Life tends to be a series of pessimistic opinions that flood through my head. While many would think that the truth of optimism and pessimism is that it's just positive and negative thinking, there truly is a difference . Optimism and pessimism involves the entirety of our being. It has been reported that where optimism provides energy and confidence, pessimism projects a negative and draining quality. I am so tired of feeling negative and drained...how about you?
Recently I battled with pessimism so much that it drained me of my strength, gave me headaches, and brought about paranoia for me. I wasn't being pessimistic per say about a situation rather I was being pessimistic about me. Some would say that this is a confidence issue or an issues in believing in myself. While there is some truth to that, it involves so much more. Confidence and believing in myself involves things I can control. Optimism and pessimism can relate to things I can't control. Oh, there we go again...control issues!
Pessimism involves wanting to control things...at least in my opinion. If things aren't my way I am negative about them. If I can't control the situation to make it perfect, I am negative about it. Pessimism. What I need to work on today is to be optimistic about things. While I took a day off from work to deal with my health, I started thinking pessimistically from the moment I woke up. (As an example; ) The headache had partially returned and all I could think about was how horrible of a day I was going to have with the headache the way it was. How about I think optimistically and think that this headache returning may get me to slow down a little enough to address other issues of my day. Or how about it helps me to slow down myself and acknowledge the other parts of my health I need to pay attention to.
So, today its optimism. It's optimistic thinking that keeps me on the journey and pessimism that every morning floods me as I try to work on a new task. Personally, I keep cheering for the optimistic team in me.
So is the glass half empty or half full? Who cares? What difference does it make? If you view it as half empty, are you pessimistic or optimistic? What about half full? Pessimistic or optimistic?
ReplyDeleteI think that usually the person who looks at the glass as being half full is considered to be a positive outlook, that is if you are filling the glass and you are now half-way to having the glass completely filled. However, if you are drinking the water in the glass, and the glass is half-way, you still have half the distance to go. Now when the glass gets empty, you have finished the task, and considered to have completed a positive thing.
This could be complicated, but in life, sometimes when we sound pessimistic, we are being pessimistic in a positive way. Say we're looking for a parking place at the supermarket, and there is none up close. I might say, "Crap, I guess that we're stuck parking 'way out there somewhere. What a bunch of sh-t. But in my mind, I have not given up. I am thinking of stalling long enough for a spot to open up. So after 5 minutes, still nothing, and I am forced to park a half-mile away. By now I have accepted that, and also am attributing it all to the fact that I can use a little exercise anyway.
That wasn't a very good example. How about "Prayer"? How often have we all prayed for someone, like my dad, who we really, really wanted to live longer? So we go to a chapel, we get down on our knees, and we say, (maybe to ourselves, or even out-loud), "Oh Lord, I hope that you are listening". Isn't that pessimistic as all get out? If there is a God, He is already listening. All we need to do is to put it in His hands, and trust in Him. Jesus told us to have faith. And that means to have that faith when we pray. How can we pray with faith and optimism, when we're not even sure if the prayer will be answered? Also a false optimism isn't going to work either. If we are praying with confidence on the outside, but a teeny, little voice way inside is saying, "It might not happen", then the voice is probably correct. Have faith and believe.
My point was that optimism and pessimism have nothing to do with belief or prayer or God, but rather how we perceive things in our life. Sure, I spoke of controlling things, but its when the situation presents itself, do I look at it as a negative or a positive situation? I could easily say, "this sucks, wha good could come out of this"...or I could say, "these things happen regardless of my ability to control it and out of this situation something good will come." That's being optimistic or pessimistic.
ReplyDeleteI can see that I did a lousy job of esplainin' myself, even though I filled half of a page. I was attempting to show the parallel of everyday life and praying with optimism or pessimism. But the main point, and here I go again, is if you should try to be optimistic about a situation, like telling someone, "It looks like today will be a beautiful day", but inside your brain, you are thinking, "but the weather report says it will get nasty this afternoon". Is that being optimistic? I would say 'no', that it is an attempt to appear optimistic, but the inner thoughts are telling the truth. But those inner thoughts might be optimistic, since they are admitting that things aren't perfect, there's nothing that can be done about it, and positive things should come out of it. So then, I guess it could be optimistic.
ReplyDeleteOh crap, I can't explain this. I think I give it up. (No doubt that comment was pessimistic.)