Optimism or Pessimism: Choices for Better Health and Longer Life

Being a pessimist can ruin more than a fun day at the beach, it can influence how long and how well you live in every aspect of your life. Pessimists are more likely to die sooner from heart problems and other diseases than optimists. Optimists earn more money than pessimists, have happier marriages and live longer.

A study in the Netherlands that covered a nine year period and included nine hundred men and women, found that pessimists not only died sooner of all types of diseases, they also suffered higher rates of dementia and Alzheimer's.

How can you change from being pessimist to having an optimistic point of view? According to research, it isn't all that difficult.

One study centered around classical music and telling part ot those involved to listen to the music in an effort to raise their mood. The others were told only to enjoy the music. The group that was focused on raising their mood didn't, and those who were just enjoying the music felt much better. The bottom line was: you can't force yourself to be happy.

When we're so preoccupied and ruminating on the things we perceive as bad in our lives and not feeling good, we don't have time to see the good side of things and how they can help us feel better. Like Eeyore, in Winnie The Pooh, everything can look bleak if we focus on the downside.

My mother was a good example of an optimistic-pessimist, or maybe the other way around. She'd always hang a disclaimer on the end of things, like, "This is going to be a beautiful day, unless the wind comes up or it turns cold." Researchers call it "dispositional pessimism" and claim pessimists use it as a defense against being wrong or so they won't feel crushed if things don't work out. People who use that can always claim to be right, they've included all possibilities in the equation. Being able to say, "See. I told you so" is more important to people who use that ploy, according to researchers, than being happy and living a long and healthy life.