Optimism: How do you make sure you become an optimist?

Having optimism in your life makes everything a lot more fun. Notice that you are often negative about the future and where everything (or especially you) is going? Then you could use a little optimism. In this blog I will go deeper into optimism, where it comes from and how you can make sure you become an eternal optimist.

Optimism meaning

Optimism is about your outlook on the future. You have an optimistic outlook if you believe that everything will be fine in the future—or perhaps even better than it is right now.

What is an optimist?

So an optimist is someone who looks positively to the future. This has a number of benefits. For example, you feel better while something bad is going on in your life than if you do not have an optimistic outlook.

This ensures that instead of avoiding problems, you will do something to solve the problem .

You are therefore proactive in keeping your health on track. If you have a pessimistic attitude, this can actually cause you to have behaviors that are actually detrimental to your health, such as smoking.

Optimists therefore often have better health physically as well.

Even economically, optimism has consequences. You tend to be more engaged in learning and have a better job than people with more negative attitudes.

In the process, optimists also have better relationships than pessimists[1]. This applies to friendships as well as romantic relationships.

So being an optimist has benefits in many facets of your life.

This is mainly because optimism causes you to take action, while pessimism causes you to do nothing[2].

Eternal optimist

The Eternal Optimist is actually about the optimism bias we all have. When you ask someone what is going to happen to them in a week, a month or even a year, we overestimate the probability that something good will happen and generally underestimate the probability that something negative will happen[3].

For example, we underestimate our chances of getting a divorce, being in a car accident, or developing cancer. We also expect to live longer than one might expect based on, for example, the maximum average life expectancy of Dutch people. We overestimate our chances of getting a job, and of course, our children are exceptionally talented.

Almost everyone suffers from this (source 3). This is not a bad thing, by the way, because all that optimism makes us take action. For example, that you want to have a baby, that you look for a better job if your current job makes you unhappy, that you get in the car to have a nice day.

The only thing where optimism can sometimes be awkward is if it causes you to neglect your relationship and health a little too much after all because you think things will be fine. But researchers indicate that the negative aspects of optimism do not outweigh the good aspects of being an optimist[4].

When does optimism disappear?

What’s interesting, though, is that when you anticipate feedback about yourself in the near future, your optimism can suddenly vanish. For example, when you have an exam or have to give a presentation. These are moments when your ego can suddenly be confronted with reality[5].

You generally think you are nice and smart, but such a test or reactions during the presentation can prove otherwise.

But it can also be a way to get yourself ready, so to speak, for a worse outcome than you initially expect.

Another reason optimism can disappear is because of setbacks. If you've received a very fat bill for repairs due to a car accident, for example, and you're left with little money as a result, this can cause you to feel more vulnerable and therefore look more negatively toward the future anyway[6].

But if you already have a lot of savings, you remain optimistic despite such a thing. In fact, research shows that women with HIV who were doing well socially economically still remained very optimistic and even thought their social life had improved (source 6).

Problems at work and relationship issues can also cause women to become less optimistic (source 6).

How does optimism arise?

As your problems ease, then, as a woman, you quickly get your optimism back. But how does optimism arise in the first place? As a child you come from a certain family, and if that family has a higher socioeconomic status that also creates more optimism in later life. This does not mean that if you come from a poor family you automatically become pessimistic.

After all, if you had a lot of parental love and social contacts, such as grandparents who were there for you or maybe just family friends, that can also make for more optimism in adulthood.

If you are not consciously creating more optimism, it can take 3 years before circumstances cause you to actually be more optimistic.

Deliberately fueling optimism

So how do you know if you are optimistic enough? Obviously if you feel good about your life and don't feel like you need to do anything about it, there's nothing wrong. But are you dissatisfied? Then there may be something going on.

For example, do you feel that life never turns out or runs the way you expect or imagined? Then that is a sign of pessimism (source 6).

This feeling is actually a belief you hold about how life works. And if that feeling is that life isn’t working for you but against you, then of course that doesn’t really help. But that belief comes from somewhere.

Hypnotherapy for more optimism

There are moments in your life when you could use some optimism, such as when you have a serious illness . A study on the effect of hypnotherapy on the lives of women with breast cancer found that the therapy helped improve self-confidence and optimism[7]. Above all, this shows that it helps—and if it helps when you’re dealing with such a serious illness, then of course it also works if you simply want to be a bit more optimistic in general.

So how do you approach hypnosis?

Regression

With hypnotherapy, you can explore when that belief originated and then reinterpret that moment. As mentioned, childhood is important for the development of optimism. With regression, you usually go back to your childhood to the moment when the idea arose that, for example, life isn’t working out for you.

Because you now have more life experience and knowledge, you can reinterpret this moment, which can already completely eliminate the idea that life is working against you instead of for you. That alone can cause you to experience more optimism immediately.

Hypnotic suggestions

Another way hypnosis can help is that under hypnosis you are more open to suggestions given by the therapist. Repeating phrases such as:

"Everything will work out."

"People work neutrally or for you, but never against you."

"The best time in your life is yet to come."

These are just examples. Depending on your problems causing you to be a little more pessimistic, you may receive other suggestions that will help you move forward.

Progression

Another way to look to the future with more optimism is to actually take a moment to look at your future plans. For example, with a progression. If there is something you really want, for example, you can state that you have achieved it in a year or two from the time of therapy. Then you visualize one step back each time from that moment to the moment with the hypnotherapist. The therapist helps you with this.

This alone can make you feel more decisive and confident that you can achieve your goals and that this is something you can be optimistic about.

Self-hypnosis for more optimism

In addition, self-hypnosis can also increase optimism. Just being able to put yourself into a state of hypnosis helps some people feel more confident and more optimistic[8].

If you can then also apply some techniques. Which you get as homework from a therapist, for example, then you can be totally confident of a better future through self-hypnosis.

Optimism is a useful trait to have to face problems and be proactive in your life. Regardless of whether this involves your health, relationships or work. How optimistic you are often depends on your youth and what you have accomplished or gathered so far in your life. Optimism can naturally get better or worse over time, but you can also consciously work on it, such as with hypnosis.

Want to learn more about hypnosis? Then come join a free online masterclass.

Or sign up for one of our courses. In the first course, you’ll at least learn the regression technique and how to give effective hypnotic suggestions.

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