Good things are coming my way!
An optimistic person believes “Good things are coming my way!”
It is well worth our time to consider how to cultivate optimism because research has shown many health and lifestyle positive benefits accrue to optimistic people including:
- better health outcomes
- longer lifespans
- lower stress levels
- higher motivation
- greater achievement
- better emotional and mental well-being.
Fostering optimism is something that is built into the very process of coaching.
Coaching by definition “ is a vehicle for helping people to achieve a higher level of well-being and performance in life and work, particularly when change is hard.”*
It is not an easy task to practice optimism as we face the day in, day out reality of living with chronic illness.
One of my clients has worked diligently over this past year to take charge of her fibromyalgia symptoms more effectively and cultivate a more optimistic frame of mind.
She wrote to me:
I have learned and internalized that this disease experience is not my fault. I am trying to listen to my body and be of assistance to it… I have hope that I can decrease my symptoms enough to continue to live my priorities and find productive meaning in my life.
-J.B., Washington
She is showing up as a HERO in her own life!
She is overcoming obstacles, setting goals and reaching them.
She is learning to love her life again.
This quote is a lovely example of how my client has deliberately worked toward increasing her inner resources of hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism.
These deposits in her emotional bank account are so valuable to her.
And the good news is it is never too late to start.
Our minds, bodies and spirits are always capable of learning and growing.
In summary, the following four sentences remind me of the value of building a reserve of inner resources for facing challenges:
Hope says: I can find a way forward.
Efficacy says: I can do this!
Resilience says: I can recover from this.
Optimism says: Good things are coming my way!
If you would like to have a copy of the special FREE mini-workbook I created for this series called Cultivating Psychological Capital and Managing Chronic Illness in a Time of Crisis: A Toolkit for How to Show Up and Be a HERO in Your Own Life you can download it HERE.
