[progressally_objectives]

Video

Lesson

You don’t ALWAYS have to look on the bright side of life, but cultivating a skillful optimism is definitely good for you! People who are optimistic are more resilient, accomplish more, and have more effective coping skills. Optimism also promotes high morale and a general good mood!

This isn’t about denying reality — yes, bad things happen. But the people who choose to find meaning in adversity, or who choose to search for a silver lining, don’t get knocked down as much by the bad stuff. In some ways, this is similar to the lesson on expecting stress. So much of our happiness, or conversely, our suffering, is about our perceptions and the stories we tell ourselves about our lives.

And this requires mindful awareness. It requires that we notice the negative thought patterns so that we can investigate them. It requires that we pause, and train the mind to find the good.

Your Mindful Move

Today, continue eavesdropping on your mind. What are your go-to stories about the world? How are you reacting to setbacks? When you think of the future, what kinds of outcomes are you imagining?

When you notice the negative thoughts, see if you can see the situation from a new viewpoint. Sonja Lyubomirsky at UC-Berkeley writes, “Essentially, all optimism strategies involve the exercise of construing the world with a more positive and charitable perspective, and many entail considering the silver lining in the cloud, identifying the door that opens as a result of one that has closed.”

Enjoy the happy thoughts!

Optimism “is not about providing a recipe for self-deception. The world can be a horrible, cruel place, and at the same time it can be wonderful and abundant. These are both truths. There is not a halfway point; there is only choosing which truth to put in your personal foreground.” – Lee Ross