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What if optimism was the key to resilience?

Optimism is the personality trait where people tend to expect goods things to happen. Conversely pessimism is where people tend to believe bad things will happen .


Resilience is the ability to bounce back from negative emotions or from any adverse events in your life.


So, in essence, are you a glass half empty or glass half full kind of person?


There is now quite a bit of scientific evidence that shows optimism helps improve your health, both mental and physically.


So what are the benefits of being optimistic?

  • Optimism helps people take action, as it reduces a sense of helplessness

  • Optimistic people tend to make changes as they believe bad situations can improve

  • Being optimistic tends to help people form supportive relationships and make friends

  • Optimistic people tend to have a higher immune system than pessimistic people

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How do you know if you are optimistic?

  • You will see a situation as a challenge rather than a threat

  • You will seek out information and use it to help in a situation

  • You will be more accepting of the things you can't control

  • You tend to look for the positives in a situation

  • You will have more positive emotions





There is a lovely relationship between optimism and resilience. The more optimistic you are the more resilient you will become the more resilient you are the more optimistic you will be.


So how do you become more optimistic?


Pessimism is a habit and like any habit can be changed. Like with most things the key here is awareness.


Step 1 - learn to identify those pessimistic thoughts. Start to pay more attention to the thoughts you are having.

Step 2 - check if the pessimistic thought is valid - is there any really good reason behind the thought

Step 3 - even if there is a valid reason for the thought, ask yourself, is there any use to it. Is it going to serve you in any way?

Step 4 - now ask yourself what would be a more useful positive thought you could have, that will take you closer to your goal.


Like everything in life, nothing in the extreme serves us well and this also goes for optimism. Being blindly optimistic can lead you into trouble when the cost of failure is high. It is always healthy to check in with any associated risks.


Live life with a healthy dose of optimism and just a splash of pessimism and you will be bouncing back in no time.



From my optimistic heart to yours


Lara