Tune IN: Has it been hard to feel optimistic?

In 2009, I was on the NYC Subway reading Martin Seligman’s book “Authentic Happiness” when a woman around the age of my mother approached me. She was also reading this book and loved it. There was an instant connection and we exchanged numbers starting a friendship over the topic of happiness.

I was *just* re-emerging from a personal winter following back surgery after deciding to withdraw my med school application and pursue a degree in depth psychology instead. I was looking for my way to find my Authentic Happiness again.

Forwarding to today, it feels to me that we’ve collectively been in a long winter and it will take some time and conscious effort to reclaim our sense of not just happiness but sincere optimism!

Martin Seligman’s work offers incredible insight and tools to do that (I highly recommend his books).

Today, I want to share one piece: the biggest indicator for whether someone will become depressed is whether a person is a pessimist or an optimist. The biggest indicator for whether someone is an optimist or a pessimist is their EXPLANATORY STYLE.

In other words: how do you explain the events in your life to yourself?

If you explain negative events in your life by making them

- personal (“it’s all my fault”)
- permanent (“this will last forever”), and
- pervasive (“it’s going to affect everything”)

you have likely learned to be pessimistic.

The opposite explanatory style is true about optimists.

THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT BY KNOWING YOUR EXPLANATORY STYLE, YOU CAN SHIFT IT!

You can teach yourself (or work with someone) to adopt a more optimistic explanatory style by paying attention to these 3 factors and actively choosing (or at least, considering) a different explanation.

Try it and let me know what you find. Do you make things personal, permanent & pervasive leaving little room for you to thrive and feel hopeful, or can you see the greater picture keeping up your positive spirit and leaving space for you to get up after disappointment?

Here is to your optimism. It will fuel the optimism of others. We all need this for ourselves and for each other.

Warmly,

Caroline