…That I am here to extol the advantages of optimism?
Good things lie ahead for those who believe that good things lie ahead.
That sounds so magnificently simple, doesn’t it? All we have to do to enjoy our life on this Earth is to want it to be so and then poof… like magic… this is the answer to everything. Ok, life isn’t simple. That doesn’t need to be written here to be known or understood. If anything there is more difficulty in the growing pains and daily challenges that a life and all its parts and pieces offers. But even in trial and tribulation I have learned there is benefit. Everything that I have and all that I am in this life is a product of the many experiences both good and bad that have occurred within it.
What does that have to do with optimism? Pretty much everything.
Although there is no such thing as a black or white “explanation” to the way the world works (its obvious that we all live our individual story,) there are ways that can be innate or learned to help make the experiences we have, both good and bad, more tolerable… and dare I say: enjoyable.
It really doesn’t take a genius to know that the pessimist isn’t going to profit from experience the same way as an optimist. It takes a bit more of a learning curve for an optimist to understand that his optimism is not a guarantee of delivery. But even if the optimist does not always receive the gift of whatever he is optimistic about it is far and away healthier on the mind and soul to believe in the positive path rather than the negative.
I am an over-thinker. In my world I can equate the lack of communication with negatives. Like a good drug spreading through my veins I can take the lack of an answer (to any one of my many life questions) and spin a tale of negatives that tends to snowball into dread and fear of the future. This, I have learned over and over again, is not healthy…. and never correct. One of my life’s challenges has been the growing awareness of this type of incorrect over-thinking. But awareness is only a beginning. What I have had to learn is to arrest the obsessive train and replace it, ever so gradually, with optimism and the truth (which in most cases is not available so it may simply be the simple elimination of the untruth.)
Gradually over the years I have combated this malicious thinking process and thus I extol the advantages of replacing the wrong thinking with the right. I am not going to claim that thinking optimistically is an easy chore. A sober mind is hard to tame at times…. there is a lot of reality involved. Unfortunately an overdose of reality can lead to pessimism and sometimes that can be a very comfortable place to be. It is, oddly enough, easier to think the worst than it is to think the best. Why? Possibly because it is a human trait to “prepare” oneself for the worst when we can often set ourselves up to believe that is either what we deserve or all that is afforded (negatives are addictive.)
But positives can be addictive too. Some would argue that they are harder to come by…. (a negative way to think) but once you start to put yourself into that frame of mind the energy that is provided and earned is fuel towards creating and cultivating the positives for future thinking.
Sounds like a load of crap, doesn’t it? It isn’t. Unfortunately Optimism gets a bad rap. Those who are within faith and hope for better things, positive outcomes and happier times are often branded with less than sane labels and neatly packed off to “them” status. I know this because as a human being I have often branded the sort myself when unable to pull myself into the line of thinking.
But I write this today and in my journals as often as possible that I am always better off when I am optimistic. Invariably I will benefit in health, mental well-being and in how others react to me as a result of what I am putting out there. It is where I want to be and a commitment I will make to myself for the path ahead… potholes and all.
Optimistically I would prefer to think that there will be no pitfalls…. but I am not a fool.
Be Happy. Be Well. Be.