"Act Like an Optimist, Improve your health"

I finally went to the dentist today. I don't know why it takes me so long to go. I typically do not have any issues and I really like my dentist and the dental hygienists, but for whatever reason, I am always late, late, late for getting my six month cleaning. I vow to do better. While I was at the dentist today I took a sneak peak at an article in Redbook called "Act Like an Optimist, Improve Your Health" - the title caught my eye as I am an optimist and always looking for validation that I am somewhat healthy! Actually, as a family we really have been working at eating better and exercising. I even did my first wheat grass shot this weekend. (It wasn't bad) But now I digress so back to the article. I did not have an opportunity to read the entire article at the dentist office, no wait time, but I found it online when I got home. I love the first line..."First let's be clear: This is not an article about happiness." "We are not going to tell you to smile or lighten up." This article clearly defines the difference between "happiness" and "Optimism" - "happiness is an emotion, a feeling, whereas Optimism is a BELIEF about the future." Don't you love that!

In the article there is reference to an online survey you can take to see your optimisim score. Why not, I took the survey. You can too, take it HERE.
My results were.... Score= 28; 30 is the highest score possible on the Optimistic side. I told you I was optimistic.

"Your score indicates that you are highly optimistic. People who are highly optimistic are generally very happy and satisfied with their lives, highly committed to their goals and likely to accomplish them, and have a history of success in achieving their prior goals. They tend to pay more attention to the positive than the negative aspects of their environments. Sometimes, people who are highly optimistic put so much energy toward their goals that they might be prone to wearing themselves down physically."

The categories of the article are:
A really good overview, Set and Pursue Goals, Be Persistent, Tackle problems head on, Change your perspective, Imagine the worst and Put it in writing.

There has been a time or two when my optimism got me into trouble. I tend to think so positively about the future or future events that I forget some of the negative things that happened in the past. Sometimes that isn't so good as I have fallen prey to negative events by a person that was hurtful more than once when I should have known better than to open myself up or try to build a relationship. In this case, optimism put me at risk to be hurt again. However, I will ALWAYS take being optimistic over being pessimistic anytime and I will deal with the rare, very rare issues if they come up.

I encourage you to read the article, it is a good one! Click on the title of this blog post, it should take you to the Redbook article.
The picture is from this past Saturday 9/12/09. My husband of 22 years (as of 9/12/09... Happy anniversary to us!) ran a 5K with our daughter. They both did fantastic and I couldn't be more proud. When Rich started doing 5Ks about a year ago, his time was 44 minutes, Saturday he finished in 31 minutes! and the first half of the year I think he only did one maybe 2 races, he has really increased his participation in 5Ks and running in general in the last 6 months. WOW! He had to have been optimistic about the future of running or why keep pushing?

Happy Monday! (almost Tuesday)

Peace & Love