If, like me, lots of you have also become fed up with all those smarmy smiling
new-age gurus who advise us that to feel great, and to be great, all we really
need to do is think good thoughts all the time, you're going to get lots of
pleasure from a small group of therapists who claim that always looking on the
bright side of life may be - nay, that it actually is - bad for some of us.
In fact, The New York Times reports, these therapists were so upset at all the
feel-good hype that they even held a symposium at a meeting of the American
Psychological Association entitled "the (Overlooked) Virtues of Negativity."
Their goal is noble, if you ask me. They want to counteract the "all optimism, all the time" movement by having us acknowledge something we all know to be true: that trying to be (or pretending to be) happy and persistently optimistic in the face of all that life is really like may actually set the stage for worse outcomes in certain circumstances.
Why? Well, getting angry or feeling bad or sorry for yourself is in fact the natural (and correct) response to many situations (like, for example, when your son told you that for once he's going to make dinner, and you come home to find that not only have he and his friends eaten all of it themselves, but that they have left you all the dirty dishes, too) and constantly pretending otherwise is not only hypocritical, it might even be unhealthy.
How could a constant "don't worry, be happy" attitude cause harm? Through stress, according to another study presented at the same meeting, some people, even when they claim to be happy, suffer spikes in their cortisol levels, a hormone associated with stress that has been linked to negative health outcomes (raised risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, and so on). In other words, at least for some people, it's possible, even likely, that claiming to be happy when they're not is stressful and ultimately harmful.
These therapists also claim that adopting a perpetually optimistic attitude can make it more difficult to cope with certain situations. For example, a die-hard optimist prepares for an interview or speech by imagining only how well it will go, and thus might be very hard hit (because he never saw it coming) by unexpected setbacks or negative critiques, whereas a pessimist (like moi, to be sure) may be better prepared to handle it when the results of his efforts are as bad as he thought they might be.
So, folks, don't bother trying to get back at me if you didn't like this article by telling me that you hate it. It won't affect me at all because I already expect you to say that.
While it may be better not to be a perpetual optimist, enjoying life has definite health benefits.