I have had my share of those not-so-exciting experiences you may have heard of about applying for a US visa. I did get approved for ten years, but the ordeal I had to go through was painful for me.
The Consul questioned why there was no stamp on my passport from my previous trip to Australia (because they no longer do that); I was given a note that my application was refused, but they didn’t return my passport yet because they needed to investigate further. I went through the ordeal of waiting there for hours, filled out another form, and took an oath to swear that I was telling the truth.
Rolling back up to the days before the interview, I remember half-believing that I would never get approved and that I will have to go through the application because my company had invested in me. However, I also thought it would be a colossal miss not to go to that significant conference and that I should think positively so I could attract positive energy too, so I did. I couldn’t find a reason in my head why I’d be refused, really, but because people say it’s pretty hard to get approved. I think the pessimism side of my mind at that time led me not to exert enough effort during the interview. My responses were short and flat, and I had resigned that I won’t get approved like many others.
Have you met someone who is predominantly pessimistic? I am pleased to meet you too… I swing between optimism and pessimism, depending on how much information I have on the matter.
The Pessimist’s Brain
So what’s inside the brain of a predominantly pessimistic mind? Is our outlook in life, whether positively or negatively charged, affecting the morphology or size of our brains? In the study, Psychology Today – Optimism and Anxiety Change the Structure of Your Brain, the gray matter volume in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) of the brain shrank in some young adults in Japan after they experienced the earthquake and tsunami in 2011. The study highlighted that the size of your OFC depends on whether you are optimistic or mostly prone to anxiety, and the larger the OFC, the lesser chance of stress.
Painful or traumatic experiences can often lead to pessimism. OFC is the seat where intellectual information and emotion (from the amygdala) are integrated, leading to the emotion we feel and the behavior we show. The larger volume of gray matter in this area of the brain leads to a more positive outlook on life and is optimistic.
Blame it on the Genes
Is pessimism genetic? Another recent study by Todd et al., published in the Journal of Psychological Science, revealed that the gene deletion (mutation, certain amino acids missing) of ADRA2B can be blamed for our pessimism. Their experiment showed that those who carried the ADRA2B deletion reacted more to negative pictures and words, while those who didn’t take it responded more to positive visuals and words. A traumatic experience may have caused the deletion.
Stay Happy, Live Longer
There have been studies that proved how pessimism affects one’s health and how the feeling of fear or anxiety increases cortisol which may lead to many known stress-induced diseases. However, it can also be our survival instinct kicking in. Some pessimists always begin with low expectations while they see a bleak future ahead, a coping mechanism devised to survive.
Optimistic people, on the other hand (as long as they are realists and not delusional), have a more positive disposition, got more friends as they are usually fun to be with, and are generally happy and grateful about what they have. It’s also known that a positive outlook on life is one of the formulas for the longevity of life.
Optimists are usually confident with a hopeful mindset, so they grab any opportunities within reach. However, some optimists are complacent or overconfident and are more prone to misses and failures. I think it is still best to anticipate the risks, do something to overcome them, and keep a positive outlook that everything will be great.
Train Your Brain
Can you still train your brain to be more optimistic? As humans, we can change, adapt and thrive. We can unlearn what is no longer relevant and learn anything new that is critical to our survival. The neuroscientist called neuroplasticity the brain’s capability to progress from learning simply too complex ideas by developing new nerve networks.
It is like learning to play a song you love on the piano. At first, you will struggle, but with practice, you will know it later. It only takes hours of training and perseverance.
Choosing Battles
What works for people I know, who have mastered this art, is to learn to sift through information and choose the ones that will be beneficial. Learn to avoid and ignore people with ‘chronic’ pessimism – who always have something negative to say and shut down everyone else’s light.
Happiness is contagious. By surrounding ourselves with optimistic people, we can also become optimistic. I am lucky to have found a few people in my circle who are always grateful and hopeful about almost everything. They make tough times easy to go through.
Some of my favorite optimistic people are the authors of my favorite self-help books. It is like listening to someone who can be brutally honest about what you’ve been doing wrong but tells you that there is always hope and helps you fix it. Reading also trains me to shut up, shun self-defense and absorb information.
God gives hope…be optimistic. #Godisfaithful