Intelligent Optimism: Happy Despite Everything

The economist and scientific writer Eduard Punset summarizes the sense of optimism in three fundamental points which, in his opinion, are the reason for true happiness. These points are: life expectancy, personalized medicine and knowledge of emotions. These, however, are the keys to an optimism that, in a critical situation, can fail in the face of lack of will and weakened mental health. If this happens, do you have little hope of being happy? Absolutely not, if you dare to know and practice the key points of intelligent optimism.

But… what is intelligent optimism?

There are not a few people who still think that optimism is linked to ignorance or the “denial of reality”, while pessimism is linked to “mental enlightenment”. These statements support a kind of optimism based on being happy for the fact of being happy, closing one’s eyes to reality in order not to suffer. And that is why psychologists’ studies are full of people who, ignoring themselves and the environment in which they live, find in a bad moment that they have been deceiving themselves for years and who, to their surprise, are not what they thought they were. and neither were those close to them nor the social and economic environment in which they lived.

This has nothing to do with true optimism. Intelligent optimism develops from positive psychology, a very recent trend that has aroused a different interest in psychotherapy, as it focuses on the study of the elements of mental health rather than on illness, as is usually the case in psychology. . María Dolores Avia, Professor of Personality Psychology at the Complutense University of Madrid and author of the book “Intelligent Optimism”, has set a precedent regarding the importance of intelligent optimism in the development of the individual.

Four rules to be happy despite everything

• Open your eyes. Those who practice intelligent optimism must avoid keeping their eyes closed in front of reality and what is happening around them. Prejudice (positive or negative), fear and compliance are the worst enemies for an individual, as they hinder true self-knowledge.

• Feed your body and mind. You cannot be happy despite everything if apathy, self-destructive attitude (resentment, nostalgia, sense of guilt, melancholy …) and despair prevail. There is no greater faith than that which comes from the willpower to achieve a goal. If you feed your body and mind with new goals, you will never stop being optimistic.

• Cultivate the little pleasures in life. Straight from the film by Jean Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, “The Fabulous World of Amélie”, this phrase sums up intelligent optimism in an effective way. Sometimes, we are so busy carrying out big tasks and responsibilities that we forget the little things in everyday life that really make sense of our whole life. The intelligent optimist will pay particular attention to these little daily pleasures, because they represent a great encouragement on good days, but especially on bad ones.

• Fight. Phrases like “I’ve already done it”, “I’m too old” are useless. To live means to struggle and, curiously, the same battle, the desire to grow, learn, create and break down walls and obstacles are a guarantee against disease. As long as you are alive, feel alive!