Do you know someone who seems to always have a smile and a positive thought? Or are you yourself one of those people who is full of optimism? Hardships are seen as ‘learning experiences’ by optimists, and even the most miserable day always holds the promise for them that ‘tomorrow will probably be better.'
If you always see the brighter side of things, you may feel that you experience more positive events in your life than others, find yourself less stressed, and even enjoy greater health benefits.
This is not your imagination.
Researchers like Martin Seligman have been studying optimists and pessimists for years, and they have found that an optimistic world view carries certain advantages.
The Benefits of Optimism
Superior Health
In a study of 99 Harvard University students, those who were optimists at age 25 were significantly healthier at ages 45 and 60 than those who were pessimists. Other studies have linked a pessimistic explanatory style with higher rates of infectious disease, poor health, and earlier mortality.
Greater Achievement
Seligman analyzed the explanatory styles of sports teams and found that the more optimistic teams created more positive synergy and performed better than the pessimistic ones. Another study showed that pessimistic swimmers who were led to believe they’d done worse than they had were prone to future poor performance. Optimistic swimmers didn’t have this vulnerability.
Research like this has led some companies to go out of their way to hire optimists -- a practice that seems to be paying off.
Persistence
Optimists don’t give up as easily as pessimists, and they are more likely to achieve success because of it. Some optimistic businessmen, like Donald Trump, have been bankrupt (even multiple times), but have been able to persist and turn their failures into millions.
Emotional Health
In a study of clinically depressed patients, it was discovered that 12 weeks of cognitive therapy (which involves reframing a person's thought processes) worked better than drugs, as changes were more long-lasting than a temporary fix. Patients who had this training in optimism had the ability to more effectively handle future setbacks.
Increased Longevity
In a retrospective study of 34 healthy Hall of Fame baseball players who played between 1900 and 1950, optimists lived significantly longer. Other studies have shown that optimistic breast cancer patients had better health outcomes than pessimistic and hopeless patients.
Less Stress
Optimists also tend to experience less stress than pessimists or realists. Because they believe in themselves and their abilities, they expect good things to happen. They see negative events as minor setbacks to be easily overcome, and view positive events as evidence of further good things to come. Believing in themselves, they also take more risks and create more positive events in their lives.
'Explanatory Style' Explained
‘Explanatory style’ or ‘attributional style’ refers to how people explain the events of their lives. There are three facets of how people can explain a situation. This can influence whether they lean toward being optimists or pessimists:
Stable vs. Unstable: Can time change things, or do things stay the same regardless of time?
Global vs. Local: Is a situation a reflection of just one part of your life, or your life as a whole?
Internal vs. External: Do you feel events are caused by you or by an outside force?
Realists see things relatively clearly, but most of us aren’t realists. Most of us, to a degree, attribute the events in our lives optimistically or pessimistically. The pattern looks like this:
Optimists
Optimists explain positive events as having happened because of them (internal). They also see them as evidence that more positive things will happen in the future (stable), and in other areas of their lives (global). Conversely, they see negative events as not being their fault (external). They also see them as being flukes (isolated) that have nothing to do with other areas of their lives or future events (local).
For example, if an optimist gets a promotion, she will likely believe it’s because she’s good at her job and will receive more benefits and promotion in the future. If she’s passed over for the promotion, it’s likely because she was having an off-month because of extenuating circumstances, but will do better in the future.
Pessimists
Pessimists think in the opposite way. They believe that negative events are caused by them (internal). They believe that one mistake means more will come (stable), and mistakes in other areas of life are inevitable (global), because they are the cause. They see positive events as flukes (local) that are caused by things outside their control (external) and probably won’t happen again (unstable).
A pessimist would see a promotion as a lucky event that probably won’t happen again, and may even worry that she’ll now be under more scrutiny. Being passed over for promotion would probably be explained as not being skilled enough. She'd therefore expect to be passed over again.
What This Means
Understandably, if you’re an optimist, this bodes well for your future. Negative events are more likely to roll off of your back, but positive events affirm your belief in yourself, your ability to make good things happen now and in the future, and in the goodness of life.
Fortunately for pessimists and realists, these patterns of thinking can be learned to a degree (though we tend to be mostly predisposed to our patterns of thinking.) Using a practice called ‘cognitive restructuring,' you can help yourself and others become more optimistic by consciously challenging negative, self-limiting thinking and replacing it with more optimistic thought patterns.
Coping with Stress: A Simple And Valuable Skill Set:
When coping with stress, it can sometimes be difficult to know where to even begin. Do you tackle the
specific way to make your stress dissolve so that coping with stress becomes a no-brainer? And how does
one choose the appropriate method for coping with stress?
There are several different strategies that people use for coping with stress, and each type of coping
strategy brings unique benefits. When coping with stress, the following two main strategies are useful:
Solution-Based Coping With Stress
When someone employs solution-based coping strategies for coping with stress, they work to identify areas
of their lives that can be changed, and follow a plan that will bring about change. Solution-based coping
includes eliminating stressors (quitting a stressful job, breaking up with a toxic partner, paring down a
busy schedule, etc.) as a means of eliminating the stress that they can bring, before they bring it. This
can be an extremely effective technique for coping with stress, and many of the uncomfortable emotions we
experience along with stress—anxiety, anger, frustration—are signals that changes need to be made, if
possible.
However, sometimes we find ourselves in stressful situations where we can’t make changes in our lives,
and can’t eliminate the stressors that we experience. For example, we might be working at a job we can’t
easily leave, and need to get along with difficult co-workers; we may find that our partner causes us
stress, but is worth staying with anyway; we may find that every activity in our busy schedule is vital,
and can’t be eliminated. In cases like these, we still have the option of appraisal-based coping with
stress.
Appraisal-Based Coping With Stress
This strategy of coping with stress involves how we feel about the stressors we face throughout the day.
Appraisal-based coping strategies include cognitive restructuring, positive thinking, and humor, for
example. Asking yourself whether something really needs to cause stress, or can just be accepted as part
of life, finding the humor in the ridiculousness of a stressful situation, or finding someone who seems
to be coping with stress in a particular way and exploring their attitude—these are all effective
strategies that involve appraisal-based coping with stress.
One not about these strategies for coping with stress: it’s sometimes difficult to know when something
can (and should) be changed, and when it should be dealt with mentally via acceptance. In fact, the
famous serenity prayer that’s been so helpful in programs like AA and in daily life for many people, is
all about these two styles of coping with stress: “God grant me the strength to change what I can, the
patience to accept what I can’t change, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
A plan for coping with stress should an approach that generally includes both coping strategies, as well as some classic stress management techniques.
By Elizabeth Scott, M.S., About.com Guide
Sources:
The Institute for Health and Human Potential.
Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki, The Positive Psychology Center
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