Looking on the Bright Side May Be Good for Your Health

Sometimes bad stuff happens to good people. Even optimistic people! Stuff that can take a person down to a bout of pessimism, which may not last forever but is meaningful at the time. I also think this column was to quick to blame people for the bad stuff, because what, they were grouchy pessimists? I have been a sunny person most of my life. Right now I’m dealing with constant pain, which is both life altering and, on the bad days, depressing. I’m hopeful ( optimistic even) that the pain will be mitigated later this year by major surgery, but meanwhile the pain rules. No “attitude adjustment “ changes the fact that I have a debilitating condition. There— I feel better now.

I would love to see some stats on demographics. As a woman of color who has experienced ridiculous levels of discrimination, optimism just can't extend to all parts of life.

Yes! Absolutely! -- Peace. Be safe. Stay well. And continue to be kind. There's strength in all of that.

Optomism, hope and laughter are safeguards from falling into deep depression about today's world. Years ago Norman Cousins, a well- known journalist, got cancer and, working with his doctor, used laughter to help heal himself. He got material from all the famous comedians like Charlie Chaplan, The Three Stooges, Lucy and Desi, etc and played them 24/7 to keep laughter as the highest content his mind took in. It worked. His cancer was cured and this was well before there were so many cures available. He went on to tell the world about it. One thing is for sure - Optimism, Hope and Laughter can't hurt and actually do help relieve stress.

Optimism must have been great 1950-1990...

This column reminds me of the old adage God helps those who help themselves. Optimism (god) will not do you much good if you abuse wine/women(men) and song. You will still die young.

ah yes, "Be optimistic!" Same advice that cures depression, too ("Don't be depressed!"). Thanks Jane Brody, next time I can't pay rent or buy food because of poverty, I'll just say to myself, "Be optimistic!" and all will be well.

Taking a refresher course in Stoicism worked wonders for me. Marcus Aurelius and his precursors knew a thing or two about addressing adversity, framing perspective and living a satisfying life. Truly wisdom for the ages!

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." Theodore Roosevelt said it all a century ago in one simple sentence.

"Pessimists bathe their bodies in damaging stress hormones like cortisol and norepinephrine all day long. Pessimism increases inflammation in the body and fosters metabolic abnormalities like diabetes. Pessimism is also on the way to depression, which the American Heart Association considers a risk factor for cardiovascular disease." Crux of the article right there. Until proven that thinking this way has any significant benefits that outweigh the clear damage wrought by such a mindset, you may as well hum that catchy tune by Eric Idle, eh?

Let’s put aside longevity - a variable open to too many forces over which no one has any control. How about the “happiness” mentioned in the article? This is what we live with each and every day. Studies have also shown that every good leader possesses an optimistic attitude to a strong degree. People don’t want to work for a pessimistic person. How can someone become an optimistic person? The article presents some thoughts, but it’s clear that much, much more work needs to be done on this. For most of us, it seems that you are one or the other “naturally”.

As a mental health counselor and as an individual, I have always thought one of the most helpful things we can do for ourselves is to be optimistic, or at the very least, not pessimistic. Gratitude, part of recognizing the current moment with optimism, is very important. It got me through the horrific death of my elder son and 27 years later, it still works for me when I am depressed, clinically or just having a "blue" day. I can't recommend it enough.

You know what’s even better? Living in the moment. Neither dream of a better future nor fear a worst one. The only real moment is now. Yesterday is finished and tomorrow does not exist. There are studies that demonstrate that people who are fully engrossed in what they are doing in the present are the happiest. Think runners, knitters, yogis, and those who meditate - to give but a few examples.

Will early retirement help me stay mentally and physically healthy? Answer, yes.

My grandmother lived to be close to 100. She had a very good diet and walked everywhere. But she was mean and that’s why she lived so long. That’s my theory.

Interesting how the three doctors are identified in the article. The two female doctors were introduced with their given names, and only in later paragraphs identified as Dr. In contrast, the male doctor was immediately identified as Dr. Alan Rozanski, and referred to as Dr. Rozanski throughout the article. This should have been caught and corrected by an editor.

This woman is so shallow and lacking in scientific knowledge that I'm stunned tat the NYT still employs her! Always , always she brings herself into the picture. Spare your readers!

To add another anecdote (and I know that the plural of anecdotes is not data), my Aunt Adele is one of the most pessimistic persons I know. She is 99 and still going strong.

It is very hard to be optimistic when you are in a situation (work, in my case) where you know that (a) despite your best efforts, for many years, you are working to change something in a system that is extremely resistant to change; and (b) it is predictable that someone is going to treat you like garbage, although how often and when is unpredictable. Like 4:53 on a Friday afternoon when you think you are home free for the next 48 hours. I don't care how optimistic you are. This is going to affect your weekend. And finally, when you are dealing with this nightmare of a political situation. But I am an optimist. I have only five months left before I can quit. And in the meantime, I am stuffing my life with as much positivity as I can to counteract this endless torment.

I have outlived all my Psychiatrists.

Cultivating a realistic perspective works wonders. See for yourself.

This is a complex area. As this discussion points out optimists are more likely to follow through with healthy strategies. But in the longevity project (http://www.robsstrategystudio.org/awfcaspl.htm) it was found that optimists did more risky things and generally lived shorter lives

Pessimists “bathe their bodies in cortisol” all day long and their “hearts pounds.” Give us all a break. This reads like a 3:00 AM infomercial. The correlation here is between behavior and health. Cognitive bias is correlated to behavior. Fine. But your actions change your thoughts, not the other way around. As a lifelong pessimist who runs 20 miles a week, eats healthy, flosses daily, and generally takes excellent care of my health, I can assure you all that is much much much easier than trying to be someone I am not.

I was optimistic until a couple events occurred where I was undoubtedly wronged quite severely by people I loved. My optimism is slowly creeping back, but ..I just wanted to point out that when someone is wronged, and they become pessimistic, or now expect wrong things to occur, it is not clear whether it was the pessimism, or the wrong that was associated with the poor health. Maybe it's just one in the same.

Part of being confident and optimistic is assessing risks, imagining the worst and then taking measures for managing adverse conditions, Just In Case.

I am an 83 year old pessimist who can no longer get a PSA test or a colonoscopy. Even tho before I turned 80 I needed a colonoscopy every one to three years. So now I worry even more. But the experts who are trying to save money won’t let doctors do those tests. I take no medication and have no health issues except worrying about colon or prostate cancer.

Such good comments from every one. I am a widow, 80 years old, with no children, and some mornings I wake and worry wondering what will happen to me. But when I get up and snart my day my resiliance kicks in and I am amazed and thankful.

I came down with the flu, then pneumonia, two weeks before a family vacation to Florida. "Think positive — of course you'll be well by then!" was the incessant message from Mom, and the pressure to get better fast and "stay upbeat!" through worsening fever was as painful as the headache. I've always been cheerful, and I believe that finding the joy in everyday pleasures has helped me tremendously in coping with illness, pain and other setbacks. However, it's one thing to appreciate what is, or could be, positive, and another to be irrationally positive when it just doesn't make sense. I've heard that called "toxic positivity" and it's extremely annoying. Mom, who I love, drives me nuts with this. "If we all just get out and vote this November, everything in the country will be fixed! We're just one election away from not having to worry about healthcare!" Our country's problems are complex, systemic and getting worse; this kind of positivity strikes me as inane and annoying. After four years of little to no employment, my husband finally landed a good job in his new field. Constant reminders to be positive and assurances that all would turn out well were immensely frustrating as he tried his hardest while the months went by.

My grandma is 98. I asked her what her secret was and she said she decided after she turned 90 that she just wouldn’t worry about anything anymore.

I think a middle road is best. “Always look on the bright side of life, “ to paraphrase Monty Python, is untenable. Everything is gloom and doom also doesn’t work. I have always favored a compromise between sunshine and darkness: realism with hope.

Being optimistic can make you feel like you can stay healthy and live forever. Being pessimistic can make you think that maybe the daily ice cream binges, heavy drinking, and chain smoking will not lead to a good outcome, providing the motivation to make some changes.

Let the hounding of insufficiently chirpy cancer patients begin. Again.

I had depression. It was really hard for me to change my whole mindset, but believe me, when I did it my whole life changed! I started to eat healthier, walking, reading books and meditating. If youre thinking about starting, do it without doubts. Im sure you can!

Optimist: I won’t get sick, bad habits won’t affect my health. Pessimist: I better be careful.

I think the risk of columns like this one is that people will interpret being positive as some kind of "talisman" that will "ward off" serious illness. And that those who have negative emotions have somehow brought their illnesses upon themselves. I was born with serious birth defects (kidney & musculoskeletal). I also have severe asthma and since infancy have taken large doses of steroids daily. At last count I've had 22 surgeries. I'm now in my 60's. My "attitude" has caused none of these conditions. I have no "rose colored" view of my life or my health limitations. I believe to do so would be ignore the requirements I have to live some semblance of a "normal life". Denial is a luxury I cannot afford. That said, I did come to learn very early on that I would feel so much better, emotionally, if I spent my time thinking about what I could do. I had a successful 40 year career practicing law, and am now in my "second act" as a painter whose works are in galleries. What I gained from this view was the confidence that while I could not do many things, there were many other things I could do, and do well. At the end of my life, I will not look back and think "what if". I've done what I've been able to do. And I've gotten much satisfaction and happiness from my accomplishments. My view is that anyone with serious health issues should not ignore them, but at the same time, try to accomplish what one can accomplish in life, however long or short that life may be.

I have learned, over time, that sometimes the way you think about a situation, and then phrase it, has a lot to do with how you view your circumstances. We took care of my mom for 5 years and 3 months when she had Alzheimer's. I'd turn down opportunities to meet friends for coffee, by saying, "I can't meet you; I 'have' to take care of my mom, " but when I changed that perception, and consequently my words to, "I 'get' to take care of my mom, that made all the difference. That's why, when I wrote a book about our experiences, :"My Mother Has Alzheimer's and My Dog Has Tapeworms; A Caregiver's Tale," I chose to include many funny incidents, to help caregiver's view the glass as "half full."

My late husband was one of the most positive and life affirming people I’ve known and developed severe depression and ALS the last years of his life. He passed away at 79 years. My father, a very “glass half full” man suffered from prostate cancer for 25 yrs. and passed away at 88 yrs. My mother, depressed and pessimistic her whole life, is alive and relatively healthy at 92 yrs (and still very depressed and pessimistic).

There's little doubt that being optimistic affects your physical well-being. You must choose to be happy and to see life as an adventure. How you deal with problems is an indicator of how well you'll do when a physical problem affects you. If you're optimistic and a fighter, you stand a better chance of fully recovering from a setback. As someone who chooses to not hold grudges, or spend an inordinate amount of time musing about the past, I find myself fully engaged in making my life the way I want it to be. Do a life review. Care about others and give of yourself. Every life has worth.

Where does 'it could be worse' fall? Gratitude bank? My Mom always let our imaginations do that work at what could be worse. She made us think. Laughter was the best and still is good medicine. I don't know how she did it, but she had a seamless love that eliminated drama between my sisters and I. We were all hopeful, without realizing it.

Correlation is not causation. There may be other factors underlying both optimism and increased longevity. I wonder if overall innately better health or physical condition could explain both? Or genetics? Early life experiences? There are lots of possibilities.

There is of course, the thought that if one is a pessimist and always expects the worst, one can only be pleasantly surprised. And that, moreover, having a pessimistic view of life is more realistic, if one considers the average human condition.

Photos of me as a 3 year old with a broad smile on my face have caused me to believe that I was born happy. Like most kids, particularly those who moved three times like me, I endured "downs" adjusting to new schools and new kids. But I just knew that things would work out, and they always did. Forward to me now at age 77. Life long optimism helped me deal with the problems everyone has to deal with. Also credit my beautiful wife of 53 years who bore 3 sons who bore 6 beautiful grand kids. Re my health, I was very healthy through age 73, which I credit to having ridden New York city subways for 15 years. Then several significant health problems occurred. Recently, I was in a hospital over night and my blood pressure and heart were checked every 4 hours. I'm happy to say that my heart is happy too! Last, my philosophy of life is this: "The past is gone forever (hold no grudges), the future is unknown, so live every minute in every day to the fullest!

Pinning labels on groups of people, such as optimists and pessimists, oversimplifies the complexities of personality, character, life circumstances, age and social influences. An individual may feel positive about life at one stage but not another, under some circumstances, but not others. Some of these factors can be modified, while others are inborn and resistant to change.

My father and I always have this topic of conversation. He’s getting older and I tell him how your thoughts and your mind have almost a direct affect to your body’s health. Being pessimistic can increase cortisol levels which ultimately may lead to inflammation and weakened immune system,hypertension , and so forth. An optimistic Mind, Body, and soul will get you further in life :). Cheers !