Don’t Worry; Be Optimistic
June 22, 2006 by Heather R.
Filed under Women's Health
You’ve heard the expression — is the glass half-empty or half-full? I’ve discovered the older I get, the more I want to be around optimistic people, who see it as half-full. Sometimes I turn to books or the internet to find people whose attitude I admire (especially since I’m a stay-home mom surrounded by young kids most of the time).
Here’s an article, Optimism Comes With Age, from Science.com that explains research from the journal, Psychology and Aging. The study’s leader, Derek Isaacowitz of Brandeis University says:
By focusing more on positive things and avoiding negative ones, older adults are able to maintain emotional resilience, which becomes acutely important in the face of dwindling time.
I think it’s a choice we have to make — to focus on the positive and to surround ourself with people who avoid the negative spiral of complaining and whining. (Adults can be worse than kids.) If you’re not happy, quit whining and do something about it! Oops …. I didn’t mean to be talking to myself online.
Here are a couple more articles on optimism:
Happiness Tends to Increase With Old Age
Optomists Live Longer
What kind of person are you?
Heather,
I completely agree with you. As a person, who considers herself “mostly” recovered from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, I can personally attest to what postive thinking can do. When I stopped dwelling on the fact that I felt horrible all the time…and started appreciating little things (even if that meant appreciating how soft my pajamas felt) - was when things started turning around for me. Of course treatment helped as well. But certainly the attitude change was the biggest one for me. Your site is great, I will be tuning in a lot, to “borrow” ideas to write about for my own blog.
Laura
Thanks, Laura! I’ll be visiting yours as well — we’re on the same wavelength for sure. I’ve found that negative thinking just zaps my energy — so I’m trying to escape that trap!
Amen Sister!
Now do you have any tips on taking the hurt out of sunburn, when the sunscreen just didnt live up to its role.
It never fails. I get burned once a summer, even with the protection of sunscreen…I cant seem to figure out why that is.