- or why it is important to find everything half as bad or twice as good!
"An optimist knows exactly how sad the world can be, while a pessimist discovers it anew every morning."
Peter Ustinov could not have formulated it better: Our inner attitude determines our behavior. Our positive attitude - some call it optimism - also determines the intensity of our own sources of energy.
What is possible with a positive mood even in seemingly hopeless medical situations, I have been able to experience myself in the many years of my work and as a co-founder of the CliniClowns.
Hope and positive thinking demonstrably mobilize our self-healing powers, affirmative thinking leads to real and measurable changes in our bodies. Many studies also show that constant bad moods, negative attitudes, and pessimistic worldviews promote, and often even trigger, depression and the onset of diseases.
Positive thoughts, optimism, on the other hand, stimulate our immune system, make us stronger, more dynamic, and healthier. Long-term data also prove that through this strong belief in oneself, the course of illnesses can be shortened or hospital stays significantly reduced.
We can prescribe these positive thoughts to ourselves at least 6 times a day, we don't need a doctor for that!
But how do you get hope or positive thoughts when you don't have them at the moment? Here are a few tips, directly from the number one Austrian humor expert - straight from the source.
- Recall positive experiences or situations from your life where you were strong and successful, laughed, and wanted to embrace the world. The background lies in our clever memory. It embellishes and condenses in retrospect, remembering detailed, coherent stories with highlights and preferably a good ending. Think of our children. What do we remember? The first smile, the great moments of growing up, the funny experiences of shared vacations... But most of the time, we changed diapers, criticized school grades, and cleaned up after them. So let's use this "sunshine storage" for sad days!
- Meet dynamic, likable, and above all cheerful people and let their good mood infect you!
- At the same time, avoid contact with people who emotionally burden you or further drag down your mood.
- Don't let "bad moods" (whatever it may be) happen to you, don't blame others for your situation, even if it may correspond to the facts at times! Taking active action also means having control over your life. And who wouldn't want that...?
- Write your own "Motivation and Good Mood Diary", in which you note at least three positive, motivating events of the day. Also, a letter (it can also be an email, as who writes letters these days...) to a person who means something special to you or has done something nice for you, enormously increases your own emotional self-esteem.
Neuroscientist Tali Sharot, who has conducted many interesting studies on this topic, ultimately concludes:
"The optimistic brain seems to be somehow impregnated. It apparently only takes note of negative information fleetingly. For its own selfish benefit and for disease prevention, it simply filters out negative impulses, switches to standby mode, to not let its positive attitude be taken away."
Many things simply work better when approached with joy and enthusiasm. And this is especially true for the topic of "staying healthy"! Those who believe that an endeavor will turn out well make more effort, and the prophecy often fulfills itself. After all, you don't want to disappoint yourself, right?
Of course, life experience plays a crucial role in what someone expects from the future. Those who have already experienced that effort pays off are more confident and are more likely to believe that they have their own destiny in their hands.
Well, one thing is clear: Optimists own the world.
