The health benefits to being an optimist are well established and substantial. Having a positive mental attitude can help you lead a more stable, less stressful emotional life, have stronger coping strategies and better health, with quicker recovery time from illnesses and lower mortality rates.
Optimists are also more well liked socially (at least in American society) and are better at initiating and maintaining interpersonal relationships.
So if being an optimist is so good for you, can avowed pessimists—people who don’t feel too peachy about the future—change their outlook?
This article is part of The Hope and Optimism initiative. Explore the theoretical, empirical, and practical dimensions of hope, optimism, and related states: — Why Hopefulness Is a Greater Predictor of Academic Success than Intelligence
In a 2010 paper, the seminal positive psychologist Michael Scheier concludes that several behavioral therapies that can individuals transition to having a more optimistic viewpoint. The therapies work by getting people out of negative thinking patterns, especially patterns that prevent them from reaching their objectives.
“The logic behind these techniques is that people sometimes have patterns of negative cognitive distortions. Certain kinds of negative thoughts foster negative affect and lead people to stop trying to reach their goals. We would imagine the interior monologue of the pessimist is filled with such negativity. This class of therapies aims to make the cognitions more positive, thereby reducing distress and fostering renewed effort toward desired ends,” write the researchers.
The Science of Optimism: How Your Outlook Predicts Your Lifespan William Magee
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