Analysis Of Chris Prentiss's Zen And The Art Of Happiness

In the words of Winston Churchill, "The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." When we are optimistic that we can get a job done, or that we can find a cure for a disease, we are more motivated, and we work harder. A scientist who is pessimistic that they will never find a cure for a specific disease will have a mental mind block against finding a cure for a disease, making it considerably harder for them to find a cure. However, a scientist who is optimistic about finding a cure for a disease will be motivated and more focused on their dedication to discovering a cure for a disease such as cancer. When you are optimistic, you are more motivated, and when you are motivated, you are more productive, consequently making optimism a particularly important priority in everyday

Looking on the "brighter side" of things encourages positive attitudes as well as positive behavior. Shay Carl is a YouTube personality whom I've watched constantly for self motivation, he turned his life around through making the personal choice to wake up everyday and smile, and to look at himself in the mirror and flaunt his features instead of being ashamed to take his shirt off at the beach. At age 25 he weighed 350 pounds. Everyday he looked at himself with shame and disgust, he refused to allow positivity into his life because he believed there was nothing positive about himself that needed praise. One day he decided to stop the pity and to be happy even when he didn't want to, even when life would through massive curve balls at him, he was optimistic at all costs. He lost 200 pounds and had 5 kids. Carl posted daily videos of his progress in hopes to inspire other to follow in his footsteps. With over 4 million subscribes, he managed to create a unity of positive people with the same hopes as he did; to change their lives simply by choosing happiness. A positive attitude leads to a positive life. There are numerous aspects to being an optimist, and making the personal choice to be happy is only the first step to

For many, pessimism is not ideal, and optimism is their route of choice, as it develops through the arising

In addition, this study hypothesized that if one mediated the effect of optimism on health outcomes by removing the effect of a person’s affectivity inclination, negative or positive, that optimism would not be shown as the correlation variable. Rather the authors hypothesized,

I have never been the most optimistic person. Although I can find positivity in virtuous situations, I can also nitpick at minor negative aspects of substandard ones. As I read

Psychologist Martin Seligman introduced the term ‘learned helplessness’ to describe the outlet retort. The stressful events are outside the range of our control, we believe that we can do nothing about it, we are likely to believe ourselves helpless and we are, in turn, likely to become depressed. On the other hand, optimism, the opposite of pessimism, seems to have protective value. Martin Seligman in Learned Optimism points out that

If you’re not happy, you only have yourself to blame by Barbara Ehrenreich, she states that “Positive psychology focuses only on an individual’s attitude toward problems, arguing that happiness or unhappiness depend only on how a person feels about her circumstances”. The articles is about how patients with cancer are forced to have a positive attitude toward their illness. I disagree with the article because people should not be forced to have a positive attitude , but I also believe that having a positive can give people strength to deal with the illness itself.

In a true clinical setting, a patient is free to express feelings and experiences to facilitate self-healing through positive intervention techniques. With the data available on positive psychology, many clinicians may be tempted to utilize a particular positive intervention with the belief it will make a tremendous impact on the patient. However, this may be unhealthy for the patient who may need to experience negative or difficult emotion to work through the issue they are dealing with. Nonetheless, positive therapy has a definitive useful role in psychological treatment and “adds a deeper dimension to the treatment setting” (p. 404). Therapists who use this type of therapy, however, should remember not to “become a slave to the ‘tyrannies of optimism’” (Seligman, 1990, p. 292; as cited in La Torre, p. 404).

Life is tough. Life forces humans to endure in a universe that may be completely random and nothing in it may hold any meaning aside from the arbitrary value that I attribute. Moreover, if nothing means anything in life, then there is no true reason in living. We are all just postponing the inevitable great equalizer we call ‘death.’ Why not just skip the hardship, pain, and suffering that exists in this world and get straight to a place where we cannot feel its horrors anymore? When thinking thoughts such as these, I expect to find that such a negative, pessimistic disposition might not yield beneficial results. Conversely, one might infer that an host weilding an optimistic disposition will have a greater

Optimism is perhaps the most important quality that a person can possess, without optimism there would be no reason to work for a better life or point in fighting against evil and oppression. In times of adversity it is hope and optimism that leads people to see the light and the end of the tunnel and guides them towards better times. A true optimist believes that the opportunity for growth lies in trials and tribulations. Winston Churchill — Prime Minister of Great Britain during World War two who led the country during some of its darkest hours — captures this idea perfectly when he said “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist see the opportunity in every difficulty (Churchill).” It is evident that throughout history

The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.” (Chuck Palahniuk). The first concept I learned is positive psychology, and unexpectedly I have applied this concept throughout my life for the last sixteen years without realizing it until this course. People who employ positive psychology are those who make people happy throughout the course of their life and are optimistic during difficult times to cope with the challenges (Franzoi, 2014, pg. 8). People who incorporate positive psychology into their life have less stress and are tend to be happier and healthier. Positive psychology brings similar effects to positive emotions like happiness and pleasure as clinical psychology that treats depression and anger (Max, 2007).

Dispositional optimism is the construct and expectation of positive outcomes, differing from dispositional pessimism, which is the expectation of negative outcomes. Optimism is studied across varying health faculties, in search for correlations between optimism and its effects of physical health. Higher levels of dispositional optimism can ultimately have physical health benefits. In this review, the correlation between optimism and physical health is examined, determining the benefits involved. The imperial sources used to support this are ‘Dispositional Optimism and Well-Being: The Influence of Generalized Outcome Expectancies on Health’ and ‘An Examination of Dyadic Changes in Optimism and Physical

Those results demonstrate that both relationships are clinically important as they are greater than the 9 %; therefore, the relationship is very relevant to practice and the results reveal that the psychopathology variable is negatively correlated with optimism, consequently increase optimism should definitely lead with a decrease in psychopathology issues and vice versa.

It is safe to say that there is still a huge debate on optimism’s effect on a person’s physical and psychological health, and even though there are many studies that support this theory, there are still questions unanswered as to why pessimists have the outcomes they do. With all of the evidence demonstrated in these articles I read I have come to realize that optimism is very important in one’s life and

Optimistic and pessimistic attitudes constantly affect the outcome of people's lives. In my life, I try to keep an optimistic attitude about the things I do because I know it will help lead me to more desirable ends. There have been many situations in which optimism has helped me through difficult times. Two areas in particular have provided me optimistic experiences: athletics