Optimism

[JustBe]

I was listening to a program today on my way to work about having an optimistic’ approach to life and how this affects our wellbeing and health and longevity.

The speaker suggested we ask ourselves this question-“What makes me optimistic?”

As I reflected on his question, I realized I’m a very optimistic person. Even in the most adverse and difficult aspects of life, I’ve always found something through my optimiistic approach to find the light within those situations. Not just my own, but others and the many undesirable situations we hear about that affect us all in some way.

In many ways my optimism has become a buffer of sorts. Not only has it made me an explorer and seeker to make sense of my own world, but also the world around me. My optimism has created a protective barrier to always see the good in others, regardless of their behaviours, to always find meaning and cause deeper, to always see there is a way through the most difficult and challenging situations we might face.

It’s so easy within our bigger world issues to fall trap to ‘a less than’ optimistic outlook, it’s so easy to fall prey to those issues that impact our world and fall into its negative trap and not look into all this, with an optimistic view. I realize I don’t do this, but so many around me do. Of course I understand our circumstances and environment, where we live and how we’ve endured affect us, but I have to wonder why some are ‘more able’ to remain optimistic even as they too have battled, they too endured. They too have seen and experienced suffering in some way.

What creates those differences?

Where does our optimism come from?

[iamthat]

Perhaps an optimistic outlook comes from seeing the bigger picture. We take ourselves and our personal dramas less seriously, and we are also less hasty to judge others solely on their outward behaviour.

An optimistic outlook would seem to reflect an inner faith, a trust that we inhabit a benevolent universe, a belief that everything is unfolding as it should, sometimes despite appearances and the occasional setback.

And this would seem to reflect a greater level of development, both personal and spiritual. We could consider pessimism as a state of contraction and being small, whereas optimism is a state of expansion.

Peace.

[inavalan]

An optimist and a pessimist are both having a terrible day.

The pessimist complains, “this day is horrible, it couldn’t get any worse.”
The optimist hears this and replies, “Oh yes it can.”

[inavalan]

All our thoughts and emotions generate alike thought-forms, so having positive thoughts and emotions attracts in your reality positive situations. Surely, if you're wrong (unrealistically optimist) there'll be negative consequences for you and others, but subjectively you might not feel that too much.

[JustBe]

Originally Posted by iamthat

Perhaps an optimistic outlook comes from seeing the bigger picture. We take ourselves and our personal dramas less seriously, and we are also less hasty to judge others solely on their outward behaviour.

An optimistic outlook would seem to reflect an inner faith, a trust that we inhabit a benevolent universe, a belief that everything is unfolding as it should, sometimes despite appearances and the occasional setback.

And this would seem to reflect a greater level of development, both personal and spiritual. We could consider pessimism as a state of contraction and being small, whereas optimism is a state of expansion.

Peace.

Yes, what you say seems to fit the picture of optimism.

The only thing for me, is that even before I saw the bigger picture, I still sought to grow and find more of it with an optimistic view, that it was possible. In this way perhaps it’s the seeker who seeks more, can remember more readily his/her potential. Where as someone subjecting themselves to a more pessimistic outlook might be less inclined to seek beyond those bounds of helplessness to help themselves.

Perhaps optimism thrives more so with a willingness to live more fully. To want a more connected quality of life?

[JustBe]

Originally Posted by inavalan

An optimist and a pessimist are both having a terrible day.

The pessimist complains, “this day is horrible, it couldn’t get any worse.”
The optimist hears this and replies, “Oh yes it can.”

That’s it!

[JustBe]

Originally Posted by inavalan

All our thoughts and emotions generate alike thought-forms, so having positive thoughts and emotions attracts in your reality positive situations. Surely, if you're wrong (unrealistically optimist) there'll be negative consequences for you and others, but subjectively you might not feel that too much.

I think what we hold in as deeper subconscious containment’s do generate outward reflections to shift beyond them. I’ve observed my process whereby the more I have let go, the more open I’ve become to myself, the more I see and relate to the world as I am. So I suppose it’s not the external being influenced by my thoughts in this way, but simply the way I am in presence with my whole self relating.

As for feeling the fallout even if one is wrong, it might be that the optimism bridges a more positive feeling to look for another way?

[ocean breeze]

I don't know what makes a person optimistic and another pessimistic. Maybe one's past might have something to do with it along with their upbringing. What they've overcame and accomplished even if their path was dark.

I would say i have a pretty healthy attitude towards most things and overall optimistic myself. I can see most things or people that many consider dark in a positive light. I have my moments of pessimism as well. I don't see it as something wrong that needs to be made right. Its just a part of my character. That being said, i can also see the dark in what many would consider positive. Like i don't think its healthy to be optimistic to the point where you're delusional or in denial about what's going on or how you truly feel.

If you consider yourself to be an optimistic person yet resist their so called negative feelings or has negative feelings towards pessimism then is that really an optimistic attitude?

Originally Posted by inavalan

An optimist and a pessimist are both having a terrible day.

The pessimist complains, “this day is horrible, it couldn’t get any worse.”
The optimist hears this and replies, “Oh yes it can.”

lol

[running]

Originally Posted by JustBe

I was listening to a program today on my way to work about having an optimistic’ approach to life and how this affects our wellbeing and health and longevity.

The speaker suggested we ask ourselves this question-“What makes me optimistic?”

As I reflected on his question, I realized I’m a very optimistic person. Even in the most adverse and difficult aspects of life, I’ve always found something through my optimiistic approach to find the light within those situations. Not just my own, but others and the many undesirable situations we hear about that affect us all in some way.

In many ways my optimism has become a buffer of sorts. Not only has it made me an explorer and seeker to make sense of my own world, but also the world around me. My optimism has created a protective barrier to always see the good in others, regardless of their behaviours, to always find meaning and cause deeper, to always see there is a way through the most difficult and challenging situations we might face.

It’s so easy within our bigger world issues to fall trap to ‘a less than’ optimistic outlook, it’s so easy to fall prey to those issues that impact our world and fall into its negative trap and not look into all this, with an optimistic view. I realize I don’t do this, but so many around me do. Of course I understand our circumstances and environment, where we live and how we’ve endured affect us, but I have to wonder why some are ‘more able’ to remain optimistic even as they too have battled, they too endured. They too have seen and experienced suffering in some way.

What creates those differences?

Where does our optimism come from?

thank you for bringing up such a great topic. my feeling is it comes from within. kinda a knowing. and perhaps a knowing that even if we lose it all. we really haven't lost anything.

the beautiful aspect of optimism i think is it allows one to not get caught up in the herd mentality. what i mean is the courage to be in ones own feeling about something.

[Unseeking Seeker]

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@ iamthat

Deep down, at some hidden level, optimism seems to have its foundation in a simplistic, intuitive, childlike trust in God or nature or the Universe, whatever we label it as and recognising the transience of the external.

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