190. How to Become an OPTIMIST: 3 Positive Psychology Techniques to Change Your Mindset

May 18

listen to this episode:

In this week's solo episode, I talk about how you can completely shift your mindset to become more optimistic. I dive into why it's so helpful for your health and well-being to be optimistic before sharing three positive psychology techniques you can try out to unlock your inner optimist.

I explain:

+ What positive psychology is & how it's different from other areas of psychology

+ The surprising benefits of having positive emotional experiences

+ What positive affect is & what people high in positive affect have in common

+ The shocking relationship between happiness & physical health

+ Key differences between optimists & pessimists you need to know

+ How being optimistic affects your health, well-being, & ability to cope

+ The role that optimism played in my own mental health journey

+ Three ways that you can become an optimist according to psychology

+ Exercises you can try out at home to start having a more positive mindset

+ What explanatory styles are & how mastering them can change your life

+ so much more!

Mentioned In The Episode…

+ She Persisted on TikTok!

+ Ep. 113 feat. Dr. Marissa Franco

+ Flourish by Martin Seligman

SHOP GUEST RECOMMENDATIONS: https://amzn.to/3A69GOC

About She Persisted (formerly Nevertheless, She Persisted)

After a year and a half of intensive treatment for severe depression and anxiety, 18-year-old Sadie recounts her journey by interviewing family members, professionals, and fellow teens to offer self-improvement tips, DBT education, and personal experiences. She Persisted is the reminder that someone else has been there too and your inspiration to live your life worth living.

a note: this is an automated transcription so please ignore any accidental misspellings!

I think is one of, the most

common misconceptions and something that

I really struggled with, when it was like, just accept that you're depressed, accept that you're struggling, accept cards that you've

dealt. And it felt acceptance

was giving up.

Acceptance like, this

is how I and this isn't going to change.

the opposite fact. If don't

where we're at,

what point is,

we move forward. We're not take next steps and adjust the situation unless

starting is. And that's, a mistake I made in my journey, if you could even call it a mistake, or something that I wish I have known earlier on,

I it's thinking trap lot of people fall into,

Hello, hello, and welcome to She Persisted. If this is your first episode, I'm so glad you're here. If this is your 190th

190th

and you've been along for the ride the entire time, I'm so glad you're here.

I'm probably the only person who's listened to every single

episode, to be honest.

If you are

returning listener, we have some

fun things going on in the Sheep Assisted world. We're going to be starting some

Monday mini episodes. These are going to be

10 minutes, the very most re releases of past episodes that are just edited down and optimized so you can get the most value possible in a short little period of time.

You can add these

to your

routine

and we'll see you next week.

get to experience some wisdom that was released. to last year or the year before, any point in the past five years, , because there's such an incredible catalog of content and I really hope you guys all get to listen to these incredible conversations. So I'm excited for that.

If you are a new listener,

I will give a

bit of context to this episode, which is that I am a psychology student at the University of Pennsylvania. I just finished up my junior year yesterday, so I'm an incoming senior, I guess you could say now.

So, and

One of the areas of study that I've become really interested in and

really

gotten the chance to dive deeper in during the past

couple

years is positive

psychology.

And I've been really

in the

fact that Penn is actually kind of the home to

positive

psychology. Dr. Seligman, , the father of positive psychology, he really

the field. He is a Penn professor and I took his class. the science of well being this semester, and there was just a really incredible department at Penn studying positive psychology and to learn from them and get to

hear

insights and findings from

the horse's mouth, I guess you could say, is really the most incredible, cool thing. And I try to bring as much as possible from the classroom and from my own lived experiences to the podcast and make these things more accessible and share anything that I wish I would have known. Earlier on and so today's episode is absolutely one of those things.

We are talking about optimism and explanatory styles And the first time I came across this Was as a sophomore in college when I took introduction to positive psychology and it's really wild because it's such a fundamental Mindset shift to have, and it has so many benefits, and it can be an easy shift to make, and yet the benefits are extremely profound.

I wish this was taught in elementary schools, and middle schools, and even high schools. And yet it's not yet common knowledge, and so

I'm really

that I can break this down in this episode, share a lot of fun studies that have been done talking about this, and give you some tips and ways that you can implement this in your own life, because it's been something I've been wanting to do this whole episode on.

For months at this point, which if you notice, we didn't do a solo episode last month.

Things

so busy with the end of the semester.

We had a lot

interviews batched. I kept being like, okay, actually interview

this week, solo episode next week, but we're here.

I'm really excited for this sit down.

And like I mentioned, you're going to have more mini episodes.

with that, I'm

definitely going to throw

some, some new minis that are just me talking to the mic in shorter form

with those little twice a week episodes. So I'm really

for that,

and I need to be making TikToks. Like, guys, every single day I write, I'm going to make TikToks, edit videos to share these things

you, and it's been so busy, but that is definitely a

goal. So make sure you're following along at Ashley Persisted Podcast. I'm going to try and share more things

this episode in social media form, because

it is so important and not enough people know

it. So,

To give you some, like, broad, overarching

here, positive psychology

is a new field within the general

arena of psychology.

And the way that it

defined is the scientific study of ordinary human strengths and virtues.

So if we look at the field of psychology as a whole, historically we've looked

people that are

kind of below that

average point. They're struggling, their ability to function or show up in relationships or maintain their mental health has been impacted, and so a lot of

resources and research and interventions have been aimed at that population.

and it's a

large population. We know that

than half of adults will struggle with mental illnesses at some point in their life, and that's believed to be a low estimate. And the vast majority of us spend a lot of our time not actively struggling. And so understanding how we can thrive and flourish and succeed in our lives and how

people who are really

and effective and happy, how they're living their lives,

is another really

part the puzzle.

What's really incredible

cool about this area of psychology is that really and celebrates fact

despite all the challenges and difficulties and obstacles we

individuals overcome on a daily basis throughout our lifetimes, generally we thrive. Generally we are

doing pretty

despite that fact.

And so a really incredible area study. And you are looking college or psychology as a field, this is a fun area check out and at least be aware of. So I think the way start about optimism and

explanatory styles is to about emotions,

Because a lot people think of these two things as synonymous. If you're optimistic and always seeing the good in things, you must be feeling really happy.

or conversely, you feel

happy, so you look at the world from a more positive lens.

And so important kind really understand these two pieces of the puzzle,

And then

how they're actually correlated, how together, how can adjust either one to in turn impact the other.

So, when talk about emotions, we just talking about

feelings. The operational definition use for emotions not subjective feelings, but also cognition, facial expressions, cardiovascular and hormonal changes, a

relatively short time span.

And this is from a 1991 study. And we see emotions

that larger, more comprehensive,

experience, we can better understand why emotions us act in certain ways and do certain things and are with certain outcomes in our lives.

So example, we about positive

which can be really with optimism and generally,

entire well and

moods.

And so,

we see that mild emotions are associated with

improved

and verbal memory. So when we have positive emotions, our memory skills are improved. We use more flexible

thinking. We are problem solving. are rational and utilitarian with our decision making.

we are more to exhibit self controlled behavior,

And

also see changes in our risk taking behavior. So we necessarily think oh, I'm feeling happy, I'm better problem solving, I'm more decisive, I have more self control,

memory is better, but these things can be correlated.

So when understand how these things are it makes sense why lived experience is so different when our mental health is struggling. Is there's this interesting theory positive psychology. called the broaden and

Build Theory,

it talks about what happens when we experience positive emotions and the outcomes in our life are.

And

this was created Barbara f Fredrickson,

Basically this means that we experience positive emotions,

we are motivated

take action to make our lives better.

And so

is again like the chicken egg situation comes with a lot of positive psychology we can't ever definitively Determine causation can just understand correlation. And so this instance, it's the idea that, okay, when we experience positive emotions, we want to go out and get more things that make our lives better.

And then it becomes the question of if we've accumulated all of these resources, that in turn, improving our emotions and making us feel more positive? And how, how does that

relationship

function?

And I wanted to read you one other quote that we

this semester. we had a really fun

A HAP Uvita that part of our science and course and got

these little Notifications on that taught us that positive

quotes or learnings

And also different like daily interventions and practices that we can do, really incredible and cool. So this specifically about the Brown and hypothesis, it says that when

good, our minds

open a world of new possibilities.

Think positive emotions

as keys, unlocking doors creative new friendship, and even

we didn't know we had.

emotions help

discover

and build skills, resources,

and social connections, fostering and resilience.

And so of establishing that foundation positive emotions are a really

element to building our lives worth living, right? They motivate us in different ways than negative emotions do and they're that key element to getting we want in life and Building off of this positive emotion idea is positive affect

think of positive emotions

these momentary

experiences, positive affect

is like our general on a day day basis,

generally present.

And

can be high affect affect, and is in some ways

correlated with the individual

that we experience.

so individuals

are high in positive affect

experience frequent episodes pleasant, pleasurable moods. speaking, cheerful, enthusiastic,

energetic, and alert. And

when have high positive affect, they are more likely they

contact their friends and relatives. have a number close relationships.

they

have more satisfaction

In relationships,

they have higher of social activity,

they're more social organizations,

they also are more

to make acquaintances.

So there's that strong correlation

with sociability, but we also know that social relationships are a really strong

factor in determines our overall well being and our mood as well. So it's really everything in this is a

catch

And if you listen to Dr. Marissa Franco's episode, which we'll

definitely feature in a 5 minute mini because it was so incredible, we about and

and she said that Loneliness can kind be a self prophecy when we're more lonely, we feel more irritable,

and we actually social interactions less. But the

reason we're enjoying those because

lonely in the first place.

And lot of this is yourself initially through the motions and doing what you know is

good for you, and

experience the ROI and

your mood

your emotions and you're more to do those things in the future.

And

when we have

low levels of affect, correlated with a lot things

that I'm sure most of you expect, things like mood disorders, and disorders depression and anxiety, social anxiety

disorder, phobia, which

when are afraid to leave immediate

environment or home, PTSD, disorders,

and disorders.

So positive affect

general mood and emotions very correlated with our mental health from a mental illness perspective.

And makes this is why I'm Why is this not taught in preschool and elementary school and middle school and high school? Like why is this not of our health class?

positive

affect and health are really really correlated and so, there was a meta analysis that done, and 225 well papers Transcribed

and they compared

happier to less happy people. And

the people that quote unquote

and when they happy people looking at their subjective well

being,

they're filling out surveys about how frequently happy, how that shows up in their lives.

Those people perceived

as healthier,

but they were also literally healthier when at objective measures. They had better coping skills, had more energy, they

engaged in healthier behaviors, and they in enjoyable activities more.

is kind of how I think of it. We

our positive emotion at the bottom of the pyramid, and then we move into positive affect, and then we move into optimism, which get into, and these things upon each other, and the further you go up the pyramid, the stronger and stronger the benefits become.

Now,

I have

another study share with you. This one my favorite studies. I

and haven't forgotten it. It's only been

year, it

always comes to mind whenever I'm talking about psychology or mental health.

is the nun study, you'll probably also remember it because, how often do you hear about a Nunn Study?

So, basically,

nuns do a lot of journaling, is the TLDR on this.

And

when

Catholic nuns in their

20s were applying to join the nunnery, I think it's what it's called, they wrote three page autobiographies

about themselves. And analyzed 180 applications. Again, by Catholic nuns in their 20s, and they looked for statements about the frequency of positive emotions.

They objectively analyzed and coded looking for instances those within these autobiographies. And they found nuns

expressed

more positive emotions. 90 percent at 85, and percent were alive 94. and nuns expressed

fewer emotions, were alive at age 85, 11 percent were alive at age 94.

So again, the nuns that experienced more positive emotions, 90 percent alive 85 versus percent of those that didn't.

and

54 percent were alive at age 94 compared to

11 percent for those didn't experience positive emotions. Wild. I love this study. It's crazy. And I'll give you some anecdotes on longevity Because there's so many

on this, but, like, to truly understand how powerful and impactful this is, I feel like I just have to

throw the data at it's wild. But greater levels of positive

were associated longevity in studies 2008, 2011, 2005.

two year study of 65 to 99 year old Mexican Americans

found that with greater affect half

as likely to die. There's a lot studies out there that support this relationship, but basically

the idea is that affect

And longevity

has a strong relationship, just positive affect and health

And so if we unpack this

briefly, this positive

affect and health correlation, we find that affect

Potentially

how people actually perceive their health in their

So people with

high positive affect

report fewer

and less severe symptoms.

And positive affect is associated with healthier behavior. So not only are you impacting how you're perceiving these things, you're also more likely to engage in behaviors that improve your

general of has been done showed that was true habits, increased

exercise, improved coping skills. so we're working

our pyramid here. We have positive emotions, which we know

act in

and do certain things, is related things social relationships. have affect, is our general mood, and this really impacts our health and longevity, And upon these momentary moods then we into optimism, which we define scientifically as to

believe that good

than bad things will happen.

And

really this

quote that my positive psychology professor shared

us and she's going come on the podcast, I need to

coordinate and schedule that, but it's going to be,

phenomenal, amazing,

and you're to love it. But,

the quote is by George Snow, and both and pessimists

to society. Optimist invents

and the pessimist invents the parachute.

now to get into the science and the context and the correlations here.

So,

is some that happens optimism.

We that relatively stable trait. So if

were optimistic,

Early in

It's likely that that continue throughout rest of your life.

know that it's partially inherited, so how optimistic your your

are has an impact on how optimistic you

are. And we know that is malleable. So social factors do impact levels optimisms, and studies have showed that.

that.

And so now we get into these crazy correlations, which

is optimists

compared to pessimists compare better with their well being. Physical health, quantity and quality of relationships, self confidence, perseverance and challenges, coping skills, transitions to college, work performance, and enduring traumatic war or disaster events.

So basically everything. Optimists to

Fare better in those experiences,

and

Again, are some elements

can't be controlled for, but one of things that you can work

how you speak to yourself, you

look at the

world,

how solve challenges, you

problems, and again has an exponentially positive impact.

So how do optimists

think? If you're a pessimist and you tend to view things more negatively.

You're like, okay,

what are they saying how these things? I got you. We're going to break it down. So the very central feature of optimism is positive expectancy. So

expect positive to happen and we have to

be realist sometimes, positive won't always happen, the general trend is have positive expectations for outcomes. And optimism really comes into play and really has an impact when you are going through This is when it's really relevant to your well

being and mental health. so we know that during

optimists

optimists tend to use problem focused coping, realistic acceptance of their situation, humor, and positive reframing.

They also greater self confidence and perseverance those challenges. So this is the biggest shift, right? Like we talk about, okay, like we can't really necessarily change what emotions we're experiencing all the time affect, we can try and adjust, but when comes down to these challenges that we're overcoming, that optimistic outlook and lens that we're operating the world through really makes a difference.

know if you've listened the podcast

before, we're really big on

coping skills. Like,

is really what I hone into and about a lot

time and what was such a game changer for me.

I have some research for on optimists versus pessimists and how they cope with things.

Optimists to information about problems, they plan and

actively cope.

seek

adversity positively stressful situations and also use humor.

light of things, for the positives, like what are the situation even if it's what I wish it was. And again, they accept the situation. So lot acceptance, there's not denial, not in a

state delusion like, oh everything's out, everything's gonna be positive. acceptance and with what you're

Pessimists to distract themselves from problems, cognitively stressors deny their problems.

on their distress, and give up to cope with problems, which when think about my internal experience when I was really depressed and

and struggling and a low, this is exactly what

I was doing.

was constantly distracting. I avoided stressors

much as possible. I'm

still to avoidance,

we do some exposure for that.

And A lot

of focus on the distress, all the

every day, and a lot giving up no belief that was able cope through these things. And so this is

What I think cool about optimism and

why I'm sharing this episode

for you. Yes, some of these things we do inherit,

some of are stable

over our

lifetimes,

But I think about how I view the world and I navigated challenges to myself struggling, I take a pessimistic lens,

and now I definitely

I spend time in the present.

optimistic side of the camp, and a really positive impact on my mental health and just how I the world.

And a quote

denial because

I love these quotes. My professor shared I'm looking at my notes this course, and

so many of them are relevant that I'm sharing. But, denial, or refusing to accept the reality of the

means

trying maintain a worldview that

no longer valid.

Acceptance implies restructuring our experience come to grips the situation. This means not giving up.

And I think is one of, the most

common misconceptions and something that

I really struggled with, when it was like, just accept that you're depressed, accept that you're struggling, accept cards that you've

dealt. And it felt acceptance

was giving up.

Acceptance like, this

is how I and this isn't going to change.

the opposite fact. If don't

where we're at,

what point is,

we move forward. We're not take next steps and adjust the situation unless

starting is. And that's, a mistake I made in my journey, if you could even call it a mistake, or something that I wish I have known earlier on,

I it's thinking trap lot of people fall into,

which again is being

denial because

you don't, don't want your life to look the way it does, you're not even holding onto a valid of the world.

Maybe you're like, this isn't

as it's I haven't felt this for long, it could be worse, it is that saying to yourself.

And

When we actually do accept

what point is. Then, we are able to

actually take steps forward and move in the direction that we want to.

And

then we have more optimism and health correlations because

these are truly wild. But, optimists pessimists fare when undergoing bypass and bone

marrow Coping with cancer, AIDS, pain, dealing with aging issues

later in life, and caring for

others, for example, Alzheimer's or cancer patients.

Like, wild. insane. And also when we think back to positive affect and the behaviors that people tend to engage in, when they

have more of a positive

sense. These health

promoting behaviors and these more effective coping skills.

So now that we kind of understand these three of the puzzle, which is positive emotion, positive affect, and optimism, we can talk about

how do we increase those? How especially increase optimism and adjust the way that thinking. so one is CBT to positive thinking, the positive visualizations, third

the best possible self sactivity, I'm going

to you guys explanatory styles,

which is kind CBT

of things.

And we're also going to talk

about possible selves, which is activity can do which is

is a

really

cool psychology intervention. So I'm literally going to read to you guys

prompt

got did this activity this semester in Dr. Seligman's class.

I really hearing what people

learning about in their psychology classes and how it varies from school to school on who your teacher and

the that you're focusing on.

And if you're like, feel

like class, I am

but I, I hope that other people out there

enjoy this perspective and like these very concrete activities and assignments, all these things.

So,

may be hard at any age to find what we want

of life. That said, research shows that a positive vision of the future serve as effective

motivation towards we desire. Thus,

perhaps making more likely that it will manifest.

This activity

you to imagine your future life as a

Going as well as it can. As you imagine this best specific aspect of your future life,

write and journal about future self in as much detail as you can. By doing so, can it increase well being now?

How might it

impact future?

So what you do is you think about all the your life that are relevant and important. it academics? Maybe it's athletics, artistic pursuits, friendships, relationships,

Family? Career? of these things.

And you

take the to think about aspect of your life and what you want it look in this quote unquote best future version of yourself.

And you get really specific, like what happens in your daily routine? do you time your If you're going to work what workout are you doing? feel

as drinking your morning coffee? is your

environment like go to work? does it feel to your co workers?

you feel fulfilled motivated? All of things would be really instrumental and

relevant

to day to day experience.

And

the caveat here

to journal in this activity any past that prevent you from achieving that best future self, but just focus

potential what you want, what you're hoping for,

and

allows this to come And

this is things like, how do you talk to yourself? How do you cope with challenges arise?

How do you with others to make sure have boundaries your needs are met? and, I mentioned the initial prompt,

there are benefits with increasing your motivation to work towards future self and towards this goal that you're

really clear on, and another 2006

study showed that people who completed the best

possible self

intervention weeks showed in

with the

Participants who continued with the practice reported,

talked about these

one month puzzle, right, like

puzzle, right? Like

then it affects positive mood and affect, and then we get to optimism.

and so. Taking

these small steps we know scientifically

do mood

and emotion can have a really strong impact on that outcome. We're going to

talk about explanatory styles, which is the last thing we're going to cover in this episode because I know a lot at you. So, stay tuned. But this one concrete things that you can do on a day to day basis. You can start practicing immediately has really positive impacts on life and is backed in a lot of research.

And I'm going to research, but

I promise it's and helpful.

So, explanatory styles comes from research about learned helplessness. And

this was research was done at Penn by Dr Seligman. And

this

done in the mid 1960s.

basically what they did is they had three different groups of dogs. They had one group of dogs

that was shocked without a way to escape

shock.

wasn't very strong shock, it was a negative experience.

And

were not out of that challenge or adversity. Regardless of what they did, they experienced the shock.

They had another group. where dogs stop shock when they pressed the in the noses. So they experienced

shocks, they

had an ability to stop shock if they the course of action. and were dogs that got no shocks and they the control group. So were fine, they were hanging out, nothing happened.

What they found was

that the dogs that experienced the

with no way

out situation,

matter they still it, regardless of if they

then took action, and they would be able to stop the shock if they pressed the button with their nose, they didn't do anything to try and get the shock to stop. They'd learned that no matter what they did, nothing was going to change, and

just going to have to sit with and endure the negative experience.

And

they same experiment with humans. They had them in a room, they played a really loud noise, and for some could press a button and the noise would stop, for others they press the button 67 times, nothing happened, others there was no sound.

And the same thing occurred. Even when they then made the button work for the group that initially experienced the sound without any relief. they generally didn't try to stop the sound. They accepted that this was happening to them, that this negative experience was what just had to endure, and no problem solving took place. And so, the finding was that these groups of individuals, whether it was the dogs, they also did this in mice, they humans, was

that became passive and gave up in the face of adversity once had first experienced the negative events.

and

learn that they could do nothing about them.

And this is from Flourish. If you guys are interested in positive psychology, you absolutely have to read this book. It's just such a great overview of all the research. But, Sharing some findings from here as explain this, because else is at

this

than Dr. Seligman?

And so when we at learned helplessness, it's the idea that

nothing

you do alters the event.

You are helpless regardless of what actions you take to try and the situation. And the inverse of this is mastery, so it's the opposite and it's working to overcome the situation that in.

And so, when Dr. did this

was like, This is really crazy. if the situation changed,

and to stop negative experiences, the dogs able to the shock, they didn't.

And there was really

small of

people

experience shock, and weren't able to stop it, then they did have the ability to stop and they still continued to try.

And conversely, there were people where, even they pressed button, the shock immediately stop, but they chose not try at all. outliers.

I the optimist and the pessimist. But the general was

that , when

you learned your actions have an impact on the you stop trying.

And he up doing a

lot of additional research into this. Again, it initially started dogs, replicated it in animals, worked with humans, and they really started to solidify this idea of what happens

when are not able to change outcome of a situation, and how does that ability to

try and solve a problem

going forward?

And

what exactly is this learned helplessness, and why are some people still optimistic? when they are unable to overcome these challenges, matter what they do. And he on this thing called explanatory styles,

is very closely

connected to optimism.

explanatory

styles a thing that optimists and pessimists explanatory style you use tied to that mental state.

And so,

wrap up explain this in the context of specific study,

I'll explain it

in general,

just day to day life.

the finding was that people who believe

the causes of setbacks their lives are temporary, changeable, and local do not become hopeless.

And so,

Even there really annoying noise wouldn't go away

and nothing did stopped it, they thought

themselves, it's going to away, I can something about it, and it's just this one situation. bounce back quickly, and this is consistent across other areas. And then pessimists, on the hand, say things like,

it's going to last

it's going

undermine

everything, there's nothing I can do about it.

And this also carries over into other areas of life. And, we talked a lot about optimists and pessimists and different outcomes and things that's correlated with, but they continue to study this in the lab, found that pessimists depressed much more readily, they underachieve in their jobs, in classroom, and on the sports and their relationships are rockier.

So so many

correlations

this,

and one of the ways

change

this and really make a positive impact our lives immediately is explanatory styles.

So, I'm

to throw some words

you that

sound really weird. academic and not

easiest remember.

There should a better acronym this, not a explain it otherwise.

But basically,

when pessimists confronted

problems, the way that they view them permanent, pervasive,

and they're personal.

So, you a bad grade on a test. pessimist will say, This always happens. I bad grades. So, it's permanent across multiple situations. It's pervasive, it's across everything. if it's a math test, you say, I get bad grades in every class. I never well. And it's personal. I failed.

I test.

I well enough. I'm not smart. I will

never achieve what I want to. And you're really internalizing this experience and

yourself it's consistent across all these different areas life. Conversely, optimists will say

things are

specific, external. And if an optimist a test, say, I failed one test,

failed math test.

, they will make sure that it's specific to that situation. I failed this specific test. I didn't understand trigonometry. I didn't understand, how to do a linear regression, is, and external. say something related to

these

external behaviors.

studied hours. I should studied for 10.

I didn't feel like I really understood the lectures. I

was to meet

up study group, I didn't go. Again, it's not I'm dumb. I don't know how to learn things. It's these specific external things didn't happen, which led to this result.

And

so to give you just more general summaries we can use that are less specific a situation, pessimists will this will last forever, will undermine everything, and it's me, it's my fault. Optimists will say this pass, it's just this situation, and it's not entirely my fault. Again, we take accountability for some things, but

always putting all the

blame on ourselves especially when there's external factors, is really ineffective for our mental health.

Also another caveat to add which is that approach challenges and the way that we

victories different when explain things. So again, when we experience a setback, optimists will say that things are local, and external.

Really specific to that situation, not a reflection of you. But!

when

experience good things in our lives, we do want to say that those are permanent, pervasive, and eternal. So, imagine if you got an A on the test and you absolutely aced it, you did an amazing job, you all the steps allowed you to get to that point. A pessimist would say, I just did well on this one test, I never do well, like, was just a fluke. They'll like, the teacher must have graded it wrong, like, was an easy question, everyone else is going to take a harder test, like, it's just because the teacher wanted us to have an easy A, and it's only in this class, every class I'm horrible.

Optimists will do the opposite, they'll say it's permanent, I

well academically, I perform well on tests, I am good at studying, I'm good

preparing

these things, pervasive, so it's across multiple situations, I know how to study for a test, I know how to well, I well,

I will do well.

internal.

I studied hard this, I performed well, I this, and taking that accountability isn't the right word, but celebrating those wins and knowing that it's a reflection of you, and you get to take credit all that hard work and that outcome. And so, to give you a nice little

wrap up on this and explain why is so important to externalize these losses

internalize our wins be really about how explain these

that happen us. wanted to some reasons for why important. And so, one is that a big part

of this is these explanatory styles and these ways

thinking are the direct

way people that tend to think more pessimistically shift to a more optimistic way

viewing the world. did

with middle school children, they showed that retraining pessimistic into optimistic significantly

reduce the incidences of depression.

Crazy. It's correlated with

results and how much

people try in the classroom and how they are to continue to study

And

not only just how much effort

exerting, also the return on that, how well they perform.

It's related to rates insurance agents,

performance

in sports,

psychological well

in academic settings, which we know is huge thing, mental

health, especially depression,

many things. Basically, this is direct way

you

can impact.

your pessimistic versus

optimistic mindset. And we know that

if look at our pyramid again, positive emotions and mood and affect, and optimism versus pessimism,

it's

really this foundation that so much of our mental health sits on.

And I think this is another important disclaimer I'll add at end of this episode, which is that Thinking isn't everything. A big

the

puzzle here is taking action towards the results want.

It's changing our behaviors, it's

the routines and habits that beneficial, and social relationships, and practicing vulnerability, asking for help, and all these things that fit into this picture.

But

don't think that able to have the mental health outcomes that you want if you're still talking to yourself really negatively, if you still have this pessimistic of world. It's like, good mental health well being, and Extreme negativity. It's really challenging for those two things to hand hand.

And so, establishing this piece of

puzzle on, can help this journey feel less challenging and less overwhelming and

less like you're fighting against yourself every step way.

We'll

also

this

important skill set so essential to long term outcome.

So give you little recap

summary of all the amount of information that I just threw at you,

positive

emotions are these momentary experiences that have a big impact on well being. When we experience positive emotions, we're motivated to a better life ourself.

We necessarily force positive emotions on ourself, but it is an of puzzle, and we know it's correlated with

Behaviors, and our

longevity, and all these important pieces of the puzzle. a more accurate picture of our

day to day is our positive affect,

is generally our,

disposition and how we

the world.

we are

versus how

we Are we positive

or negative with kind our to experiences and affect

is really strongly correlated with physical health, our

problem solving, our mental health.

our relationships, things are really

closely intertwined affect, and it's a really key piece of puzzle that connects how we think about our lives and how we about our lives.

Our affect is kind of like that in between piece. And then the thinking piece is optimism and pessimism. It's how we view world.

Are we looking, it with a

lens of positive expectations or are we expecting negative things to happen? And so many outcomes hinge on way we think about things

From a physical health perspective,

From a mental health perspective, so much research

supports optimism a

really key piece of the puzzle here, and

one things

that is somewhat essential in those positive health outcomes that a lot of us want.

So we that? We can our as temporary. It's

just moment. just this thing. It's local. It's this situation. It's not my whole life, it's external. are lot of factors that led to this outcome. not just it's not only reflection of you.

when we have positive happen our life, opposite.

We make sure to say is a permanent thing. This

is something that generally happens in my

It's It

happens lots I'm capable of

experiencing this

feeling way, and

this will happen again, and it's internal. get to celebrate wins. You for It is a result of you

and hard work and all the amazing things about you. And

way of thinking Write

it post it note. Get good at it. I

promise more

nature when have a have

an interaction or you get good news or

get bad you start to reframe the way And rather being like, so dumb. I shouldn't done I should have known better. I didn't have all the information. could have studied harder. I generally do better

on these. This a specific instance didn't happen. The questions on this test were really hard. It good fit for

this opportunity, it's not a reflection of me as a person or as an applicant is.

And again,

I do think

this is of those things kind essential to mental health, not only thing that will

you to place you be.

It's important So,

lots of

rambling, lots

information. hope

this was helpful. If you far into episode, send me a DM.

know thought. Share with a friend or

family member.

Leave a review

for the podcast. It's so I check day. like, did anyone leave new review? Any

new messages from you

guys?

I absolutely love it,

and it's a positive experience that what we will explain is permanent, pervasive, and internal. worked so hard

on this podcast, and

people like me

and the podcast,

people generally enjoy it and have a good time listening

And I will continue to make content that enjoy. So,

with all affirmations,

I hope you guys enjoyed

this.

Let me know what else you

want to about

future episodes

and if you like this more psychology style

recap of learned at Penn

type of episode or guys were

like, this was too we never want this again. Also let know.

Thank

you listening

I talk you guys on Monday for our minis.

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