Is Your Glass Half Full or Half Empty?
Being optimistic can offer us all-round health and wellbeing benefits – both physically and mentally, but many of us find staying upbeat difficult when times are tough. So, how can we nurture an optimistic outlook, even throughout the rocky ups and downs, challenges, and hurdles life throws at us?
The difference between an optimist and a pessimist
We’re probably all familiar with the “glass half full” or “glass half empty” phrase – it’s a metaphor we use to describe optimists and pessimists. It sounds like a simple saying, but these directly opposed dispositions can have real-life implications on your approach to life and your responses to the situations you encounter.
- Optimists: perceive negative events as temporary setbacks and are more likely to have a strong sense of self-belief. This can result in optimists taking more educated risks, resulting in opening up more positive opportunities for themselves.
- Pessimists: are more likely to catastrophise situations and tend to doubt their abilities.
Optimism and health
Research indicates that optimists can maintain better relationships with their peers, experience higher-quality sleep, enjoy better health, and respond more effectively to health challenges, both emotionally and physically. Due to their positive outlook, optimists also tend to handle stress more adeptly.
A study from Harvard Men’s Health Watch revealed that men classified as “highly pessimistic” were three times more likely to develop high blood pressure and twice as likely to develop heart disease compared to their more optimistic counterparts. Fascinatingly, optimism has also been associated with better recovery rates post-surgery and improved survival rates among cancer patients. On average, optimists tend to live 11% to 15% longer than pessimists.
How to be more optimistic
Although optimism is a partially inherited trait, it is also influenced by social factors. The good news is that optimism is something that you can nurture and focus on improving throughout your life.
Learning to be more optimistic will take time, but the following tips can help you:
Mindfulness, meditation, and positive affirmation
Practising mindfulness and meditation exercises that focus on developing positivity are great starting points when cultivating a more optimistic outlook.
One self-guided meditation technique in particular is possibly the best way to improve your levels of optimism. This involves taking five minutes every day to sit and imagine the best version of yourself. You can visualise yourself doing ideal everyday activities, or you can imagine the journey you will take to become the best version of yourself.
One study found that practising this “best possible self” meditation exercise every day greatly supported individuals towards having a more optimistic outlook.
Apps can help
Mindfulness and meditation apps have really taken off in recent years. They’re useful tools that can help you adopt a more positive outlook by following guided meditation/mindfulness activities.
Gratitude: journals and reminder objects
Research studies, including those conducted by Martin Seligman, a distinguished US psychologist specialising in positive psychology, revealed that the act of writing down our expressions of gratitude (rather than merely thinking or vocalising them) contributes to enhancing optimism.
If you often see the glass as half empty, finding gratitude every day might be difficult. However, expressing gratitude is a practice that can be developed into a habit by dedicating a few minutes each day to reflect on the positive aspects of your life. A gratitude journal serves as a great starting point. Ideally, you should write in your journal every day before bedtime, although any time is better than not at all! The goal is to compile a list of 3-5 things you are grateful for in the moment of writing. It could be anything—from events in your day to things you once took for granted (like enjoying a warm shower), aspects such as your health or job, a kind text from a friend, or a skill you possess.
You might also experience gratitude for things that are yet to happen (such as anticipating fun weekend plans!). Initially, generating ideas may be challenging, especially during difficult times, but this is when gratitude becomes most crucial. The more you journal, the easier it’ll become; naturally, you’ll start recognising things to be grateful for, and you’ll find you need far less effort to complete your list.
While the thought of maintaining a daily gratitude journal might be a bit off-putting for some, acknowledging life’s small victories injects positivity into our lives and nurtures a sense of optimism, which, as we know, is essential for strengthening our physical and mental health.
Another technique to facilitate gratitude practice is to carry a gratitude reminder object. It could be a small pebble, a marble, or anything you can easily fit into your pocket or bag. Every time you feel it, it should remind you to feel thankful for something. Alternatively, you could come up with a gratitude sign. Similar to using alarms for waking up or keeping track of appointments, gratitude signs can prompt us to be grateful throughout the day – it might be an aeroplane flying above or a post-it note on the fridge. The specific choice doesn’t matter; the key is that whenever you notice your chosen gratitude sign, you pause for a couple of seconds and take a moment to reflect on what you’re grateful for.
The importance of language
Whether it’s self-talk, inner dialogue, or a conversation with someone else, the language we use influences our life perspective. Describing situations more positively can shift our attitude towards them.
For instance, if someone inquires about your recent holiday, and the reality is that it was exceptionally wet and windy, you can put a positive spin on it by saying, “We made the most of it.” Similarly, when facing challenges at work, instead of getting overwhelmed or feeling like you just can’t do it, hold onto a positive outlook by saying, “I’ll get the hang of it soon.”
Happy time
If you’re struggling to be more optimistic, it could also be because you’re not doing enough of what you love! Set aside some time every day to do something you enjoy. This could be reading a book, gardening, going for a walk, or doing a new activity or sport.
In Summary
Your attitude and how you respond towards the things that happen in your life play a much bigger part in your health than you might have ever realised. Being a glass half-full person is more than just looking for the good in the world – it’s about improved physical and mental health and giving yourself the best possible chance to live a longer, happier life.
We can all train ourselves to have a more positive approach towards the lives we lead, and in doing so, we’ll be kinder to ourselves and those around us and find more joy everywhere we look.
