How to Avoid Pessimism and Create Optimism

Pessimism is aperceptionof thedark side of life, never the whole. This quote was taken from "The New Secrets of Charisma", by Doe Lang. The dictionary defines pessimism as "the tendency to expect misfortune or the worst possible outcome and the practice of looking at the dark side of things". If being pessimistic is a practice, then one could conclude that being optimistic is a practice as well, except it looks to the bright side.

People with a pessimistic attitude often suffer from feeling out of balance, that they aren't in control of things around them. They rarely give thought to the idea that they do have control over their thoughts and emotions and can control how they perceive things.

Do you have a pessimistic or optimistic outlook?

If you can change your perception to believe that better things will happen, you will be well on your way to a more optimistic outlook.

When you "pretend" great things are happening and will continue to happen, it will change the way you feel about yourself and the world around you. Other people will take notice and start to remark on the new you.

Positive attracts positive.

Try acting "As if". Pick something you can pretend to be "as if" with; maybe that you're in love, or famous. I know it sounds a bit silly, but just try it. Pay close attention to how it makes you feel. Often, if you pretend long enough, it becomes so. It's the feelings you're after so don't worry if you don't actually become famous by acting like it. You want those good feelings and you want to revel in them. This will start a chain reaction and you'll begin to feel better about other things in your life.

By practicing or acting "as if" you are in a good mood, sooner or later, your mood will improve and your outlook on life will become brighter.

Visualize being optimistic to bring it into perspective. Do you really want to be pessimistic? Do you want to wallow in misery? I didn't think so. More than likely you want to be vibrant and feel alive. To obtain that, you have to start feeling it. You have to project that and put it into perspective. It's also a good idea to start visualizing how happy you want to be. Visualizations are very powerful and often trick the mind into believing it's already happening.

Another key to being more optimistic is to surround yourself with positive people instead of negative ones.

We all have at least one friend that is positive and we love to be around them. We all have at least one friend who is negative and when we're around that person we let ourselves sink lower than low. It's an old cliché but misery really does love company and the further these people bring you down, the better they feel about themselves. Sad but true.

It's more beneficial for you to hang out with positive friends more. I'm not saying to completely ignore your negative friends, but sometimes you have to distance yourself from these types of people. Your physical and mental health could be at stake and it's important enough that you should be making positive changes. A true friend will understand that you are trying to improve your life. But more than likely, the negative person will feel anger towards you instead of trying to be more positive themselves. Eventually, if they see the improvements in your life, they may want to make those changes in their life.

If you practice being more optimistic, in due course it will happen. It's not always easy, but taking each day at a time will help you overcome the negativity you've been suffering.