Optimism and your health

Recently on a trip through western Queensland, it was overwhelming the recovery of the regions that have received wonderful rains and channel country which has flooded as a result of the waters moving slowly south.

Such abundance has changed the mindset of many which in turn I believe may have a huge influence over the physical health and mental wellbeing of the residents in these communities. A caveat of course are those where the devastation from flooding rains will last for some time.

Being optimistic has proven to be linked to various health benefits as well as better resilience and longevity.

Does optimism make you healthy, or does being healthy make you optimistic? We would say both! The way that optimism can promote good health, and how that good health translates back into an optimistic mindset can be very powerful when we learn how to utilise it to our advantage. When done correctly, we can even use the momentum of an optimistic mindset to improve our lifestyle and longevity. I asked my colleague to help me prepare this article and in doing so proposed a few questions to Dr Kylie Gates.

What is optimism?

If we are going to use optimism to our advantage, we first need to understand what it is. As mentioned above, optimism primarily refers to a mindset that is positive in nature; its opposite being pessimism. An optimistic mindset has everything to do with the way we perceive things and events around us in the present and future. Some might assume optimism is a fixed personality trait, however optimism is actually a mindset that you can choose to opt into even in negative situations.

As a lens for perception, optimism influences your adaptive behaviour and cognitive