Should People Stay Positive During Election Time?

Looking at the bright side and noticing what is right as opposed to what is wrong is not normal for most people. It is commonly thought that being optimistic is not being realistic and even though that is true for some people, there are ways to be optimistic in a healthy manner that can help one see life’s challenges realistically even when times get tough. Being optimistic is a skill that takes effort and thought but spending the time to work on cultivating optimism can be life changing. Cultivating optimism is one of the happiness enhancing strategies that has been shown to increase happiness levels and positive thoughts about the future, which is the concept which I experimented with when I conducted the Best Possible Selves activity.

An article written by Kendra Cherry states, “By nurturing positive emotions, even in the face of terrible events, people can reap both short-term and long-term rewards, including managing stress levels, lessening depression, and building coping skills that will serve them well in the future” (Cherry). Optimism has allowed for people to deal with conflicts in a healthy way. Neuroscientist Tali Sharot in her book The Science of Optimism: Why We’re Hard-Wired for Hope argues that optimism provides an adaptive advantage. According to her, “Expecting our future to be good reduces stress and anxiety, which is good for our health. Researchers studying heart attack patients have found that optimists were more likely than nonoptimistic patients to take vitamins, eat low-fat diets, and exercise, thereby reducing their overall coronary risk” (Popova). Dealing with conflicts positively is better for your health and it decreases bad health

“Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive good things, and people will be drawn to you.” Mary Lou Retton says, driving home a topic brushed by schools and parents. Happiness is something that everyone strives for and without a goal so large many things would be completely meaningless. To some people happiness is an amazing house with cars and money but to others, happiness is a loving, healthy family, a roof over their heads with clothes and food. When a large figure in society or even a community shows their beliefs through examples, it is hard not to follow or at least be interested. When something interesting is going on with hands on parts, or even just a couple jokes it makes a big difference.

We get distracted by entertainment because the government hasn’t really changed anything for the past few years so we are like proles we have social media to keep us happy, we can have parties, and many states can now legalize drugs because, they want us to be happy. The happier we are the less work that the president has to clear up such as legalizing marijuana helped some states not really care about the election revote because all they wanted was their weed

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

Today elections typically get dirty and cause riots and protests. Publically expressing an opinion is good for the person doing so and for the people hearing it, but just like that person has their opinion, someone else with also have their own, and they will often not agree. Seeing riots and fights and protest all over the country happens every time. It is good for everyone to see what is happening across the country from them and how everyone besides themselves is viewing the current standing of an election. Tv networks and News channel broadcast this daily during an

Staying positive has many health benefits along with helping to resolve conflict. These benefits include, “Increased life span, Lower rates of depression, Lower levels of distress, Greater resistance to the common cold, Better psychological and physical well-being,

Some people argue that happiness helps make good decisions because happy people strive for the best result. David states, “[Positive emotions] help build vital social, physical, and cognitive resources that lead to positive outcomes and affiliations” (124). David points out that with the right amount of positivity, people make good judgments. The author acknowledges that happiness can have benefits, but she states that too much happiness could hurt human development because the mind does not consider the consequences of an action. Julie Norem, a psychology professor, points out, “’If you’re a pessimist who really thinks through in detail what might go wrong, that’s a strategy that’s likely to work very well for you’” (qtd. in Wallis). She explains

You feel happy when you are optimistic. This can result in you feeling more energetic, give you brighter eyes, and bring you success and happiness. You also walk with more confidence and have a stronger voice. Also, your positivity can spread to others, however, any negativity can also spread. Some ways to be positive are to not allow what other people say about you get to you. Other ways are to smile more, try to only visualize positive things, use positive words when talking to people, and don’t give up. (Sasson, The Power of Positive Thinking, Paragraphs 1, 14, 22, 23, 24, 25, and 27) These are great examples of why you would want to be optimistic and respond to conflict with positivity.

There are many different views on positive thinking whether it is to be positive all the time as suggested by the film The Secret, be a realist and don’t be delusional as stated by Barbara Ehrenreich in her speech “How Positive Thinking Undermines America”, or just be somewhere in between such as a person who is optimistic but not to the point where they expect something they want to come out of the blue, they have to work for it.

It may bring them out of a depressed state after something atrocious has happened. Being positive can help the people around me. If my friend lost an important game and is mournful about it, then being positive and getting ice cream will help her feel better. That is my first reason why having a favorable mindset results in achievements.

In the video titled “The Happy Secret To Better Work”, Shawn Achor really outlines how being happy and staying positive can really change your life. In other words Achor is referring to positive psychology. When referring to the world around us Achor really believes the majority of people focus on only the negatives and not the positives. He also talks about how that reality might not be what shapes us but in actuality it is our brain that puts a lens on how we perceive things and that may change our happiness. Achor also outlines another trait of our brain, which is that we as humans set progressing goals that never seem to be fulfilled due to human nature. He finishes his presentation by giving the audience some ways to help reverse the way we see the world and help our work and life in general.

Physically, an individual may lower his blood pressure and heart risk, may heal from illness, and may live longer. It also helps the brain to function better by learning new skills and behavior. In terms of relationship, people become more cooperative and starts to appreciate and collaborate with other people. Positive emotion also broaden the possibilities in perceiving experiences beyond the narrow range of survival. It allows the individual to open their mind and heart to new ideas so that they could see the bigger picture more accurately to create a better strategies in coping. It makes the individual more optimistic, confident and creative in creating a decision that promotes a win-win

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,

No matter how flawed, regular elections aid in the production of a variety of consequences that, albeit unintuitive at times, can be beneficial. Having mass involvement in elections creates a form of psychological pressure on both voters and politicians; without intending to, they allow everyone to have a voice, which results in voters feeling a pressure to be more involved citizens, and in politicians feeling a pressure to be more effective leaders.