Is optimism necessary for a healthy well-being process?
We, as the iyimserpsikoloji.com team, strongly believe in this. It is essential for both the psychologist and the client to be optimistic about the process in order to obtain a healthy result. Clients who are in the process of getting better are often people who cannot think optimistically about their own lives. Anxiety usually takes over the body in these people, and this high level of anxiety unfortunately leaves little room for optimism.
So why is pessimism, the opposite of optimism, so common and what is its starting point? In fact, pessimism is the gift of evolution to us. Yes, you did not hear it wrong, pessimism is a gift to our genes encoded by the evolutionary process so that we can survive. Let’s think about our primitive hunter-gatherer times. The times when the smallest piece of information and every choice is crucial to survival. We have to be pessimistic about the silhouette approaching to our cave so that we can take precaution. If we are optimistic and comfortable, we’d probably be a great dinner for the predators. So it was in our interest to be pessimistic at that time in order to survive.
So why are we so pessimistic today when the threat to life is not as obvious as in those days? Or is being pessimistic as useful to us as it was back then?
The modern lifestyle has greatly increased the anxiety level. All over the world, the average level of anxiety has doubled compared to the 1950s. Unfortunately, this raised anxiety leaves little room for optimism. Although we are not directly under a life threat, we now have other sources of anxiety. Is my wife/husband cheating on me? I cannot overcome my marriage problems. How will I deal with my teen daughter / son? How will I deal with my mother-in-law? What if I get unemployed? Why am I so unhappy? Why am I not as peaceful and happy as others? Do I need antidepressant? I have exam anxiety. I have cynophobia and I am struggling. I feel everyone is like an enemy to me. My life is very meaningless. Nobody understands me. My father / mother doesn’t love me. My son is a computer addict. Life is too cruel. I can’t find a way out.
There are perhaps very few of our sources of anxiety above, and so this list can be very extended. We live very isolated and complex lives now. The biggest source of anxiety today is the “social threat”, in other words, somehow being kicked out of the group.
Here, we, as the iyimserpsikoloji.com team, are determined to infect the people living especially in the triangle of Beylikdüzü, Bahçeşehir and Büyükçekmece with our energy, expertise and optimism, our power of solution, our love and happiness. Of course as long as you allow this.
“I’m optimistic because I’m brave.” This is our motto. We want it to be yours too!