#ToxicPositivity

A new wave of guidance helps Thai families nurture children’s emotional lives without chasing constant happiness or dismissing painful feelings. Experts advocate honest, safe spaces where kids can experience a full range of emotions and learn to work through them.

This shift comes as Thai families face academic pressure, social change, and rapid digital disruption. While harmony and emotional restraint are valued in Thai culture, researchers say acknowledging negative emotions is essential for healthy development and resilience.

A wave of new guidance is helping parents across the globe, including in Thailand, understand how best to support their children’s emotional lives—without falling into the pitfalls of toxic positivity or feeling pressured to fix or gloss over every distressing feeling. As recent reporting by Slate illuminates, experts are urging parents to create honest, safe spaces for children to feel and process a full range of emotions, rather than pushing relentless optimism that may leave kids feeling unheard or misunderstood (Slate).

In Thai workplaces, relentless optimism can harm employees more than it helps. Leaders who push for constant cheer risk burnout and undermine psychological safety. As Thai firms recover from pandemic disruptions, suppressing negative feelings erodes trust, stalls growth, and lowers engagement. Experts urge leaders to foster honest, compassionate environments where a full range of emotions is welcome.

Thai culture has long tied positivity to resilience, guided by jai yen (a cool heart) and a preference for public harmony. Yet imported self-help slogans and “good vibes only” policies can stifle genuine communication. When negativity is dismissed, employees struggle to seek support or voice concerns. Recent analyses from workplace culture researchers highlight the fine line between healthy optimism and toxic positivity and why it matters for Thai teams.

Toxic positivity—a workplace culture that insists “every cloud has a silver lining”—is causing more harm than good, experts warn, pushing employees toward burnout and undermining psychological safety. As businesses across Thailand strive to uplift morale after the disruptions of the pandemic, mounting evidence suggests that masking or suppressing negative emotions with relentless optimism can worsen mental health, reduce trust, and even hinder organisational growth. Recent research and commentary from international and Asian experts point to the urgency for leaders to foster honest, compassionate workplaces where the full range of human emotion is accepted.