1. Take Optimism Test Authentichappiness.org Register online

2. Releasing Negativity and Embracing Optimism
Parker Principle #10

3. General tendency to expect good outcomes
Definitions
Optimism
Pessimism
General tendency to expect good outcomes
Belief that things will go wrong and wishes are unlikely to be fulfilled

4. Continuum
Most people are somewhere on the continuum of pure optimism and pure pessimism but demonstrate stable tendencies in one direction or the other.

5. Optimism is beneficial to health Optimists tend to
Have better immune functioning
Live longer if without serious illness
Deal more effectively with diagnosis of breast cancer
Deal more effectively with death or onset of illness of family
Do not give up at first sign of setback
Not as physiologically aroused by stress (lower autonomic and HPA activation in face of chronic difficulties)
(Do not live longer with cancer however)
Optimists deal with stress in more adaptive ways—look at ways to overcome difficulties

6. Those very optimistic tend to learn only from info that reinforces their rose-colored view of the world
Due to “faulty” function of frontal Lobes
May be less likely to take precautionary action
Don’t alter optimistic predictions when presented with conflicting information
We pick and choose the information we listen to.
Tali Sharot, Christoph Korn & Raymond Dolan, “How unrealistic Optimism is maintained in the face of reality”, Nature Neuroscience, October 9, 2011, ,

7. Pessimism Associated with untimely death
More likely to engage in self-destructive behavior
Excessive drinking
Smoking
Fail to wear seat belts
Drive too fast
Refuse or noncompliant with treatment for illness
More likely to die in accidents or as a result of violence

8. Costs of Pessimism Depressed easily
Lower achievement (for talent level)
Worse physical health—lower immune function

9. When things go wrong
What explanation do you give yourself?

10. Reframing
Happy people don’t have a magic button to get them out of traffic or that mutes an impolite boss—they draw different messages or meanings from the situation.
David Niven 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People

11. Explanation of Attributions
Stable or Unstable (permanence)
Global or Specific (pervasiveness)

12. Explanation style Optimists use Pessimists use Temporary/unstable
Specific
Permanent/stable
Pervasive/global
Personal/internal

13. Explanatory Style After Bad Event
Optimistic: attribute setbacks to temporary situational factors
Pessimistic: blame setbacks on pervasive permanent shortcomings

14. Life inflicts the same setbacks to optimists and pessimists
But optimists weather adversity better and bounce back

15. Pessimists get and stay depressed when adversity strikes.

16. Optimism and Pessimism are innate or learned early
“A word in the heart”
But can be altered!

17. How to change

18. Identify your own style

19. Identify ABC
Adversity
Belief
Consequences

20. Strategies Dispute (most effective in the long run) Distract
Tell self to STOP
Focus on something else instead
Set a time to think the ruminative thought later
Energize
New feelings
Productive actions

21. Your thoughts are not facts
Your beliefs are not facts

22. How to argue with yourself
Look at the evidence—is my statement accurate? What are alternative explanations? What are the implications? Is the belief useful?

23. Goal Shift blame to Temporary (less permanent) factors
Find more specific (less pervasive) areas of blame
“I got upset and froze when I couldn’t answer the first two questions”
“I have not learned good ways to talk about chiropractic”
“I didn’t have time to look at the directions”

24. Try this over the next week
ABC
Then Ds and E

25. Learned Optimism is not about unjustifiable positivity about the world--but through power of “non-negative” thinking.

26. Whether or not we have hope depends on the two dimensions of Permanence and Pervasiveness taken together. Finding permanent and universal causes of good events along with temporary and specific causes for misfortune is the art of hope finding permanent and universal causes for misfortune and temporary and specific causes of good events is the practice of despair.
If your score is 10 to 16, you are extraordinarily hopeful; 6 to 9, moderately hopeful; from 1 to 5, average, from minus 5 to 0, moderately hopeless; and below minus 5, severely hopeless.

27. For further information
Feeling Good the New Mood Therapy: the clinically proven drug-free treatment for depression.by David Burns, 1980.
Learned Optimism: How to change your mind and your life. By Martin Seligman, 1990.
The Optimistic Child: a proven program to safeguard children against depression and build lifelong resilience. By Martin Seligman, 1995.