Developing an emotional attachment to your job -- or taking "psychological ownership" -- can increase engagement, productivity and enjoyment of your work, writes Sara Daw, the group CEO of The CFO Centre and The Liberti Group. Daw outlines four strategies to take ownership, including finding areas of control, investing in building relationships with colleagues and being willing to help others to foster a sense of safety on your team.

Put it into practice: Develop a sense of intimacy with your colleagues by scheduling one-on-one meetings to get to know them as well as finding time to be social outside the office, Daw recommends. "Intimacy also enhances our engagement and satisfaction with our work through having a deep knowledge and appreciation of our role, its purpose, and its impact."

Positivity can become toxic if it leads us to reject, avoid or minimize our emotions, which can lead to delusional thinking and cause us to miss out on emotions that can be helpful for growth, writes LaRae Quy. "Our brain is wired to pay more attention to negative emotions than positive ones for a very good reason: they alert us to danger in our environment. Getting our feelings under control, both positive and negative, is a sign of good mental health," Quy notes.

Put it into practice: Toxic positivity can cause us to overlook red flags in business or other areas of life, which can lead to bad decisions, writes Quy. "When something is really getting us down, pretending to feel better than we do can prevent us from digging into our situation to find realistic solutions."

With 86% of employees feeling their voices are ignored, leadership coach Lolly Daskal outlines seven strategies to ensure employees feel heard including fostering psychological safety, providing multiple channels for feedback, acting on that feedback and promoting positive collaboration. "Show your team that their input has real implications by implementing changes based on their suggestions. This not only improves the workplace but also reinforces the value of their contributions," Daskal writes.

Put it into practice: Don't wait for your team members to come to you with suggestions or concerns; engage with them regularly and solicit their feedback, Daskal recommends. "This proactive approach shows that you value their input and are keen on incorporating their insights into decision-making processes."

Jamie Harrison, Taco Bell's new vice president of HR, focuses on unlocking opportunities through initiatives such as the internal incubator and Bell Bravo recognition program, which are designed to foster creativity and innovation and make employees feel valued and connected. "I started as a frontline employee, and now I'm an executive leader for a beloved brand, so I try to be the voice of those team members who are in the shoes I walked in 30 years ago," Harrison says.

Earth may have once had a ring system like Saturn's, formed from a disintegrated asteroid around 466 million years ago, according to a study in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. The ring, formed from a massive asteroid broken apart by Earth's tidal forces, could explain the equatorial concentration of impacts and climatic changes during the Ordovician period, researchers say.

It's essential to strike a balance between optimism and acknowledging the difficulties we all face in life. When we allow room for both our positive and negative emotions, we can avoid the trap of "toxic positivity."

As LaRae Quy points out, aiming for hope instead of optimism can be a healthier choice. "Optimism is just unquestioningly expecting the best. Hope is seeing the challenges but making plans for a better future anyway."

Toxic positivity can increase our anxiety as we suppress our genuine emotions and lead us to unrealistic expectations of how our lives should unfold. Life is full of ups and downs and not being able to acknowledge that can strain relationships and hinder our emotional growth.

That's not to say we shouldn't look on the bright side. We absolutely should look for the silver lining in every cloudy day, but we can only do that when we embrace all of our emotions and seek to learn the lessons they bring.

As Quy advises: "If you feel pressure to be endlessly optimistic, stop and acknowledge the pain and hardship for what they are. Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl called this mindset 'tragic optimism.' Stop trying to constantly stay positive and instead look for meaning and growth amid the darkness."

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