How do you think?
Are you an optimist, with the tendency to expect the best possible outcome, to dwell on the most hopeful aspects of a situation?
Or are you a pessimist, with the tendency to see the worst in things and expect the worst possible outcome?
Let’s consider how we think, how we can renew our minds and move from being pessimistic to optimistic, and why we should, based on the Bible and modern psychology.
The Psychology
Dr Martin Seligman, President of the American Psychological Association, developed the concept of learned optimism in 1975. He discovered that people learn from difficult situations to react in two different ways – to feel helpless, or to feel empowered. People who feel helpless when bad things happen are less resilient, more likely to experience unhappiness, prolonged sadness, depression and more severe cases of depression, along with the greater risk of mental and physical illness throughout life. People who feel helpless and give up easily when difficult situations occur are pessimistic.
In contrast, people who don’t give up easily when bad things happen are more resilient, being empowered and energised by the situation. These people are less susceptible to depression and are happier and healthier. People who feel empowered in adverse situations are optimists.
Contrary to popular belief that you’re either born optimistic or pessimistic, optimism is a learned skill, and you can teach yourself to be more optimistic. Optimism is therefore a choice, a way of thinking and explaining why bad things happen.
There are three elements of Seligman’s Learned Optimism – Permanence, Pervasiveness, and Personalisation. Here are the key differences:
Permanence: When faced with difficulty, a pessimist views it as permanent (‘it’s always so hard’, ‘I never win’). An optimist believes bad events and their causes are only temporary (‘I’ve been distracted recently’, ‘I didn’t play well today’).
Pervasiveness: When confronted with a failure, a pessimist makes universal explanation (‘I’m a bad cook’, ‘I’m no good at math’), but an optimist makes a specific explanation (‘The eggs were over-cooked’, ‘algebra is tough’).
Personalisation: When bad things happen, a pessimist tends to blame themselves (‘my painting was bad’, ‘I didn’t practice enough’), whereas an optimist understands not everything is under their control (‘the judge preferred something else’, ‘the other team was really good’).
The Bible
Why does this matter for Christians? The Bible teaches us that the world isn’t permanent, nor is sin, pain, death or evil. Revelation 21 tells us God has prepared a new heaven and earth for us, and He will live with us! Jesus knew we’d face trouble and uncertainty, but in John 16:33 He reminds us that He has overcome the world, and this hope overcomes any pervading fears. We don’t have to internalise and personalise our failures because we have a heavenly father we can give all our fears and failures to (1 Peter 5:7).
If you need another reason to be optimistic, here’s the best one I can think of – Jesus is coming back.
WRITER: Bradley Martin, Faith FM Producer.