If you choose curiosity, attempt an activity you’ve never tried before. For example, for perseverance, make a list of tasks you have found challenging recently, then try to tackle each one. Reflect on your personal strengths, like creativity, perseverance, kindness, curiosity. Here is an exercise from the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley. "These substitute activities can make you feel more positive and remind you that difficult circumstances will not necessarily continue, and you can overcome barriers to get there," says Kubzansky.įocus on your strengths. If an injury or sickness has derailed your usual workouts, focus on what you can do, like gentle stretching or using resistance bands. For example, if you are stuck waiting for an appointment, use this unexpected free time to call a friend or read a book. When difficult events happen, turn your focus toward a more positive alternative. Here are four practices she suggests that could help you build more optimism. "It’s not always easy, and it takes dedication, but it’s possible for people to change their mindset." Still, she believes people can learn to be more optimistic without such changes. "So changing people’s environments and social structural factors may be one way to change optimism levels," says Kubzansky. Researchers have found that certain factors can influence one’s optimism, such as income, education, geography, and social status. "But this means there is room for other factors to influence optimism quite substantially." Kubzansky says that optimism is approximately 25% to 30% heritable. "We still are not sure if this mindset directly impacts biological functioning toward healthier profiles, or if it primarily makes people embrace healthy habits, or if it’s a combination of both," says Kubzansky.īut this brings up the central question about health and optimism: can you become more optimistic? Factors at play But they also are more likely to engage in healthy behaviors like staying active, eating right, not smoking, and not abusing alcohol. For example, optimistic people tend to have lower levels of inflammation and healthier cholesterol levels compared with less optimistic people. Investigators have considered both biological and behavioral mechanisms. It’s not clear exactly how optimism affects health. "Optimistic people generally have the perspective that with the right approach and right action they can solve problems and improve the situation." Different mindset "Optimism is more goal-oriented," she says. The power of optimism is not just having a sunny disposition, but applying this mindset to make positive change, according to Laura Kubzansky, co-director of the Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness at the Harvard T.H. 10, 2019, in the journal PNAS involving more than 70,000 people found that those who rated themselves as having high optimism were more likely to live to age 85 or older compared with less optimistic individuals. Science continues to find that people with an optimistic outlook enjoy healthier and longer lives. You probably think "How do they do it?" But a better question to ask is "Can I do it, too?" You know the type: some people manage to remain upbeat even during the most trying times. But what if you’re not inherently optimistic? Can you change your outlook on life? Research says people with a positive outlook live longer.
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