Why optimistic people manage daily stress in a more constructive way

When facing day-to-day problems, whether they are work or family, stress usually takes over the body, and as a consequence it becomes difficult to rescue something positive from the situation experienced. Few people are optimistic about adverse situations, since the vast majority tend to enlarge the negative side, however minimal, rather than rescue something positive.

“Optimism, for psychology, is one of the measures by which one can understand how the subject is positioned in the face of different reality, specifically towards the future. This perspective of the future that optimism gives us is the result of an evaluation, in which the subject considers the data of reality and can generate nothing more and nothing less than a project”, Ricardo Iacub, PhD in Psychology and tenured Professor in Psychology of the Elderly and Old Age at the University of Buenos Aires, explained to Infobae.

But on the other hand, “it is also a certain degree of optimism that allows us to resolve situations that could otherwise leave us with fear, anguish, inhibition,” Iacub said, “and that to some extent what optimism allows is to find some possible way out of this situation that can be ordered some life project.”

Recent research, published in The Journal of Gerontology, found that optimism can promote emotional well-being, limiting the frequency with which stressful situations are experienced. This study proves a possible explanation, assessing whether the most optimistic people manage daily stress more constructively and, therefore, enjoy better emotional well-being.

Therefore, after obtaining the results,” it would be useful to identify psychosocial factors that could serve as treatment targets to promote a longer, healthy life,” said Lewina Lee, author of the research, psychologist at the National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder clinic in Boston, VA Healthcare System and professor at Boston University School of Medicine.

With this data, the Lewina Lee team assured that “there is increasing evidence of the relationship between optimism and healthy aging.” However, it is not yet clear how optimism influences health.

Men improved their mood by being optimistic

Researchers analyzed 233 older men. All of them had to complete an optimism questionnaire and, 14 years later, they had to report daily stressors along with positive and negative moods on eight consecutive nights, over a period of eight years.

After analyzing the data, experts noted that the most optimistic men reported not only a lower negative mood, but also a more positive mood. That is, beyond not being negative, they were more positive.

On the other hand, the same participants also reported having fewer stressors that were not related to their higher positive mood, but explained their lower levels of negative mood.

“This research,” explained Iacub, “which shows us is a double mechanism that can have, on the one hand, solve stressful situations caused by certain life situations where optimism can allow us to find a possible way out or a resolution. But at the same time, optimism gives us in itself certain degrees of subjective well-being, because the subject finds that he can enjoy this positive appreciation of the future.”

Optimism changes the way we interpret stressful situations

Research data suggest that, when it comes to dealing with day-to-day stressors, such as household chores or problems in which more people are involved, being more or less optimistic did not intervene in the way older men reacted emotionally or recovered from these stressors. However, optimism seemed to promote emotional well-being, as it limited the frequency with which older men experienced stressful situations or, at least, some changed the way they went through those situations.

Thus, according to Lewina Lee, the study revealed that optimistic people “manage daily stress more constructively and, therefore, enjoy better emotional well-being.” Therefore, the analysis supported the idea that being more optimistic promotes good health and longevity. Moreover, the research confirmed that stress “has a negative impact on health”, since it has been observed that optimistic people manage day-to-day stressors better, something that favors healthy aging.

“We can think that optimism is a measure that goes through the different stages of life, each with particular characteristics,” said Iacub. According to the specialist, in old age optimism encounters certain difficulties, some of them of a cultural nature, such as prejudice and the disqualification of certain social roles, or activities linked to that stage of life. “But at the same time this coping mechanism can be very useful at a stage of life in which there may be more chronic diseases that may not be solved, as well as in the face of the possibility of one's own death or the death of closest loved ones,” he said.

Pessimism can be a very critical situation in the face of unchangeable situations because “it can generate a closure to any project”, while optimism, “with a certain margin of delusional enthusiasm can mean an opening to, precisely, transferring certain closures that life can produce in the face of certain limitations.” concluded.

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