Anger and your health
|
These outlooks influence how they experience similar situations.
SCENARIO 1: JOB LOSS
Jane is devastated, convincing herself that she is all washed up, she can never catch a break, it is useless for to try to be successful, and she is never going to succeed at anything.
Anthony, however, has a healthier inner dialog. He tells himself he may not have been good at that particular job, his skills and company’s needs did not mesh, and being fired was only a temporary setback in his career.
SCENARIO 2: NEW JOBS
Offered a new job, Jane, the pessimist, believes she was able to find a new job only because her industry is now really desperate for people, and must have lowered their standards to hire her.
Anthony, however, feels he landed the new job because his talents were finally recognized and he can now be appreciated for what he can do.
IMPLICATIONS
As these examples illustrate, optimists tend to interpret their troubles as transient, controllable and specific to situations.
Recent research by Dr. Marvin Seligman confirms this. When good things happen, optimists believe the causes are permanent, resulting from traits and abilities. Optimists further believe that good events will enhance everything they do.
Pessimists, on the other hand, believe their troubles will last forever, will undermine everything they do, and are basically beyond their control. When good things happen to pessimists, they see them as temporary and caused by specific factors that will eventually change and lead to negative outcomes.
BENFITS OF OPTIMISM
Optimism creates better resistance to depression when bad events strike, better performance at work, and better physical health.
In fact, one long term study at the Mayo clinic in Rochester, MN, found that optimists lived 19% longer than pessimists.
Optimism is also a powerful antidote to anger. Many participants in our anger management classes report their anger lessening as they learn to replace negative thinking with positive thinking.
GOOD NEWS FOR NEGATIVE THINKERS
You can learn how to replace pessimism with optimism.
The starting point is to access your vulnerability to pessimistic thinking by taking the self evaluation test you can find at http://www.authentichappiness.org.
Your responses will be compared to thousands of other people in various categories, down to your Zip Code.
If you scored lower than you’d like, you can become more optimistic. As Dr. Seligman writes in Authentic Happiness his latest book: “the trait of optimism is changeable and learnable.”
LEARNING TO BE AN OPTIMISTIC THINKER
There is now a well-documented method for building optimism. It’s based on first, recognizing, and then disputing, pessimistic thoughts.
People often do not pay attention to their thoughts and thus do not recognize how destructive they can be in leading to negative emotions.
The key is to recognize your pessimistic thoughts and then treat them as if they were uttered by someone else—an external person, a rival, whose mission in life is to make you miserable!
Basically, you can become an optimist by learning to disagree with yourself— challenging your pessimistic thinking patterns and replacing them with more positive patterns.
Note: this view of optimistic thinking is not the process of “positive thinking” in the sense of repeating silly affirmations that you really don’t believe.
Rather, it is the process of correcting distorted or faulty thinking patterns that create health, career, and relationship problems for you.
By teaching yourself to think about things differently, (but just as realistically), you can morph yourself from a pessimist to an optimist—and tame the Anger Bee in the process.
Try a local search of our site for your answers
===============================================
SITE DISCLAIMER: The self help books and personal development resources resources on this site are not intended to be a substitute for therapy or professional advice. While all attempts have been made to verify information provided in this self help books and personal development resources, neither the author nor the publisher assumes any responsibility for errors, omissions or contrary interpretation of the self help books and personal development resources subject matter herein. There is no guarantee of validity of accuracy of any self help content. Any perceived slight of specific people or organizations is unintentional. This self help books and personal development resources and its creators are not responsible for the content of any sites linked to.
The self help contents are solely the opinion of the author and should not be considered as a form of therapy, advice, direction and/or diagnosis or treatment of any kind: medical, spiritual, mental or other. If expert advice or counseling is needed, services of a competent professional should be sought. The author and the Publisher assume no responsibility or liability and specifically disclaim any warranty, express or implied for any self help or otherwise products or self help or otherwise services mentioned, or any self help or otherwise techniques or practices described. The purchaser or reader of this self help books and personal development resources publication assumes responsibility for the use of these self help personal development materials and self help personal development articles and information. Neither the self help author nor the self help Publisher assumes any responsibility or liability whatsoever on the behalf of any purchaser or reader of these self help books and personal development resources.
Self help happiness & self help books and personal development resources, self help free e-books and self help articles listed for your convenient self help happiness self help books and personal development resources search in the self help subjects of self image, self help relationships tips, self help resources for happiness, being happy self help books and personal development resources emotion management, panic attack self help, self help for low self esteem, self help famous quotes, anxiety self help books and personal development resources, stress management self help tips and depression self help books and personal development resources.
===============================================
Back to Top of self help books and personal development resources page
Back to Happiness self help books and personal development resources Directory Home Page……
