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Showing posts from March, 2018
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10 Strategies for aspiring Dispositional Optimists In my previous post I discussed what it means to be a dispositional optimist and why its important for us to, at the very least, execute an attempt to take control of our 'default setting'. By this I mean potentially making the change from being a pessimist to an optimist. I didn't delve too far into the variety of techniques an individual can use in order to make said change and instead focused on Dr. Seligman's work and a few of the strategies he includes in his  popular publication,  ' Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life'.   I'd like to simplify things in today's post for those of you that aren't here for the science. A nice and friendly list, 'ten ways' style.  A couple strategies you can use on a daily basis in order to progressively modify your default response. It might be a while before you begin to see results because like any good thing in life, this
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 Optimism: Can we learn to be 'Sunny'? As you may have read in my previous blog post, defensive pessimism is a strategy with a lot of potential for those prone to certain levels of anxiety. However, dispositional optimism still holds a lot more traditional advantages to its name; lower rates of depression, reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases, and protection from the common cold to name a few. Companies want to employ positive workers who'll increase efficiency and add to a healthy work environment over more downcast ones. The benefits of being an optimist in today's world are ubiquitous. They might as well sell it in a bottle. Profits would be astronomical. 'The B Positive Serum, the smallest dose will do'.  It doesn't seem fair that pessimists are more liable to a plethora of mental and physical illnesses. So why are some people predisposed to think in a positive fashion while others think in a negative one? Can we change our tendencies