By Trish Briggs
Optimism is not based on our external reality but is rather determined by regulation of our inner world.
We determine the construct of our inner world. We build it, piece by piece. It is based on our perceptions and take-aways from our experiences, and more fundamentally on our belief system that we create along the way. Just as importantly, we should take responsibility for what we have built and own it. If we don’t like our inner world, it is within our power to change it, piece by piece.
I have been very fortunate to innately have ‘an interior microscope’ that I use to search for the ‘silver lining’ of every experience. This is part of my natural processing. (It can be very annoying for others at times.) Then when I finally position the experience into my landscape construct, it includes something positive that came out of the experience. Magically, optimism is threaded throughout my interior landscape. I am not sure if I was born with this microscope, or it was instilled by my mother when I was a child, but I am very thankful it is in place.
This is not to say that I don’t struggle with the emotions and feelings when I encounter a particularly stressful/challenging situation. Just like the rest of mankind, I have had my periods of feeling hopeless and/or depressed. I believe that is part of life and living as a human being. (Other spiritual beings don’t have the opportunity to feel and process emotions.)
But in hindsight, I usually will find something to be thankful for from every experience. For Example: My husband died from ALS when I was in my forties. I grieved during his illness and after his death, had moments of wondering why I was still here, and how I was going to continue to raise our children without him. During this time, I felt very alone and without any support. Eventually with time, the grieving lessened, and I could see how I had grown during the process. I was a new version of myself and had learned the skill to be present with others during the grieving process.
An optimistic attitude towards life and living, encourages us to continue where pessimists would give up.
In 2014, I was introduced to the concept of fixed and growth mindsets. This concept was taught in a nursing class on how to reach your full potential.
A fixed mindset believes that intelligence is static and tends to avoid challenges, give up easily, sees effort as fruitless, ignores useful negative feedback, and feels threatened by the success of others.
Whereas the growth mindset believes intelligence can be developed and tends to embrace challenges, persists in the face of setbacks, sees effort as the path to mastery, learns from criticism, and finds lessons and inspiration in the success of others.
In other words, a fixed mindset is a deterministic, dare I say, pessimistic view of the world (no growth) and holds one back from achieving full potential. Whereas a growth mindset gives one a greater sense of free will, empowerment, and I am going to add, optimism. It also adds to your resilience in the face of trauma/hardship. A growth mindset allows room for the magic of living. (I still believe that there is something magical about finding the ‘silver lining’ in the storm cloud.)
I want to add one more thing, disciplined optimism (seeing growth within the reality) is not the same as unbounded optimism (wearing rose colored glasses) … and I will leave you with this quote: “Optimism is the power to spur bold action and extraordinary results by taking responsibility for the hand that you are dealt and feeling more empowered to make a difference.” (The Leadership Wheel by C. Clinton Sidle, p. 83)
May the force of optimism be with you, in your inner world construct!
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