[00:13.64]If you change your mind - from pessimism to optimism - you can change your life.
[00:19.81]Do you see the glass as half-full rather than half empty?
[00:23.83]Do you keep your eye upon the doughnut, ot upon the hole?
[00:28.30]Suddenly these cliches are scientific questions, as researchers scrutinize the power of positive thinking.
[00:35.59]Research is proving that optimism can help you to be happier, healthier and more successful.
[00:41.37]Pessimism leads, by contrast, to hopelessness, sickness and failure, and is linked to depression,
[00:47.94]loneliness and painful shyness. If we could teach people to think more positively,
[00:53.93]it would be like inoculating them against these mental ills.
[00:58.83]Your habits count but the belief that you can succeed affects whether or not you will.
[01:04.77]In part, that’s because optimists and pessimists deal with the same challenges and disappointments in very different ways.
[01:12.35]When things go wrong the pessimist tends to blame himself.
[01:15.65]“I’m not good at this.”“I always fail.”He would say. But the optimist looks for loopholes.
[01:22.02]Negative or positive, it was a self-fulfilling prophecy.
[01:26.14]If people feel hopeless they don’t bother to acquire the skills they need to succeed.
[01:31.60]A sense of control is the litmus test for success. The optimist feels in control of his own life.
[01:38.61]If things are going badly, he acts quickly, looking for solutions, forming a new plan of action,
[01:44.58]and reaching out for advice. The pessimist feels like fate’s plaything and moves slowly.
[01:51.20]He doesn’t seek advice, since he assumes nothing can be done.
[01:55.40]Many studies suggest that the pessimist’s feeling of helplessness undermines the body’s natural defenses,
[02:01.32]the immune system. Research has found that the pessimist doesn’t take good care of himself.
[02:08.05]Feeling passive and unable to dodge life’s blows, he expects ill health and other misfortunes,
[02:14.35]no matter what he does. He munches on junk food, avoids exercise, ignores the doctor, has another drink.
[02:23.40]Most people are a mix of optimism and pessimism, but are inclined in one direction or the other.
[02:30.06]It is a pattern of thinking learned at our mothers’ knees.
[02:33.54]It grows out of thousands of cautions or encouragements, negative statements or positive ones.
[02:40.04]Too many “don’t” and warnings of danger can make a child feel incompetent, fearful - and pessimistic.
[02:47.44]Pessimism is a hard habit to break - but it can be done.
