Optimism….. The Only Good Choice!

I have a habitual habit of forgetting my umbrella. I guess I have a hard time remembering it could rain.

It happened again the other day while out on my authorized one hour walk!

No problem, I thought.  Instead, I decided to enjoy the raindrops, which felt suddenly new again.

Perhaps it is my optimism at play.  Despite the ongoing tragedy of Covid, I am optimistic that this worldwide crisis is also a once in a lifetime opportunity to stop and rearrange our priorities of living.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               My daughter says I have always been optimistic, though I am not sure that applied to me in the younger days.  I think my optimism when I was young was woven into a fantasy of sorts, which most children do anyway.

I have stayed a dyed in the wool dreamer, regardless of whether it provides me with a defense of reality or not.  But, that is where the magic resides.

For me, optimism is a filter I prefer to have. I resolutely choose it.    Pessimism only serves to limits opportunities.

I have a French friend, who says pessimists are just informed, optimists. I have to disagree with being “informed”.

I think I am quite aware of the various negative possibilities but still choose to believe more of the positive ones.

Whenever a new patient comes in, regardless of their own perceived limitations, Ior whatever mess they find themselves in, I am usually filled with all sorts of positive outcomes for them.

I have a feeling people are unable to see these positive possibilities because they are unable to see their own talents and uniqueness to make changes in their lives.

Even though Covid has turned our reality and the world upside down, I feel deep down some optimism.  There will be a silver lining to this dark cloud.

I think optimism does something inside the brain that inches you on to believing things are going to better.  Perhaps this is what the above mention neuroscientist saw on MRI’s of people cogitating up positive feelings.

Areas of the brain that are also associated with depression “light up” when the subject projected pleasant future experiences.  Trying to tell a clinically depressed patient to just think positive thoughts is useless, and would not work initially, mainly because they are so sunk in hopelessness.

They usually are not able to really get into cognitive therapy till medication lifts their depression somewhat, and are able to see some light in the tunnel.

I adore the writings and work of Louise Hay, whose books, CD’s are highly recommended as a conjunctive therapy for the chronically negative.

Her life history is reflective of the power of her positive thinking approach.  She is a survivor of childhood abuse and also cancer, which she attributes in part to her positive mental conditioning.

Years ago I attended a conference when Deepak Chopra was one of the presenters.  He was just beginning to get the attention he deserved with his incredible spiritual writings.

I remember well his presentation of how our thoughts literally have the possibility to affect changes in our cells over the long-term, which I really believe.  The other presenter was a physician who dressed up as a clown who used humor and laughter as a healing medium.

The negative mind is hard to penetrate and get beyond the fortress of pessimism.  Any offered possibilities are quickly shot down and rendered as impossible.

Pessimism builds roadblocks, and can quickly snuff out any hints of light, however positive, only relegating them as temporary at best.

Futility and frustration in dealing with these types of people eventually cause others to shy away from them, which of course only provides fuel for their chronic negative outlook.

I think that optimism actually changes our facial expression, not just temporary when we are feeling that way, but in the long-term. 

It just makes us appear chronologically younger.  You can just look at someone’s face and get an inkling to their outlook.

Hope is an out springing of optimism, or in other words, optimism gives birth to hope.  And hope heals.  Hope is the very mechanism or vehicle of transformation.  

It has the power to enact cellular changes within.  Hope can flower into belief, which is where you will have the most fruits of your longings.  

I suspect this is why placebos can be effective in relieving symptoms if the patient just believes that it will work.

A recent small study indicated that optimistic feelings were correlated to an increase in the immune system response.  In my practice, I can certainly say that patients who generally have an optimistic outlook seem to have a quicker response to medications.  They are also more apt to utilize their therapy to their overall betterment.

Optimism for me is also reflective of what happens in nature.  Season change, there is the migration of birds, and the planets and moon rotate and change position in the galaxy.

Voluminous clouds come and go.  Rains pour and then the sun breaks through the dark sky and forms arched rainbows.

 Nature is never static, and even though there is destruction, there seemly is always new growth or positive changes that come afterward.

We cannot prevent bad things from happening to us, but we can look to the very restoration that I am referring to in nature.  We prune plants back to stimulate buds and growth.

Right now Covid has pruned away our individual liberties and confined the majority of us to our residence.

We have had to share our living spaces 24/24 with the same people, however much we love them.  We have had to listen to our children’s whining more than usual or our spouse’s grumpiness.

Forget about taking off of that little weekend getaway, because you can’t.  We are restrained for a good cause: not to get sick, nor unwittingly infect others if we happen to be unsymptomatic.

We have had to deal with the basics of living.  We have been deprived of our usual distractions, be it work or pleasure. We have been deprived of running out to buy this and that just on a whim’s notice.

But, our hearts are free to love and find joy in embracing tolerance.   We have a lot of free time on our hands to think and dream a different world. 

We have time to enjoy what our deprivation has brought us.  Cleaner air to breathe.  Blue skies that our ancestors saw without jet vapour trails.

I want to believe that some good for our planet and ourselves will come from this unimaginable tragic crisis.  That we will want to create new priorities of being in this world.

That we will want to value the health and well being for all human beings and our planet over consumerism and the almighty buck.

Life changes as we make changes.  I hope we will not squander this lifetime opportunity, born in ashes,  to make these needed changes and rearrange our priorities for a better world.

I hope that mankind will want to partner and work with nature.    Nature has much to teach us if we will only listen and not try to control and conquer it.

Believing in good to come fosters the best possibilities for the universe to help us create this better world. 

We must see ourselves as weavers of our destiny too.  A belief in a universal divine life force of love and goodness is a gift worth cultivating.

Faith and gratitude are our life rafts in troubled waters and hope and optimism will lead the way.

PS.  This is an updated and rewritten post to currently address our Covid crisis.