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How to you keep optimistic or hopeful?

Saslou

New member
Joined
Feb 1, 2009
Messages
4,910
MBTI Type
ESFJ
Ultimately i am an optimist and try to turn negatives into positives. Some days it is harder than others but mostly i succeed.
 

Mole

Permabanned
Joined
Mar 20, 2008
Messages
20,284
Unless we are suffering from Clinical Depression, optimism and pessimism are healthy parts of our psyches.

However if our Constitution mandates the pursuit of happiness, we can become neurotic in the pursuit.

And the result is that the largest presenting cause at doctor's surgeries is depression.
 

Coriolis

Si vis pacem, para bellum
Staff member
Joined
Apr 18, 2010
Messages
27,230
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
The Power of Positive Thinking is a terrible mistake for we perceive by making distinctions and a fundamental distinction is between good and bad.

So if we try to suppress the bad, we also suppress the good.
Not so much that, but we can't really suppress the bad, we can just try to whitewash it, or otherwise pretend it isn't there, or it isn't bad. But that doesn't change its essential nature: it is still bad, and it is still there. Better to see it for what it is, and face it head on.

3. Think of this perspective, "Good comes from all things"; may sound like BS but I'm pretty certain it is true
The operative word here is "from". All things are not necessarily good themselves, but good can usually be pulled out of them, at minimum the proverbial silver lining.
 
A

Anew Leaf

Guest
How do you remain or keep optimistic or hopeful when you're really experiencing adversity and people you depend on begin to operate in a way that's out of character?

I realize that if it's a situation where I have no choice, that I need to suck it up and get the job done and keep it together. If I do have a choice, I have to remember to suck it up and get the job done and keep it together.

When my inner fears crop up I tell them to go eat bananas and slip on their peels and die in a firey fire.
 
S

SingSmileShine

Guest
Will you think I'm being dishonest if I say it's my natural way of thinking? Because it is! Frankly, I have always had a lot of battles and I've always found myself thinking, "It could be a lot worse. You can get through this, no sweat!"
 

So It Goes

New member
Joined
Dec 23, 2011
Messages
104
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5w4
What keeps me optimistic is achieving a goal, whether it is big or small.

Riding on a bicycle, I always try to move forward and toward a destination, while enjoying the ride.

I find that the Austrian psychologist, Viktor Frankl, has a good logo-therapeutic approach toward how people form meaning in their lives. He wrote a book called, Man's Search For Meaning, which tells of his experiences in a concentration camp and how different types of people dealt with these tragic circumstances. Based on the horrific events, he developed his own ways for one to gain happiness and purpose in life, even if one undergoes horrendous times that cannot be changed. Frankl thought that people have the potential to form meaning and avoid existential despair, to improve their mentalities, even if the future seems bleak.

His book reminds me of the stoic philosopher, Epictetus, who often talked about how our views on things make things bad or good, rather than the things themselves being intrinsically bad or good. Epictetus spoke about focusing on what you can change, such as attitudes and behaviors, while not concerning yourself with what isn't changeable, such as death or reputation. Also, in Zen Buddhism, there's the mind-set of non-attachment to desires. By desiring a superficial thing with your ego, you are controlled by your desire to achieve that, but by trying to reject your desire, you are worse off. Your thoughts are not the whole of you. Instead of worrying or complaining about the future of what you want, focus on being in the present (with the right mindset, e.g compassion, discipline, truthfulness, etc.).
 
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