Optimism

Optimism is expecting the best to happen, projecting that all will be well. When my mother was going through tough times in her 90's wondering what would happen to her, I used to tell her to "think good thoughts." So many of our self improvement gurus talk and write about attracting good into our lives by thinking about good things, thinking about the positive instead of the negative, in other words, being optimistic. Norman Vincent Peale wrote a very inspiring and famous international best selling book published in 1952. Dr. Peale was a clergyman who was so interested in mental health that he established an out patient clinic next to his church. In the book, The Power of Positive Thinking, he wrote that maintaining positive thinking and a healthy and positive attitude would bring happiness and success. He helped many people achieve fulfillment in their lives. Today many books and sites on the computer deal with peace and serenity, so many people are searching. Since we do have choices as to what we think, the thought here is we might as well think about good things, and that everything is going to turn out okay, until proven otherwise. There is a direct opposite of optimism.  This is pessimism, and consequently it means the expectation that everything is wrong, or will go wrong, that most everything in life is bad. Have you ever known someone who has problem after problem, problems just seem to follow the person? Nothing ever seems to work out right for them. We are told that this is the nature of being negative and that negativity breeds negativity. Negative people don't enjoy their lives and can ruin not only their day, but another's. On the other hand, an optimistic person sees the good in life and seems to attract good, like the positive charge of a magnet. They are high energy people. A common expression about  how life is generally seen is: "the glass half full or half empty." This analogy means having a natural disposition that is either optimistic or pessimistic in the extreme, optimism being a full glass and pessimism, an empty one. For the optimistic person, his glass is even more than half full and is always that way. His temperament, or the way he seems his life mostly all the time, is joyful, having an overall feeling that all is well and will be well. People who are optimistic are not only nice to be around, but encouraging because of their enthusiasm and cheerfulness; and yet, they also seem to have an aurora of calmness about them. This is because they think, feel, and talk about, the bright side of life.  These are the people we refer to as having a "sunny disposition." Those who are optimistic are hopeful, feeling confident that their desires will be fulfilled. They are positive people even in the face of adversity, always finding a way to see the glass "full."