By Lisa Cypers Kamen.
Optimism can and does make a difference. If you don’t believe me, try looking at others around you. By observing others’ optimism, you will most often find that those who are happy have a better outlook on life as well as being healthier- physically and emotionally.
Michael J. Fox has a book called Always Looking Up: The Adventures of An Incurable Optimist. He also had a primetime special of the same title in which he went around the world and studied people from different cultures and backgrounds, looking for the commonality of optimism….literally everywhere.
I know circumstances vary for individuals, and this is not to say that we should be happy all the time – or that adversity isn’t going to occur some in our lives – but happiness and an optimistic outlook really does make a difference in your overall well-being. It also is a gift that “keeps on giving” to others. Happiness is contagious!
Tomorrow when you get up in the morning, put a smile on your face…even if you are in pain or you just don’t think you can face the day. It should positively affect your family and that smile will break out on all of your faces before long.
Happiness is a choice that each one of us makes every day. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather be surrounded by two or three friends, co-workers or family members that displayed an overall positive attitude than to be surrounded by a room full of people who were displaying a negative attitude.
Lisa Cypers Kamen is a filmmaker, positive psychology coach, author, host of Harvesting Happiness Talk Radio, professor and lecturer specializing in the field of sustainable happiness. She is widely recognized as an expert on the subject. Lisa’s acclaimed documentary film co-produced with her now fifteen year-old daughter, Kayla, “H-Factor…Where is your heart?” explores how people in varied circumstances find, generate and share happiness. In addition to her film on happiness, Lisa has also published a number of articles and books entitled, Got Happiness Now?, Are We Happy Yet?, Leadership: Helping Others to Succeed and Reintegration Strategies, about combat trauma and using positive psychology principles to create wellness in a post-war new normal. Lisa’s written work is featured on blogs for the Huffington Post, PositivelyPositive.com and InspireMeToday.com and she is a TEDx community event speaker. In addition, she is the Happiness Expert for the Florida Department of Citrus/ Florida Orange Juice in its Take on the Day campaign.
Harvesting Happiness for Heroes™ is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation that delivers stigma-free integrated combat trauma recovery services to warriors and their loved ones. Modalities include scientifically proven strengths based Positive Psychology coaching and interdisciplinary tools such as film, yoga, meditation, art and creative writing designed to mindfully empower the client to achieve increased self-mastery, self-esteem and reclaim her/his life. HH4Heroes focuses on the balance of mind, body and emotion resulting in greater overall wellbeing and the transformation of Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS) into Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG). HH4Heroes offers retreat workshops, one-on-one coaching, Battle Buddy programs, as well as our new R.E.B.O.O.T Online virtual community coaching classrooms designed to reach underserved areas. In addition, HH4Heroes deploys Return to Duty™ civilian and corporate training to help welcome a warrior home and into the community and workplace.
Lisa is committed to teaching Happiness is an inside job™ and helping others end their needless suffering through intentionally cultivating greater joy.
Hi Lisa! This is a great article. I really like the sentence “Happiness is a choice that each one of us makes every day”. I agree with you that optimism is very powerful. It makes us see life in a different way and this is fantastic. I have written an article on positive thinking “8 tips to think positive”: http://wp.me/p1E5MV-1z.
All the best
Sylvia