Having an optimistic attitude greatly contributes to your overall well-being. On the other hand, pessimism weakens your immune system. Optimistic thinking brings out the best in us and strengthens our bodies. If you’re optimistic, there’s a higher chance of leading a healthy lifestyle and making changes that improve your health.
If you hope for the best, you’ll do everything to make it happen. If you believe you can’t do anything, you won’t even try.
Optimists are less prone to depressive states, they don’t give up easily, and they handle failures and disappointments better. When an optimist faces failure, they use it as an opportunity for improvement. Conversely, if a pessimist fails at something, they interpret it as a sign of personal incompetence and a reason not to try again.
Optimistic thinking differs from positive thinking. Optimistic individuals maintain a realistic perspective, avoiding generalizations and negativity.
Anyone can learn to be an optimist
The simplest way is to ask yourself daily, “Am I thinking about this realistically or am I being pessimistic?” When explaining events around you, do so optimistically.
Pessimists naturally have a pessimistic way of explaining what happens to them. They view everything from a negative perspective, which discourages them from making new attempts and lowers their self-confidence.
Optimists explain negative events in the least harmful way. They tell themselves that the negative outcome is temporary, specific, and external, rather than permanent, general, and their fault.
To become an optimist, view everything that happens to you as temporary, external, and specific. In short, use the TES approach (Temporary – External – Specific).
For example, if you go through an unpleasant event, such as your boss criticizing a report you worked hard on, applying the TES approach would lead you to say, “Once I correct the mistakes pointed out by my boss, he will be proud of me.” In contrast, a pessimistic approach would be, “My boss is disappointed in me, and I have let him down.”
You would also say to yourself, “My boss has been under a lot of pressure lately, so it’s not surprising he reacted this way.” Instead of the pessimistic explanation of “I am completely incapable.”
Whenever something negative happens, remember the TES technique. Consider how an optimistic person would react, then adjust your thoughts and actions accordingly.
Quick tricks to restore optimism and a good feeling
The truth is, small things can make a big difference when remembered at the right moment. Here are some tricks that can help improve your mood:
-1- Take a nap.
-2- Look at something beautiful.
-3- Spend time with a pet.
-4- Run down a hill like a child.
-5- Enjoy a delicious cake and a cup of tea or coffee.
-6- Stretch your body with exercises.
-7- Have a chat with a colleague or friend.
-8- Apply scented lotion to your body.
-9- Accept that some things will go wrong. You can’t excel in everything, not even in being good.
-10- If you have a problem, it won’t magically solve itself. You need to deal with it.
-11- Realize that it’s never too late for anything.
-12- Mind and body are connected, so keep both active.
If you’ve ever felt surrounded by a cloud of doubt and insecurity, you know how empty the phrase “Be optimistic” can sound. Negativity can overpower our lives to the point where positivity seems not only impossible but also ridiculous. However, there is hope. Optimism brings back hope, and with hope comes joy in life.
-1- Appreciate everything around you to the fullest extent possible.
-2- Avoid comparing yourself to others.
-3- Focus on what you have, not what you lack.
-4- Don’t dwell on failures; focus on the challenges ahead.
-5- Educate yourself. Education is a positive experience that enhances life in all areas.
-6- Understand that you can choose your reactions.
-7- Put on a brave face and project confidence, even when you’re not feeling it.
-8- Seize the day. Don’t dwell on the past; make the most of the day ahead.
-9- Move your body. Being in better shape makes everything easier.
-10- Take care of your appearance. There’s an old saying that when things are tough, you should look your best.
Things will get better
When you become an optimist, it won’t just feel like things are going better, they actually will. If you always concentrate on what’s wrong and the darker side, your first challenge should be to change your way of thinking. You might even like it. Choose a romantic comedy over a drama. Be open to new experiences as much as possible, from paragliding and sailing to singing karaoke.
We spend too much time rigidly stuck in our habits, forgetting that there’s a completely different world out there beyond what we see.
Origin of pessimism
The benefits of pessimism emerged during the Pleistocene epoch, the era of the Ice Age.
Human emotional makeup was shaped over thousands of years of climatic catastrophes: heatwaves, cold spells, droughts, floods, abundance, and sudden scarcity. Our ancestors from the Pleistocene had to worry about the future daily, viewing sunny days as a prelude to a harsh winter. We have inherited the brains of our ancestors, along with their ability to see the dark side before the bright one.
Our Pleistocene brain has not changed through evolution. Pessimistic tendencies arise from it: success is fleeting, danger lurks around every corner, tragedy awaits us, and optimism is excessive hubris that the gods will punish.
Such thinking accurately reflected the harsh reality of the Ice Age. However, today we can consider this way of thinking as a relic of the Pleistocene. Agriculture and the technological leap during the Industrial Revolution have enabled humans to be less at the mercy of the impending harsh winter.
It is no longer the case that two out of three children die before their first birthday. Women no longer have reason to expect death during childbirth. Mass famine no longer follows prolonged winters or droughts. Of course, modern life still has an abundance of threats and tragedies: crimes, AIDS, divorces, the risk of nuclear war, ecosystem destruction. But only by intentionally manipulating statistics in the most negative way could modern life in the West appear close to the catastrophic nature of the Ice Age that shaped our brains. Therefore, it can be freely stated that the persistent inner voice of pessimism is a vestigial remnant from those times because it is.
This does not mean that we should recklessly indulge in pleasures. But it means that we have the right to more optimism than we naturally feel.
