6 Comments

Hans Rosling wrote a book called "Factfulness". You should check it out. The message of the book is that the world isn't as bad as you think it is.

He discusses a dozen or so psychological traps that most people fall into - traps that make us anxious, fearful, and angry.

Everyone here should give it a read

Expand full comment

He also describes how we can cope with and overcome those traps. The books has a very positive and optimistic tone to it

Expand full comment
author

sounds awesome ill check it out!

Expand full comment

It’s easier to be an optimistic realist once you realize negative thinking is non-productive. Being happy or sad takes approximately the same amount energy to accomplish either outcome.

Identifying how you are focusing energy lends awareness to a model for adoption or correction to improve your more happy, less unhappy, realist goals.

I like Castenada’s reporting of Mateus’s warrior way definition. When confronted with an unusual life situation, one must accept without accepting, disregard without disregarding, and even though you are shaking in your boots, you do what must be done.

Having a path makes dealing with difficulties much easier, and sometimes doing nothing is the correct choice.

Expand full comment

I really enjoyed reading this as I sometimes find myself getting caught up in the negativity of the world and feeling hopeless as a result. I loved the part about rewiring our brains towards optimism being a developed skill, not something we are born with. That gives me hope that we can learn together how to be more optimistic. It's a difficult skill to learn though, especially when I feel underwater the most. It's almost as if there is a necessary acceptance period that I need to go through in order to process and move forward with optimism. What advice do you have for avoiding pessimism when it feels the strongest?

Expand full comment

My local library just notified me they acquired a copy of Practical Optimism and so I started my 14 day borrow period. I hope to have it read by Sunday, 12ET … it’s sunny today and we get so few days … it’s gonna be a challenge but I’m optimistic 😁

I really dropped in here to this community because when I think emotionally safe spaces for men, I think of Airplane Mode … wondering if there is space for something like this:

I want to re-watch One Day but I don’t have the emotional bandwidth to do it alone and I don’t have anyone I trust enough with my feelings to watch it with me.

Anyway, just a fleeting thought I had to put somewhere and I saw a space on the shelf…

Expand full comment