Optimism can lead mind to revelation

Optimism vs. pessimism is the basis for an interesting study of differences in personalities. During recent years, mental health professionals have studied optimistic vs. pessimistic thinking and how it affects resistance to disease. Many researchers feel that those who engage in optimistic thinking have a better chance of surviving cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

Optimistic thinkers tend to accept the reality of a situation, but they also try to make the best of it by practicing active coping techniques. They tend to step back from a bad situation, look at it in a broader perspective, then reframe the situation in a more positive light.

Optimistic people are those who see a glass as half full, not half empty. They focus on the doughnut instead of the hole. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, author of the Power of Positive Thinking and The Power of Positive Living talks about adversity and coping. “Even this will pass…and better days than we ever have experienced will come,” he writes.

Many optimists are able to view life as cyclical in nature, accepting this phenomenon and looking for ways to shorten the down-turns and increase the up-turns.

Most of us can remember periods of adversity, times when things looked bleak and gloomy. We also remember when things changed, sometimes it seemed slowly, but the silver linings did begin to reappear and a rainbow helped us realize that blue skies were again on the horizon.

I have found that active copers tend to look for options – alternative ways of solving their problems. Instead of giving up and saying no option exists, they adopt the philosophy that they can find a solution, creating new options if necessary.

In fact, the process of creative thinking can, by itself, produce feelings of optimism and make one focus on the future. Those who deny their creativity should realize that all of us have untapped resources within ourselves. We have only to believe in our creative potential.

One of the best ways to accomplish tapping into our creative potential is to give that part of our consciousness, the level of unconscious or subconscious thought, the message that we are willing to look for new and perhaps untried solutions.

What is amazing is that the alternatives or options may appear at the least expected moments. Have you experienced the “ah-ha” insight emerge after awakening from sleep? Or while watching a beautiful sunset or listening to a piece of music?

The mind has a way of assembling apparently meaningless parts into wonderfully useful wholes when given the chance. Prayer for guidance, meaning and understanding would certainly seem to me to be an example of using this technique for new solutions to old problems.

There is nothing wrong with expressing distress. But having the feeling that you are attempting to deal with it gives you the ability to move forward in life.

Copyright c 1991 Harold H. LeCrone, Jr., Ph.D.