What Exactly is Optimism?

Optimism, a concept often tossed around, yet seldom understood. Let's delve into its true essence, exploring its psychological roots, societal implications, and the impact it has on our lives. Prepare to redefine your understanding of this powerful mindset.

What we need right now is optimism – the foundational belief that if we put in the effort and resiliently work together, the future can be brighter than forecasted today

Optimism is about being hopeful about the future, even when the present seems woefully negative

• It’s about working through your negative emotions instead of ignoring them to better understand what they’re trying to tell you
• A study in the Clinical Psychology Review reveals that “higher levels of optimism have been related prospectively to better subjective well-being in times of adversity or difficulty; there is evidence that optimism is associated with taking proactive steps to protect one’s health.”
• In her book, The Optimism Bias, neuroscientist Tali Sharot echoes the same conclusions: “It is not just that healthy people are more optimistic, but optimism can enhance health. Expecting our future to be good reduces stress and anxiety, which is good for our health.”

What Exactly is Optimism?

Optimism is about unearthing positive meaning in negative events-it’s a form of resilience.

• It arises from the imagined realities of the future that we construct in our minds and it circulates back to the present circumstances and how we explain them to ourselves.
• It’s a philosophy in how we interpret the events that happen in our everyday life, and it’s an attitude toward the future.

Optimists Live by This Mantra

“Seeing is not believing; believing is seeing.”

• You begin walking the path of an optimist the moment you allow yourself to see all possibilities of what could be, even when there is no validation for them today.
• Optimism is simply choosing to believe that the future can still be beautiful and then willfully working today to manifest that future.

What it Means to be an Optimist

Optimism is essential to the human spirit

• In fact, optimism is rooted in the cognitive evolution of our species that dates back to 70,000 years ago
• Our capacity to envision a different time and place is critical for our survival
• To make progress, we need to be able to imagine alternative realities, and not just any old reality but a better one
• We need to believe that we can achieve it

How to Become More of an Optimist

The basis of optimism lies in the way you think about causes

• Your explanatory style – how you mentally explain the things that happen to you and the events in your life
• Optimists explain desirable events in terms of personal, permanent causes.
• Just because something good happens today, doesn’t mean that there will be less of it in the future
• When it comes to undesirable events, pessimists perceive them as external, temporary causes

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