Monday, November 9, 2009

Are you an optimist or a pessimist?

Posted by Terry McNichols

A recent study from the Women's Health Initiative appeared in the August issue of the American Heart Association journal Circulation.  This study looked at the role of optimism in women's health and made some remarkable findings.  Here are the conclusions this study reached: 
Conclusions— Optimism and cynical hostility are independently associated with important health outcomes in black and white women. Future research should examine whether interventions designed to change attitudes would lead to altered risk.

If you'd like to read about this study in layman's terms, there is an excellent article here and here.  But the bottom line was that hostility and pessimism are bad for a woman's heart and optimism appeared to protect against heart disease and death. 


Future studies hope to determine whether a person can actually change from pessimism to optimism.  While the jury is still out on this issue, here is a book by a man who believes it is very possible to change. 

Are you an optimist or a pessimist?  Here's a great story that shows the difference in how you look at the world:

Here is a definition of both:
Pessimist :(

The Pessimist always views the world as bad, that everything will end up turning out wrong for them, they can never win. They believe that it doesn't matter what they do, something will always push them back to the bottom of the pile, and they will never reach the top of it. They're being destroyed most definitely, but it isn't by the world, or who is in it, it's by the person themselves.

Optimist :)

The Optimist views the positivity in the world. No matter what happens they know that this is simply a passing phase that will soon turn around. There is always something positive happening out of the negative, and believe in the good of the world. They worry, and stress less about things since they are viewing the outcome as ending up being something wonderful and great, but most of all they don't judge people because they love themselves.
(From this website.)

Or read this story  to see the difference.



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