from my lower self, influenced by unresolved fears and frustrations.

It wasn’t until I started leaning into my emotions, facing them head-on, that I began to make meaningful, lasting changes in my life.

Exploring toxic positivity and embracing emotional awareness has profound benefits. It allows you to:

1. Upgrade Your Internal System: Just as updating software improves performance, expanding your emotional awareness enhances how you experience and respond to life instead of the old knee jerk reactions you are used to.

2. Improve Relationship Dynamics: By addressing unresolved feelings, you prevent them from influencing your relationships negatively. You create space for healthier, more authentic connections. Instead of just surviving each other, you are able to assess whether or not you can thrive with one another or cut your losses!

3. Achieve True Happiness: You align your emotional state with your true self, leading to genuine contentment rather than temporary, superficial positivity As mentioned above that is just putting a Band-aid on a bullet hole. It needs a greater deeper sense of healing.

4. Foster Growth and Transformation: Confronting and integrating difficult emotions paves the way for deeper self-awareness and personal development. This awareness is the first step toward getting to know your authentic self. We have to sit with our feelings, even the difficult ones, in order to grow.

I’ve witnessed firsthand the powerful transformations that happen when peopple in my past coaching groups and community embrace this practice. They stop letting their emotions control them from the shadows and start taking charge of their lives, making decisions with clarity and purpose.

This is the heart of what we diving into at the Season 2 Kickoff Series of Events at The Experience Project. We are seeking to get to know yourself...just a little better than you think you do! We want to shed a little light in the dark corners to help guide women in transitioning from emotional avoidance to emotional awareness.. Why? Because When we lean into our emotions and process them fully, we begin to act from a higher version of ourselves. Our outcomes are inextricably connected from the energy from which we create the situation!!! Read that again if you need too. It's heavy but very impactful!

This shift not only enhances how we show up in the world but also allows us to create the life we truly desire. So, the next time you catch yourself brushing off a difficult emotion in the name of “positivity,” pause. Give yourself permission to feel it. The key to your growth lies not in avoiding discomfort but in understanding and integrating it. This is how you break free from old patterns and step into your full, authentic power.

Live Events at The Experience Project

Check out Season Two Series of the Live Events at The Experience Project. Starting October 2 in Worthington, Ohio if this resonates.! We're so excited to connect with like-minded women walking this same path!.