Diana Brecher, Ph.D. in clinical psychology and a researcher at Ryerson University in Toronto, said: “It is common that when we face challenges of varying severity in terms of finances, health, lifestyle, relationships and living under the COVID-19 pandemic, we have to go deeper and work harder to find what gives us hope.”
Although hope may seem elusive, research shows that hope and optimism can have a positive impact on your mental and physical health. According to a 2019 study, researchers have found that optimism is specifically associated with an 11% -15% longevity rate and greater odds of living to age 85 or older.
Claudia Trudel-Fitzgerald, a clinical psychologist and professor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said, “Research suggests that more optimistic individuals age healthier, live longer, and are less likely to develop chronic diseases, particularly cardiovascular disease.”
She adds that optimistic people are more involved in physical activity and a healthy diet and are less likely to smoke, which contributes to improving their health over time.
Trudel-Fitzgerald said: “There is also evidence that optimism is associated with a lower risk of hypertension and obesity, thereby reducing the risk of chronic disease and premature mortality later.
Tips can help you tap into the positive side of life
While it's best to be more optimistic, finding ways to instill hope seems like a difficult task, but experts say the following five tips can help you tap into the positive side of life:
1. Take control
The late famous psychologist Shane J. Lopez describes hope as “the faith that the future will be better than the present, and the belief that you have the power to realize that vision.”
“To some extent, this indicates that we are in control of what will happen. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we cannot fully control what happens to us, such as the possibility of a vaccine and how well it fits or is contagious to us. Still, there are things that are under our control,” says Brecher.
Yes, feelings of hopelessness are real, but thinking about what is within your control that can have a positive impact on yourself and others is an effective way to overcome these feelings. Brecher continues, "Some people are initiative. For example, they help their neighbors or provide support to people who are suffering, which gives them more optimism as a result of their ability to take action rather than feeling stuck and afraid that things will never improve."
2. Look for good news and bright sides of things
When faced with difficult situations, we remember how we overcame similar challenges previously. However, this strategy is difficult to implement because this pandemic is unique. “One way to stay optimistic nowadays is to focus our attention on the full half of the cup, such as vaccine development, and try to avoid hearing the negative news that the media rains on us when we feel weak, anxious, or sad. So, we should not watch TV or read the newspaper for a few days to maintain our mental health,” says Brecher. It can allow us to notice the good changes resulting from the positive pandemic and flexibility.
“A person's physical activity may return when they walk daily, reconnect with old friends on social media, spend more time with their children, or prepare meals at home regularly,” says Brecher.
3. Accustom yourself to gratitude
Trudel-Fitzgerald says, based on research, that whether you are someone who writes what makes them grateful or enumerates the blessings of their Lord on them, you can often treat people kindly, express gratitude from happiness levels, and foster optimism by reminding ourselves that the sun will rise after a long night.
Brecher agrees and points out that humans are naturally predisposed to be negative, which makes positivity difficult sometimes. “Our brains have to make us attuned to risks, dangers, and problems because they are the basis of our survival, so we are skilled at noticing imminent danger. However, it takes more thoughtful effort to notice the things that give us happiness and the things that make us grateful,” says Brecher.
Feeling grateful requires thoughtful action rather than an innate response, so Brecher suggests asking yourself the following questions to feel grateful:
- What good things happened today?
- What was my role in making those good things happen?
- What does my participation in making these good things happen mean?
“The more you practice being grateful, the easier it is to notice good things every day, and you will be able to find a balance between the negative and the positive,” says Brecher.
4. Blame bad luck
Martin Seligman, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, in his book, Learned Optimism, defines optimism as an explanatory technique that people use to understand why good and bad things happen, and says that pessimists can learn to be optimistic by rethinking how they react to adversity.
Seligman noted, for example, optimists tend to believe that passive events are temporary and place blame on causes beyond their control, while pessimists point to permanent reasons that they themselves have created. In addition, when optimists fail, they see failure in terms of only one, and they rise again, while pessimists believe that failure in one area of life means failure in all fields.
“If something goes wrong and you see it as your fault, you are less optimistic, but if you see it as the result of bad luck, you are more likely to recover, and if you see it as an emergency rather than a general condition, you are more likely to say, 'I will forget about it and move on.'”
5. Remember the happy moments
Planning safe activities that you can do once you control the COVID-19 pandemic can give you something to look forward to. Trudel-Fitzgerald says: “A person can, for example, imagine happy meetings with close friends or family members in a beautiful place and start thinking about details, such as guests, location, music, etc.”
Believing that the pandemic will not always prevent us from seeing the people we love and participating in our favorite activities may be the most optimistic idea ever.
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