{"id":7479,"date":"2016-10-31T06:42:27","date_gmt":"2016-10-31T10:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/?p=7479"},"modified":"2025-09-04T14:45:37","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T18:45:37","slug":"increase-your-happiness-optimism-examples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/7479\/increase-your-happiness-optimism-examples\/","title":{"rendered":"Increase Your Happiness &#8211; Optimism Examples"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>This article is in our series about\u00a0<strong>increasing happiness<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>life satisfaction<\/strong>. \u00a0Many people with chronic pain can\u2019t\u00a0decrease their pain. \u00a0So another way to live a more enjoyable and fulfilling life \u2013\u00a0perhaps even more\u00a0important \u2013\u00a0is to\u00a0increase the positive. \u00a0That\u2019s what we\u2019ll look at in this series.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s\u00a0look at some <strong>optimism examples<\/strong>, using optimism to\u00a0increase happiness.<\/p>\n<p>Optimists believe there are <em>permanent <\/em>and\u00a0<em>universal\u00a0<\/em>causes for positive events. \u00a0Optimists generalize positive causes and expect them to continue.<\/p>\n<p><em>Positive Event Example<\/em>:\u00a0 We had a little time left over in a meeting at work this week.\u00a0 I suggested we\u00a0might share how we each deal with a common problem one person was having trouble with &#8211; getting back to sleep while being on call.\u00a0 Several people thanked me and the person who was having difficulty\u00a0said, &#8220;That was really kind.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">I initially said to myself, &#8220;Yes, that was helpful and kind.&#8221;\u00a0 To be even more optimistic, I could say,\u00a0&#8220;I&#8217;m a kind person.\u00a0 I often look for ways to help people.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Optimists believe there are <em>temporary<\/em> and <em>specific<\/em> causes for negative events. \u00a0These causes can be changed and they only apply to this one specific negative event.<\/p>\n<p><em>Negative Event Example:\u00a0 <\/em>I signed up to sell some of my charity notecards at a craft fair, but there were\u00a0few buyers.\u00a0\u00a0I didn&#8217;t question the value of my cards.\u00a0 I recognized\u00a0that the fair wasn&#8217;t a great place for selling &#8211; most people came just to walk outside and have lunch.\u00a0\u00a0And I learned what type of\u00a0fair\u00a0I&#8217;ll look for in the future.<\/p>\n<p>Keep\u00a0tracking your reactions to positive and negative events, and look for explanations that are\u00a0more optimistic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article is in our series about\u00a0increasing happiness\u00a0and\u00a0life satisfaction. \u00a0Many people with chronic pain can\u2019t\u00a0decrease their pain. \u00a0So another way to live a more enjoyable and fulfilling life \u2013\u00a0perhaps even more\u00a0important \u2013\u00a0is to\u00a0increase the positive. \u00a0That\u2019s what we\u2019ll look at in this series. Let&#8217;s\u00a0look at some optimism examples, using optimism to\u00a0increase happiness. Optimists believe there [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7479"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8065,"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7479\/revisions\/8065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.howtocopewithpain.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}