Being A Glass Half Full Person Can Actually Help You Live Longer - You Don't Even Have To Drink It!
You may, or may not, regard yourself as an optimistic person but the expert opinion suggests it’s much better to think you are.
Research out this week from Harvard has found women who were more optimistic were less likely to die from heart disease, cancer and infections.
It’s said to be the first evidence that looking on the bright side of life, or positive thinking as it’s called, can offer protection from major illnesses.
But what is optimism and are over-50s more likely to see their world, excuse another idiom, through rosy-coloured glasses?
I see myself as an optimist about the big things I can more easily control: the prospects for health, happiness and wealth.
So I like the simple but sturdy words the 18th century American philosopher (hardly a New Age writer) William James who said: “ Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power.”
I’m fairly neutral about the things I can’t directly control: the Prime Minister, the economy or the weather.
But I am pessimistic about smaller things: getting a park on a Saturday night, the ‘bottlo’ running out of my favourite beer or getting to the cinema in time to see what’s on next week.
You can test yourself to see where your optimism sits using this 15-minute questionnaire from another great US university Stanford.
http://web.stanford.edu/class/msande271/onlinetools/LearnedOpt.html
I found I wasn’t quite a ‘glass half full’ person as I liked to think I was and scored as both moderately optimistic and hopeful. But maybe that wasn’t so bad after all. Do try it.
According to a report in Scientific American (https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/psysociety/optimism-in-seniors-predicts-fewer-chronic-illnesses-better-overall-health/ average optimism levels rise higher with age especially for those between 50 and 68.
But from 69 the ‘age-optimism curve’ swings back and average levels begin to fall again. And why? Again the research says we experience well-being by meeting three key needs.
They are feeling capable and successful at what we do, feeling independent and feeling related and connect to others. Promotions, marriage, children etc can push these buttons but once to you get into older adulthood disease, death, retirement etc can have the reverse effect.
The co-author of the latest Harvard research Eric Kim says: “While most medical and public health efforts today focus on reducing risk factors for diseases, evidence has been mounting that enhancing psychological resilience may also make a difference.
“Our new findings suggest that we should make efforts to boost optimism, which has been shown to be associated with healthier behaviours and healthier ways of coping with life challenges."
In short it makes sense to be an optimist and there are ways you can learn to think this way even by developing simple habits like writing down regularly those things you are grateful for.
Statistics suggest that most of us probably fall somewhere in middle of the spectrum when it comes to optimism versus pessimism.
This feeling is well expressed by the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood who sums it thus: “Optimism means better than reality; pessimism means worse than reality. I'm a realist.”
