How you think about yourself and how you relate to others forms the foundation for how well you manage your emotions. Negative, defeatist attitudes towards your self and others make it hard to successfully manage your emotions. Positive, empowering attitudes, on the other hand, make managing your emotions and being emotionally resilient seem like second nature.

One of the most important positive characteristics that emotionally resilient people have mastered is Optimism. What is optimism? It is the trait of expecting that good things will happen in the future. It is the opposite of pessimism which is consistently believing that bad things will happen.

Why is Optimism so important? Research has convincingly shown that:

• Optimists catch fewer contagious disease than pessimists because they have healthier immune systems.
• Optimists have better social supports systems (close friends and/or family) which, in addition to giving social support, also helps ward off disease and helps you fight any illness you may get.
• Optimists manage to avoid the sense of helplessness that tends to set in when people feel out of control. Optimism helps motivate people to take constructive action that pessimists would not bother with.
• Because optimists believe bad situations can improve, optimism motivates people to change those bad situations. By dealing with problems before they become chronic or bigger, optimists end up having to solve fewer difficult life problems than do pessimists.

Click the arrow below to learn how to become more Optimistic.