Why Blissful Delusion is Good For Us!

My latest illustration is this little guy (inspired by Sasha from animal crossing for fans of the game), and when I drew him I immediately thought 'he looks so blissfully delusional'. :•)

And honestly, this is my vibe these days! Just trying to be blissfully delusional and optimistic about the future, even when things don't always turn out.  And I have to say, it feels good! 

After I thought of the caption for this illustration, it got me wondering: 

is a little bit of delusional optimism actually good for us? 

I have not always been a very optimistic person. I used to be very pessimistic, in fact. I would always assume the worst case scenario. I was always anxious about something, or I would jump to something negative. And it did not make me feel good. :•(

But over the past few years I have been working really hard to become a more optimistic person. It wasn't easy in the beginning. It was a bit of a fake it til you make it situation! But after lots of practice I find my brain always goes towards the positive rather than the negative these days! :')

I went down a little rabbit hole after writing the caption for this illustration and found a study published by the National Library of Medicine on Hope, Optimism and Delusion. 

It shows how optimism can be a fantastic tool to help us stop negative thought cycles and challenge unhelpful thoughts!

This study quotes William James, who said something pretty cool:

"pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power."

Optimism is also very closely linked to hope! When we have hope for the future, we find it a lot easier to feel optimistic. 

In the Bible, hope is even described as one of greatest of gifts that we have, along with faith and love! I think that is so lovely :•) 

Having hope that things will be okay and that no matter what happens, we'll get through it with love in our hearts for ourselves and others. That's really powerful!

So how does optimism work?

When we are optimistic, if we have a setback, we don't see it as permanent defeat or the end of the world. We can move on, and do something to change or improve the situation.

Being optimistic doesn't mean we ignore reality, it means we refuse to allow reality to bring us down!

Another study I found showed that optimism helps us cope better with stress, because a positive mindset changes how our body responds to stress. And with the world how it is now, that's something we definitely need!

What helped me to feel more optimistic 

We can train our brain to focus on the positive! Even if you get a negative thought first, stop and make a conscious effort to replace it with a positive one. 

Even if you don't believe it at first, don't give up. We're slowly training our brains one thought at a time! :•) 

The more we focus on the good, the easier it will become. Even in a really difficult situation, we can usually find even just one good thing to focus on. :')

Of course, I'm no therapist (even though I wish i was lol) these are just some things that helped me feel good and I hope that you find it interesting too! And I hope my silly illustration made you smile today :•)

So, thanks for reading my ramblings, I'm going to carry on with my blissfully delusional optimism and I hope you'll join me :•)