Optimism Defined
Optimism is a personality characteristic that can be defined as "hopefulness and confidence about the future of the successful outcome of something." Conversely, pessimism is the "tendency to see the worse aspect of things or believe that the worst will happen; a lack of hope or confidence in the future."
What does optimism have to do with our health? A great deal, it turns out.
Health Benefits of Optimism
Optimistic people are at lower risk for developing chronic health problems such as cardiovascular disease. For example, decades of data from the Nurses' Health Study show that more optimistic women lived longer. The most optimistic women had a 50% chance of living to age 85, according to a recent article by my favorite health writer, herself a septuagenarian, Jane Brody:
How Does Optimism Translate into Health Benefits?
A couple of different pathways of possible causality have been hypothesized. We know that optimistic people tend to take better care of their health, are more likely to exercise and eat healthy. Optimists also tend to be better problem solvers and are better able to reframe difficult circumstances, such as finding out you didn't get a job you wanted, and react with less stress. In contrast pessimists tend to get more stressed out. And when they do, their bodies are inundated
with the stress hormone cortisol. Although cortisol helps in a fight-or-flight situation, when it is present chronically, it causes unhealthy wear and tear on the body. Acutely, cortisol tends to suppress inflammation, but chronic secretion of cortisol-being stressed out all the time--tends to increase inflammation, which is associated with a variety of health problems such as diabetes and osteoarthritis.
Also, optimistic people are likely to persist in the face of obstacles, rather than throwing up their hands and giving up. Let's say an overweight woman who has been relatively sedentary her whole life has a heart attack. The doctor says she must eat healthier, lose weight, and start to exercise. A pessimistic outlook would say, "No way. I've always been overweight and never exercised. It's too late to start now. I'm doomed to die an early death." A more optimistic woman might say, "Wow, I've been given a second chance. I need to meet with a nutritionist and get myself started on walking every day with a goal of 7500 steps."
Measurement of Optimism: The Life Orientation Test-R
If you're not sure how optimistic (or pessimistic) you are, you can rate yourself using a standard, 10-item scale used in scientific research. Developed by psychologists at the University of Miami, the scale has been used extensively in behavioral and health research and can be accessed with the link below that also explains how to score it: The Life Orientation Test-Revised.
What if I'm more pessimistic than optimistic?
It turns out that one's degree of optimism tends to be stable over the lifespan. Children and adolescents who are optimistic tend to be optimistic as adults. Does that mean if you learn you tend to be a pessimist that you are stuck being a pessimist forever?
According to recent work in the health field, the good news is you can train yourself to be more optimistic. In other words, you can improve your outlook on life, and that is true no matter what age you are. Cognitive psychologist Martin Seligman has written a whole book about it.
Our worldview tends to consist of a set of thoughts that occur automatically, without conscious effort. The first step to becoming more optimistic is to recognize toxic, negative, pessimistic thinking. A friend or therapist can be helpful here.
Next, when you've caught yourself having a pessimistic thought, such as "I'm never going to be able to stop drinking for the rest of my life," or "There's no way I'll ever be able to walk a mile," substitute a more optimistic thought (that is still realistic) such as "But I know I can stay sober today, " or But I can walk around the block and work up to a mile." With practice it gets easier.
Gratitude
Gratitude has been found to be an effective antidote to pessimism.
It's easy to feel grateful if things are going well, although some people take that for granted. If you have enough money, a good place to live, if you're healthy, if you have as much social connectedness as you'd like, gratitude may come easily. Feeling grateful is more challenging if things are not going so well, if your health is poor, or your living circumstances are unsatisfactory, if you're lonely.
But almost anyone, no matter what their circumstances, can find something to be grateful for, because things can always be worse than they are.
See my related post on Active Gratitude.
Is There a Downside to Optimism?
Only if we get too carried away and develop unrealistic views or expectations. For example, as a writer I submit material for publication in literary magazines. Large numbers of rejections are inevitable. If my optimism is such that I expect to have every story accepted by al the journals I submit to, I'm setting myself up for inevitable disappointment. A more realistic optimistic view might be: If I'm persistent and keep on submitting, chances are that eventually, my stories will find a home.
As I read Jane Brody's column and did research for this post, I was down deep in a nasty that didn't seem to want to retreat. I was feeling bummed out, dispirited, uncharacteristically negative and pessimistic. Just reading about optimism improved my mood and reminded me to be grateful for all my blessings.
Do you want to be happier, healthier, and live longer? Then work on being more optimistic. What have you got to lose?
