Throughout our lives, everybody faces difficulties and hardships. Everyone faces these difficulties in different ways. Being optimistic and having a positive outlook on life can help people cope with problems. Optimistic people have higher chances of successfully avoiding diseases, and when they do suffer from physical illness, they have a higher chance of fighting off viruses and staying healthy. Optimistic people also do a better job thinking clearly, which can help avoid depression and help them find solutions to problems. Positivity and optimism can help people endure and persevere through hardships and difficult times. The ability to stay positive even in the worst situations is extremely important to people’s physical health. Many studies have been performed that show the link between …show more content…
One famous Holocaust victim, Anne Frank, who kept a diary while in hiding from the Nazis writes about the good things she still has left, rather than focusing on the many terrible things happening to her. She says, “In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death” (Anne Frank). She managed to stay positive, and this is likely one of the factors that contributed to her survival for a long time. Had Anne Frank not have focused on the positive things in her life, she may have begun to become depressed. Once a person is depressed, they begin to suffer from many other problems and diseases. Depression leads to heart disease and cardiovascular problems (Ziegelstein). Harvard also conducted a study that concluded “People who demonstrated dispositional optimism at the start of the study enjoyed a 45% lower risk of death during a nine-year follow-up period” (Optimism and Your Health). Clearly, optimism has a great impact on your ability to stay healthy during times of
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.
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.
Although this can be a very difficult thing to do, there are little things patients can do to help how they feel overall. Patients need to stay positive.In a prospective study conducted in the department of Health Psychology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands by Fournier, Marijda, Denise De Ridder, and Jozien Bensing, they researched how optimism contributes to the adaptation of chronic illness. The goal of their study “was to investigate the impact of optimistic beliefs on coping and adaptation over 6 and 12 months of chronic illness”, they observes if the impact of optimistic thinking was abated on how manageable to disease is. They observed patients with type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis. In their findings, they found that the “mental health of chronically ill patients who are optimistic about their outcomes improves over time”, in comparison to patients who do not attempt to have that positive mindset remain unchanged or become more depressed. The idea of having a positive mindset is definitely a challenge, especially when in a constant state of ailing. Yet if the effort is put in, the outcome of how you feel will
Taking the above evidence into consideration it is concluded that an optimistic pattern of thinking will make recovery from breast cancer more likely. This is especially evident when considering the emotional recovery of patients. In addition to being found to be less anxiety optimist were also associated with physical and emotional well-being among people coping with serious medical illness, including breast cancer. (Frieman et al., 2006)
Variation in optimism and pessimism is somewhat heritable[2] and reflects biological trait systems to some degree.[3] It is also influenced by environmental factors, including family environment,[2] with some suggesting it can be learned.[4] Optimism may also be linked to health.[5]
Researchers show that cheerfulness outlook extends life by reducing fewer long-term health concerns.A person achieves this by hanging around with happy people, meditating, applying stress-management to boost
The study had important findings including a positive correlation between happiness and resilience. The study found happiness was the best predictor of resilience. According to Lower (2014), negative childhood experiences were found to be positively correlated with both happiness and resilience.
Optimism helps people cope with the difficulties of life. It is an urgent topic today. Individuals who learn to be optimistic in almost any situation can not only avoid becoming depressed, but can also improve their physical health and well being. (Diehl, 2001) Optimistic people tend to think to focus primarily on the better things instead of the negative. A person may express more optimism when it comes to making harder decisions. (Armor & Taylor, 1998) Optimists go through some of the same struggles that a pessimist would go through. Even though they both experience the same problems, an optimist would think about their disappointments in the opposite way. (Seligman, 1994) Some researchers have come to the conclusion
Usually, when you think of an optimist, you might think of a bright cheery person wearing bright happy colors skipping happily down a sidewalk, right? And while that sounds like a wonderful way to live, that’s not quite how optimism always looks. (But hey, if it works for you, be my guest!) Optimism is often overlooked and misunderstood in today's society. We really have no idea how beneficial the effects of optimism are for us. From healthier hearts to even living longer, optimism sure is a helpful tool that’s easily accessible and makes the journey of life a lot more fun!
Even before a person is born, genetics have determined much of his happiness. As much as fifty percent of a person’s happiness is believed to be caused by genetics (Wallis A2-A9). However, a person’s happiness levels can be greatly affected by experiences throughout his childhood. Painful events, such as abuse, removal from a person’s home, or parental alcoholism when a person is young, can result in a lower level of resilience when he is older (Gorman A52-A55). As a result of a decrease in resilience, a person may not be able to adjust to situations in life that may be difficult to overcome. On the other hand, having strong bonds with parents and being grateful can help a person to be healthier, both mentally and physically. Children who are considered to be grateful are more likely to have high grades in school, and spend less time feeling sick (Beck). In addition, children with optimistic attitudes can recognize the positive side of a situation, in spite of the negatives that may exist. Optimism is very crucial as a person grows older and must learn to deal with numerous stressful circumstances.
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
Staying positive in the worst situations can and will make the world of a difference, my aunt was the happiest person I knew, no matter what she had to go through she always looked at every positive she could. My Aunt Belen had both of her legs amputated so she was in a wheelchair and had two other wheelchairs and an electric one. When I was little I never understood why she had no legs and frankly, I didn’t care to know because she had these chairs that I could play on so I wasn’t complaining. Even though she was in a wheelchair and had no legs she was always so positive and happy. She always had a smile on her face and was constantly laughing, I guess thats where I get it from. She was always trying to make everybody smile and laugh and honestly she never failed to do
Although negative emotions are beneficial, happiness is equally important because it provides advantages, and negativity has its flaws also. In the article “The New Science of Happiness,” the author explains “Some of Seligman's own research, for instance, had focused on optimism, a trait shown to be associated with good physical health, less depression and mental illness, longer life and, yes, greater happiness” (Wallis). Happiness increases a person’s life span and decreases diseases which are helpful qualities. Being positive allows people to maintain healthy lives, so emotions associated with happiness provide a better lifestyle. Therefore, positivity is beneficial to people’s health; in contrast, excessive negativity can be unhealthy. As an article in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine asserts, “We expected that daily negative mood[s] at the end of day would predict worse reported sleep that night, whereas daily positive mood at the end of day would predict better sleep” (Song 945). Negativity can cause sleep deprivation, which can lead to other medical issues, so negativity has its faults as well. Therefore, positivity has benefits while negativity has flaws. Happiness is not just a feeling; it has an underlying purpose for people’s lives.
Numerous research studies have been supported the efficacy of optimism as a psychological phenomenon. The relationship between optimism and personality has well-defined in the Big Five factors of personality as explained by Sharpe, Martin and Roth (2011). First it is necessary to know what the big model is? The big five model derived empirically as “lexical” personality model consists of five major factors those entail: Extraversion or Positive emotionality, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Openness or Intellect, and Neuroticism versus Emotional Stability. Optimism in the given research was defined as a bipolar different variable in people that range from pessimist at the lower end towards optimism at the higher end (Sharpe,
As I reflect, I developed insight on how genetics influenced my behavior such as setting goals for myself early on in my youth. According to Sheldon & Lyubomirsky (2007), to put it in simple language, some people come into this world with a tendency to gravitate towards an optimistic and joyful attitude and others are born with a proneness to lean towards a pessimistic and depressive position. I would say that my upbeat personality was a wonderful gift passed on to me from my mother whose optimism continues to inspire me. Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener (2005) noted that experiencing positive emotions can results in emotional well-being. I can now see how my predisposition to be more “cheerful” than others was elevated and