The Glass Half Full: An Outlook On Life

Is the glass half full or half empty? Are you the optimist who is hopeful and buoyant about what awaits you, or are you the pessimist who is surrounded by despondency and insecurity. The division between the two psychological groups can manifest and mould your path. Optimists are people who are naturally self-assured and confident about the future, they are hopeful in what they will soon be confronted with and anticipate only the good. Whereas, on the other hand, pessimists are people who tend to await the worst things to happen. Pessimism encourages a bad cloud of friends and can radiate a sharp swarm of negativity towards people around you.

It can lead to parlous health complications such as depression, anxiety and even heart disease. Being optimistic is a faith that leads to achievement, it involves shrewdness and acuity which is a practice that should be more common to society, where people need to be educated and accepting of the fact that by changing your habits of life, it can have an extremely impactful long-lasting effect. On average, people have around 25,000 to 50,000 thoughts a day. They range from fatalistic and negative thoughts to positive and insightful thoughts, both which are unavoidable and inevitable to the human brain. Being optimistic is a factor which can increase the chances of avoiding acute health issues. A study in 2009 showed that optimists were more likely to live longer than pessimists because of a lower risk of heart disease. Over 97,000 women, over the age of 50, participated in the Women’s Health Initiative which showed that the most optimistic women were 30% less likely to suffer from heart disease and 14% less likely to have poor physical health from any other causes than if they were pessimistic. A clear correlation is shown between poor physical health and the mental and habitual state a person is in. By living and thinking negatively while knowing the damage it does to physical health, it further extends the point of how imprudent it would be to live a life thinking so pessimistically.

In 2002 a study was created and it showed that there were 121 men and women who were diagnosed with heart disease. The study was concluded in that those who were the most pessimistic had a significantly higher chance of still having heart disease and an increasingly higher risk of death at an earlier stage than those who were more optimistic. It is inevitably clear after the research was published that by adapting to lifestyle choices, where even having an outlook on a glass being half full, it can have a benign contribution to better physical health and in the end a long lasting healthy life. Pessimists are people who are vulnerable and exposed to suffering from depression and mental health issues. Positive and negative thoughts about the future are important in understanding how vulnerable you are to falling into the enclosure of mental disorders. Research has shown that inhabiting optimism in your lifestyle helps to avoid feeling anxious, having suicidal thoughts and can even help avoid physical health issues. Pessimists are more vulnerable in a sense that they see the negative in everything; seeing a glass as half empty, and can, therefore, find themselves in a deep cycle of never-ending depression. Those who have a similar teaching of life encourage a similar swarm of people. By pessimists all having specific characteristics, they bring in a radiation of the same crowd of people. This has a detrimental effect on people as it encourages the behaviour of thinking and living in a way which increases the risk of mental health problems. To contrast the behaviour and origin of pessimists, optimists are people who are in control of their life. They are people who strive to succeed and work with a constructive mindset towards facing the barriers and still reaching their goal. A survey was started by a group of scientists where they picked out 2,547 people, that stated they had a mental health issue.

After this group began to look into this more, they saw that the 62% of people that rated their mental health as good, a year later they were 30% less likely to have mental health problems than those that said their mental health was bad. The conclusion of the survey showed that by even thinking and worrying on the outcome of what will happen, an ironic result is given as it increases your likelihood of remaining mentally unhealthy. One in 4 people will at some point in their life be faced and experience mental health disorders. It is a wide-spreading problem that can be prevented by adopting the idea of thinking more open-mindedly. Death. An inevitable and powerless fact of life which every person, no matter the race, religion, age or gender will go through. Having an outlook that death is something that should be feared and awaited, is an extremely unhealthy habit. This is a way which pessimists look at and surprisingly, it can increase the speed to death. A group of researchers from the Mayo Clinic published an article which showed that those who had a concerning mindset, were over the average of the chance of dying during their adult lifetime. It shows how important, changing your mindset to being stable and aware of the fact of life. Those who see the negative in everything, with time they become negative people and become extremely vulnerable to perhaps experiencing death at an earlier stage and finding that the bridges they need to cross are instead walls which they cannot go through. A study was published that showed pessimism encourages the increase of blood sugar and blood pressure. After 11 years from the start of the research, 121 people died from heart disease. This was due to them having a less optimistic outlook on life. Just by being more hopeful and confident about what is next to come, it can really reduce your chances of dying earlier than perhaps if you were negative and insecure. Not only does pessimism encourage bad physical health, but due to the insufficient working of the body, it increases the chances of your body shutting down. The body and the mind is something that is linked together, always.

By pessimists simply being unmotivated and looking at their mistakes in order to dwell and not learn from their experiences, it teaches the body to do the same. This is why those who are pessimistic have higher death rates and poorer physical health. It is all to do with the mindset these people are in. The mindset of no hope and a surrounding air of melancholy is what brings these people further down, away from happiness and contentment. Despite many people perhaps not appreciating how important the habits and rituals you make and involve in your life, it does really have an extremely large impact on your journey. The whole motive of being an optimistic person is to see your progression and value your success more than your failure. for what may seem like a stumbling block for a pessimist, it is a jumping block for the optimist. An optimist is one who adapts to the tragic and dramatic changes, they are simplistic and determined to step over the blocks and treat them as a ledge to power. Why be a pessimist who invites sorrow, resists and rejects reality? When you use your powerful body and soul to adapt to imperfections, and see the barriers as a way forward to improvement.