The Co-Delusion Of The Shiny Life

The Unshiny Podcast with Jo Casey

The Shiny life is seductive, powerful and damaging not only to our businesses but to society as a whole. Sound dramatic? Hear me out.
This episode is all about how, far from being a bit of harmless ‘putting on a brave face’, shiny thinking can lead to some very dark places.
The shiny life is all about focusing on the positive to the exclusion of all other things. And we WANT things to be lovely. We don’t want to feel pain and frustration, fear and loneliness. We WANT the shiny, happy life.
But when lived experience doesn’t meet up to that desire it can go one of two ways:
Reality comes crashing in, shattering the carefully constructed house of positivity cards you’ve built OR
Major cognitive dissonance occurs.
Now, don’t get me wrong - sometimes looking for the silver linings of a situation can be a very useful skill that helps us keep things in perspective. If I’m having an off day, going for a brisk walk, listening to some uplifting music and finding someone funny to watch are all wonderful ways to shake that mood off.
So what’s the harm in just thinking positively, you may ask?
When the personal development and online coaching world are selling the message that we are so omnipresent and powerful that our very thoughts can create our reality - and then reality smacks you in the face (such as with a very real and global pandemic) the system starts to glitch and become something far more toxic.
In this episode of the Unshiny podcast, I’m diving deeper into why buying into the co-delusion of the shiny life is bad for your clients, bad for your business - and bad for society as a whole. I’ll be talking conspiracy theories, Qanon and why there has been such an overlap between toxic positivity, wellness communities and conspiracy theories that take us about as far away from love and light and you can imagine.
Oh, and I’ll also be sharing why avoiding the co-delusion of the shiny life is pretty much essential if you want to attract the clients you deserve and have a business that feels lush as hell and filled with magic, creativity and income.