Love Is Blind's Madison Opens Up About How 1 Man's 'Toxic Positivity' Ended Their Romance (Exclusive) liennhi

"What I'm looking for in a partner is someone who's able to sit in those heavy emotions and not feel uncomfortable by it and not feel like they have to push it away with positivity," Madison Errichiello tells PEOPLE.

Warning: this story contains spoilers from the first six episodes of Love Is Blind season 8.

Madison Errichiello may not have gotten her happily ever after on Love Is Blind, but she's walking away from the show with clarity on what she needs in her next relationship.

Speaking to PEOPLE about her tumultuous time in the season 8 pods, Madison, 28, says she has no regrets about how things unfolded, though she is disappointed things didn't go her way.

The first six episodes, which dropped Feb. 14, followed Madison as she developed connections with both Alex Brown and Mason Horacek. After realizing she had stronger feelings for Alex, she became exclusive with him. Madison then ended things with Mason, shortly after discovering he was saying the same things to her and fellow participant Meg Fink. But when Madison was venting to Alex, 29, in the pods about Mason's behavior, Alex refused to speak poorly about his costar, which upset Madison — and in turn, ended their relationship for good.

Now, Madison is opening up about the moment and explaining why Alex's "positive personality" wasn't necessarily something she wanted in a future partner.

"He is so upbeat, and I did really like that. I like being around positive people," the artist says. "But I think it got to a point where it was almost this toxic positivity, and that's something that I just don't want in my circle of people."

Madison says she confided in Alex after her breakup with Mason, recalling how the 33-year-old cinematographer told her, "He was like, 'I'm committed to you,' and then he took it back. And I was like, 'That hurt my feelings.'"

When Alex responded by defending Mason, Madison took issue with that. "He's on Mason's side almost," she explains of the commercial real estate broker's reaction. "And that just made me feel so invalidated."

"I think Mason was the real time example, but I started thinking to the future of, 'Okay, if I come home from a really bad day, do I want to be told to look on the bright side? Or if I get in an argument with a friend, do I want to be told that they're a good person?' No. Because I can get there on my own," she continues. "What I'm looking for in a partner is someone who's able to sit in those heavy emotions and not feel uncomfortable by it and not feel like they have to push it away with positivity."

"And I think I saw that Alex did that often. Like whenever he was uncomfortable, he would just push it away and he wasn't really good at sitting in those heavy emotions," Madison adds. "And so I think for me that was a non-negotiable. I need someone who's able to be there with me because I'm going to do the same for them."

Now that she's had a year to process everything, Madison knows Alex was never the one for her — and believes that feeling was mutual.

"I think there were definitely hesitations on both parties," she says. "I think it was the day before we broke up and we both had said to each other, I was like, 'I'm not ready to say I love you. That feels like a really strong thing to say right now.' And a lot of people in the pods had been saying that back and forth to each other, and so I was like, 'I don't know. Am I behind on these feelings?'"

"We don't end up together, and so I think that was honestly probably for the best," she admits.

She also has no regrets about the way she handled things, though she acknowledges that her wording could've been "more graceful."

"This all happened a year ago so it's like now I've been in therapy and I've been doing a lot of self-discovery," she shares. "And I think the cool thing about this show is that it shows the worst parts of you and the best parts of you, and it's like you're kind of forced to face yourself. And it's a really good growth opportunity — a way that a lot of people, most people, actually will never get."

"I remember just not really being able to articulate myself in that moment during the breakup very well and feeling really frustrated by that," she adds. "So I think I would definitely handle things differently and probably a little bit more graceful, but I definitely don't have regrets. I think by the end of it, it's pretty clear that my person wasn't there."

At the end of episode 6, fans got a taste of what's to come with a teaser for the next batch of episodes. In it, Madison makes her return to the show — seemingly alongside Mason and Meg, who appear to be dating again — and hears Alex's voice once again.

After one tense moment, Madison declares, "He's a huge liar."

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The first six episodes of Love Is Blind season 8 are now streaming on Netflix, and episodes 7-9 drop next Friday, Feb. 21.