5 Reasons Why It’s Not Worth Being Pessimistic
Could British novelist Arnold Bennett be right when he said that “Pessimism, when you get used to it, is as pleasant as optimism”? Can being pessimistic really be a positive thing?
What is certain is that being pessimistic is nothing more than a type of well-founded or unfounded attitude towards life. We are talking about a way of thinking that applies a filter on the perception of reality and on the predictions that a person makes of it. In other words, everything that happens or can happen around you will be interpreted negatively. The person believes that they live in the worst possible world, surrounded by the worst environment and with resources that, instead of facilitating their adaptation, make it difficult.
Why is it not worth being pessimistic?
Despite what you think, a pessimist is not necessarily a sad person. In other words, not all these individuals have this way of interpreting reality due to some depressive symptom or any emotional pain.
In a pessimistic person, sadness is usually preponderant, but it is not mandatory for both to be together. However, it is true that the penalty usually ends up showing up. Thus, the feeling sustained over time that an unfavorable scenario surrounds us could lead to despair and even helplessness, because under the pessimistic logic it would not be worth fighting to be better or fighting for progress or improvement.
However, and while being pessimistic is not worth it, not all those who show this kind of attitude do it in the same way. On the other hand, it is a way of thinking that can be applied to certain injustices or situations, but it is not the pessimistic person’s daily life.
Seek the truth… Always negative
One positive aspect of the pessimist is that he generally prefers being told the truth than sweetening him with a lie. Far from “what the eyes don’t see, the heart doesn’t feel”, they prefer another version that says “what the eyes don’t see, the feet stumble”.
However, even if they are good at accepting uncomfortable truths, it is also true that they do not seek to understand what happens objectively. They simply expect the worst and believe that everything is bad and based on convenient falsehoods. That is, it is as if something that is true, by force or nature, is negative or normal, but not good.
The negative is always the center of attention
A pessimistic attitude always emphasizes and focuses on the bad things. So when something goes right the way it should, it doesn’t attract attention. Everything else is directly negative.
A pessimistic person almost never focuses on the good things. Your center of attention will be the usual bad things. On the one hand, this can be positive because of its capacity for social denunciation, for example, but always thinking about the negative ends up lowering our daily spirits.
Your expectations are always low
They are personalities that tend to protect themselves from frustration, never expecting anything good from anything or anyone. In fact, they take it for granted that nothing will get better unless they try hard, and even then nothing is likely to be good.
Their pessimistic attitude, to some extent, protects these people from disappointment. They will rarely adjust expectations upward, so the reality will almost always positively surprise them. On the other hand, it is not necessary to be a pessimistic person to use this strategy, since everyone, in order to protect us, has already used it at some point.
They experience more grief processes
Pessimistic people experience more grief processes. In addition to the real losses they have to face, they have to face the losses they anticipate. Thus, in many cases, they experience imaginary mourning processes, since the loss, the worst case in which they are placed, never happens.
An attitude that can be latent or used unconsciously
Pessimism is not well regarded socially (especially since positive psychology is so hot), so people who use this filter tend to hide it. On the other hand, it is often such a learned attitude, such an automatic filter, that the person uses it without being aware that he is doing it.
Continuously or punctually, pessimism is a filter and an attitude that we use frequently. Good or bad, beneficial or harmful, this will have to be decided by each one. What science says is that a subdued optimism seems to help us, especially when facing problems, although it is only to align the phenomenon of self-fulfilling prophecy in our favor.
