Optimism
Posted: March 31, 2022
Optimism, the engine of resilience, is believing in the hope for a better future. Optimists are fairly good at separating what they can control, accepting what they can’t, and seeing stressors as challenges, not threats.
Benefits of Optimism
- Better health, recover from many injuries faster
- Handle stress better
- More social connections and greater relationship satisfaction
- Happier, greater quality of life
- Decreased depression
Improving Optimism
- Research shows it can be learned!
- Dispositional optimism – A general belief good things are going to happen, life is basically good. Generally, people are born this way.
- Explanatory style theory – One’s explanatory style is reflexive and is one’s answers to “what caused that?”. This is the learnable part.
- Internal vs external, optimists believe things be controlled by themself
- Stable vs unstable, optimists believe things can change
- Global vs specific, optimists believe that what is happening is just in this case, not always and everywhere
- Behaviors
- Cognitive (i.e. mental) habits of optimists
- Can identify problems
- View stressors as a challenge, not just a threat
- Identify what can be controlled, accept what can’t be
- Approach oriented, come up with strategies to try
- Pessimists withdraw
- Seek out information or help
- Take action (using that information)
- Cultivate positive emotions
- Use humor to cope
- Have an Exercise routine
- Eat healthier
- Cognitive (i.e. mental) habits of optimists
Increase Optimism
- Name optimistic traits as you perform them or see them to build awareness. Explain what you notice to others. Praise the traits and other people.
- Reframe challenges through explanatory style theory, piece by piece
- Take action somewhere
Wonder if you already are an optimist? or want to see you amount of optimism grow? Try the optimism survey here.
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