Influence of Optimism According To Positive Psychology

INFLUENCE OF OPTIMISM AND POSITIVE
THINKING IN ONES OUTLOOK ON LIFE

Positive thinking or optimism determines ones outlook on life and enables one to confront
everything with a hopeful and positive attitude, even in the most extreme circumstances.
Cecilia Ramirez Vega
INTRODUCTION
The way people think about life and about themselves can determine what they end
up doing with their life, and what they end up becoming as a person. How many times have
you met someone who has lots of talents and ends up being very negative with themselves
or with others, or ends up failing in what is most important to them? I have been working
with teenagers for the last ten years, and it has given me an opportunity to observe how
much influence the way they think has on what they actually end up doing or becoming.
That is why a lot of importance is given in modern psychology to the way people
think. A lot of research and studies have shown that the way one thinks determines the
well-being of the person. Psychological studies have shown that it is not only the biological
makeup of the person, or the external circumstances that determine human behavior, but the
way people think or explain to themselves the causes of bad events. People are either called
pessimists or optimists, depending on their way of looking at themselves, at the world, and
at the circumstances they are facing. Pessimists usually tend to see the worst side of every
situation, and focus on the negative aspects of people or things. Optimists, on the other
hand, see events in their least threatening light: difficulties are temporary and can be
solved. Pessimists believe bad events are permanent, and will affect everything they do.
Sometimes they see these events as their own fault. Optimists instead think about adversity
as a temporary setback, caused by specific circumstances confined to that one case.
Pessimists tend to blame themselves and dwell on the fact that they failed again or that they
cant make it. For optimists it is easy to recognize their mistake and start all over again.
These two ways of thinking have consequences. Martin Seligman in his book
Learned Optimism mentions the results of studies done which show that pessimists give up
more easily and get depressed more often; that optimists do much better in school, college,
work and the playing field, and that they enjoy better health.
This shows that the way we think about our life can determine what we actually do
with it. Our thoughts are not merely reactions to events; they influence our attitudes and
decisions. If a person believes that adversities are his or her fault, that they will affect
everything they do and are enduring, and if they believe that they cant do anything to
change to change the situation or live it in the best way possible, he or she will be
paralyzed and wont do anything about it. A person with these dispositions will be
depressed more easily, operate below their potential and could get sick more often. This
can lead to a sense of helplessness: the feeling of being unable to do anything to change or
prevent something from happening. Helplessness is the reaction of giving up, the quitting
response that comes from the belief that whatever you do doesnt matter.
Thankfully, these ways or habits of thinking can be changed. Pessimists can become
optimists by forming new thinking habits or cognitive skills that will enable them to see
what happens to them in a more objective light. A lot of people believe that this is just the
way they are, and that it is their makeup to be negative. But one of the most significant
findings in psychology in the last thirty years is that individuals can choose the way they
think. Changing the unhelpful things people tell themselves when faced with setbacks is the
vital skill to acquire in learned optimism.
This thesis will delve into how the thoughts one has determine ones outlook on life,
and the response, emotions and attitudes one fosters in front of hardships, while also giving
some tools on how to acquire a positive set of cognitive skills that can help to face lifes
difficulties. Finally it will show some examples of people who were able to survive lifethreatening situations thanks to their way of thinking.
CHAPTER I
THE INFLUENCE THAT THOUGHTS HAVE IN THE DISPOSITIONS AND

BEHAVIOR OF MAN
1. The study of cognitions or human thoughts and the influence it has on behavior
One hundred years ago the most popular explanation for human action, particularly
bad human action, was character. People with bad behavior were labeled as mean, stupid,
criminal, or evil. These labels show character traits that cant be changed easily, if at all, so
they can lead to the belief that they are permanent. Someone who believes he or she is
stupid rather than uneducated wont apply themselves to improve their mind. A society that
views its criminals as evil and the mentally ill as crazy does not support institutions truly
designed for rehabilitation and reinsertion in society.
By the end of the 19th century, human action was understood in a different light.
Explanations of human failure in terms of abiding bad character gave way to suggestions of
bad upbringing or bad environment. Ignorance began to be seen as lack of education and
not as inherent stupidity. This new ideology, which stressed ones environment, was the
backbone of the behaviorism that dominated American psychology from 1920 to 1965.
According to modern psychology of the mid 1900s, people were assumed to be
products of their environment. The most widespread explanation of human action was that
people were pushed by internal drives or pulled by external events not by their own free
will and responsibility. These internal or external drives were determined by the ideology
one would follow: Freudians held that unresolved childhood conflicts drove adult behavior.
Skinners followers believed that behavior was repeated only when reinforced externally.
Ethologists held that behavior resulted from fixed action patterns determined by our genes.
Behaviorists held that people were forced into action by the need to reduce impulses and
satisfy biological needs.
Starting around 1965, these predominant explanations began to change radically. A
persons environment was considered less and less important in causing his or her behavior.
These different ideologies converged on the proposition that self-direction, rather than
outside forces, could explain human action. So the dominant theories in psychology shifted
focus in the late 1960s from the power of the environment to individual expectation,
preference, choice, decision, control and helplessness.1 The changes from the dominant
ideology in psychological study, that of believing that ones actions were only the result of
external or internal force, to sustaining that each person can determine and is responsible
for his or her actions, received the name of cognitive psychology, and was pioneered by
Aaron T. Beck.
Succeeding behaviorism, cognitive psychology maintained the optimistic belief in change,
developing the thesis that each person can improve themselves and is not completely
determined by external events or internal complexes.
This ideology led to realize that people who believe they can change and believe
they can affect circumstances, are the ones that actually do something about it. On the
contrary, people who believe they cant change, or that they cant do anything to change a
situation, become paralyzed and negative.
Very briefly we are going to see some of the principles of cognitive therapy. The
first principle that cognitive therapy sustains is that all emotional states are created by
thoughts or cognitions. Cognition refers to the way one looks at things: perceptions,
mental attitudes, and beliefs. It includes the way things are interpreted: what the person
says to himself or herself about events, circumstances or people. What the person feels at a
given moment is the consequence of the thoughts he or she is having at that very moment.
The second principle is that when one is feeling down, the thoughts tend to be
dominated by a pervasive negativity. The perception of oneself and the world can be
tainted, dark, or expressed in discouraging terms. One can come to believe that things are
really as bad as the imagination presents them to be. It can even lead one to be certain that
things have always been and always will be negative. Looking at the past, people tend to
remember only the bad things that happened. Imagining the future, they see emptiness or
unending problems and anguish. This unwelcoming vision creates a sense of hopelessness.
1 Learned Optimism, M.E.P. SELLIGMAN, Vintage books, USA 2006, pg. 8-9; 87-88
These feelings are absolutely illogical, but seem real to the person having these thoughts,
who is convinced that their personal inadequacy will go on forever.2
Cognitive psychologys purpose is to help the individual recognize this way of
thinking and then be able to replace those thoughts with others that are more accurate. It
wants to help form a set of thinking habits that will be a shield against negative thoughts.
It is good to see how psychology has evolved from finding the causes of peoples
behavior in an external force or internal drive to choice, since it enables the person to
actually do something about their problems. We are going to see how thoughts affect
different realms of life.
2. Thoughts and how they affect physical and emotional states
We have seen how the different ideologies explain the actions of individuals.
Cognitive therapy believes that each individuals overall state of mind has a certain tone or
flavor, based largely on the types of thoughts they think. As we said earlier, each human
being has a tendency to be more positive or negative in his or her way of thinking,
depending on their character and the habits of thought learnt in childhood and adolescence.
Some people tend to be more negative or pessimistic. It seems that they look at the world,
at others and at themselves through dark sunglasses. For example, if they look at the past
they feel regret and sadness; if they look at the future, they feel uncertainty, anxiety and
pessimism; if they look at the present moment, they tend to find something unsatisfactory.
These thoughts run through their mind without any effort on their part to put them there,
because they have become automatic. These types of thoughts are called automatic negative
thoughts. These thoughts become their natural and obvious way of looking at events and
people. They affect their dealings with others; they hinder their performance, their physical
appearance, and facial expressions.
People who tend to be more positive, on the other hand, tend to have a positive
attitude that leads them to a sense of well-being, making it easier for others to connect with
2 Feeling Good. The New Mood Therapy, DAVID D. BURNS, MD. AVON books, NY 1992, pg. 12
them. They tend to be more effective in what they do because they are centered on
accomplishing the task rather than remaining in contemplation of the obstacles they have in
front of them to carry out the task. First, we are going to see how thoughts influence our
physical state, then how it affects our emotional states.
a. Influence of thoughts in our physical state and our health:
Every thought sends electrical signals throughout the brain. So thoughts are real and
they have an impact on how the person feels and how they behave: a thought comes to the
mind of the person, his or her brain releases chemicals, and there is an electrical
transmission that goes across the brain. Then the person becomes aware of what they are
thinking.
The person needs to be aware of how negative thoughts affect the body: every time an
angry thought comes to our mind and we admit it, or any type of negative thought (an
unkind thought, a sad thought, or a cranky thought) the brain releases chemicals that make
the body feel bad. For example, if we have had angry thoughts our muscles get tense, our
face or neck gets red, and our hearts beat faster. Our body reacts to the negative thoughts
we have. If the thoughts are persistent and are negative, they cause people to be
emotionally upset and can cause backaches, stomach aches and can even affect the
digestive system, making it slower. This has been confirmed in experiments done by the
National Institute of Mental Health.
But the body also reacts to positive thoughts: a happy thought, a hopeful thought, a kind
thought produces a sense of well-being in the body: the muscles relax, people are more
serene and calm. So it is good to acknowledge that our body reacts to every thought we
have, whether these thoughts are about friends, family, work, or ourselves.
An additional consequence of negative thinking is the sense of helplessness that
also affects the immune system. Helplessness is an attitude that makes one feel incapable of
doing anything in a given situation, because nothing would make any difference (according
to their way of thinking). Research shows that the cells whose job it is to identify and then
kill foreign invaders, such as viruses, bacteria and tumor cells, become weakened by this
attitude of helplessness, and no longer multiply rapidly when they come across the specific
invaders they are supposed to destroy. On the contrary, optimism might improve health by
preventing helplessness, and thereby keeping immune defenses stronger.
Another way in which optimism promotes good health has to do with sticking to
health regimens and seeking medical advice. Optimists readily take matters into their own
hands; they take action to prevent illness, or get it treated once illness strikes. A third way
in which optimism affects health is the amount of bad events happening in someones life.
The more bad events a person encounters in any given time period, the more illness he or
she will have. Pessimists encounter more bad events in life because they are more passive,
so they are less likely to do anything to stop them once they start.3
Physical health does not only depend on physical constitution, health habits or
avoiding contact with germs. The way we think can affect our body. Every thought we have
leaves an impression in our body. The way one thinks, especially about health, changes
ones health. According to Learned Optimism, optimists catch fewer infectious diseases,
have better health habits, and even live longer than pessimists4.
b. Influence of thoughts on ones emotional state:
Feelings and moods are created as well by the thoughts one has. The moment a
person has a certain thought and believes it, they will experience an immediate emotional
response. We could say that our thoughts are the door to our emotions. Emotions result
entirely from the way one looks at things. Before we can experience any event, we must
process it with our mind and give it meaning. We must understand what is happening to us
before we can feel it. And our understanding of this event comes from the process of
thought that goes on in our mind. If our understanding of what is happening is accurate, our
3 Learned Optimism, M.E.P. SELLIGMAN, Vintage books, USA 2006, pg.172-174
4 Learned Optimism, M.E.P. SELLIGMAN, Vintage books, USA 2006, pg. 14
emotions will be normal. If our perception is twisted and distorted in some way, our
emotional response will be abnormal. These distorted emotions lead to internal distress
caused by downhearted thinking, and can make one behave in ways that alienate others,
thus causing them to isolate themselves.5
Another common influence of negative thoughts is the error in the perception of
oneself and of situations. It is called emotional reasoning. It happens when a person
wrongly believes that what he or she is feeling is true in spite of the evidence. A person
may feel inadequate and therefore reason that she or he is inadequate. A student might feel
nervous facing an exam despite having studied and, led by insecurity, answers the exam
thinking that he or she is stupid, and this thought influences their answers. This can lead
people to believe that they are worth what they feel about themselves. David Burns
explains it in his Mood Therapy:
Feelings dont determine a persons worth but simply a state of comfort or
discomfort. Rotten, miserable internal states do not prove that you are a rotten,
worthless person, merely that you think you are; because you are in a temporarily
depressed mood, you are thinking illogically and unreasonably about yourself6
We can conclude that every bad feeling we have is the result of our distorted
negative thinking. Negative thoughts keep us lethargic and make us feel inadequate. In
order to deal better with the difficulties and the moods that arise, is necessary to master
methods that will help pinpoint and eliminate the mental distortions which cause us to feel
upset. 7 This will be touched on in the second chapter of this thesis. We will see how as we
5 Feeling Good. The New Mood Therapy, DAVID D. BURNS, MD. AVON books, NY
1992, pg.30
1992, pg.79
1992, pg.13
10
learn to think more objectively, our emotions become more positive and we begin to feel
better.
3. Negative thoughts and depression.
Psychologists have found that there is a link between pessimism and depression.
They have the same symptoms but on a different scale. Children who are pessimists have a
greater risk of having more bouts of depression in their lives. We are going to see briefly
how depression is linked to negativity, and how it is affecting Americans nowadays.
America, and most of the developed world, has experienced in the last 50 years an
epidemic of depression, particularly among young people. In fact, it has been called the
worlds number one public health problem. It is so widespread that it is considered the
common cold of psychiatric disturbances. Why is it that in a nation that has more money,
more power, more records, more books, and more education, that depression is so prevalent
than in a less prosperous and less powerful nation?8 A lot of money, time, research and
medicine have been invested in coming to understand this illness.
In the 1960s some psychologists started discovering that depression was not only due to
bad brain chemistry, or to anger turned against oneself, but a disorder of conscious
thought9. They discovered that depression is caused by conscious negative thoughts. For the
majority of the cases, there is no deep underlying disorder to be rooted out: no unresolved
childhood conflicts, or unconscious anger, and in some cases, not even brain chemistry.
Emotion comes directly from what the person thinks: If the person is breeding thoughts
such as I cant do anything right, I feel useless, things wont change, they are
always doing something against me, no one values what I do he or she will feel
insecurity, sadness, and anger. Psychologists believe that changing these habits of thought
could be a path to cure depression. This is what cognitive therapy consists of: trying to
change the way the depressed patient thinks about failure, defeat, loss and helplessness.10
8 Learned Optimism, M.E.P. SELLIGMAN, Vintage books, USA 2006, pg.V
10 Learned Optimism, M.E.P. SELLIGMAN, Vintage books, USA 2006, pg.74,75
11
When someone is in a pessimistic, melancholy state, they are going through a mild version
of depression. For most people, a depressive episode usually descends on them when
several of their best hopes have collapsed or when they are defeated. But for others it is a
constant companion because of the way they think.
Depression has been spreading more over the last years because of the way people see
themselves and what they are basing their worth on. Seligman gives three reasons for the
increased number of depressed people in todays world. The first reason he gives is what he
calls the disorder of the I, failing in your own eyes relative to your goals11. In todays
society individualism is one of the most praised values, and leads each person to believe
they are the center of the world. Our own human nature has this strong tendency to put
oneself and our interests as the most important factor in our lives, and to base ones worth
on what one is able to do or accomplish. Believing this makes personal failure a
catastrophe.
The second reason he gives for the spread of depression is that when someone in the
past failed personally, they had a large we that could sustain them: an extended family,
friends, faith but since these values have decreased for different reasons, people
sometimes dont have anyone or anything they can hold on to when they experience defeat:
When our grandparents failed, they had comfortable spiritual furniture to rest in. They
had, for the most part, their relationship to God, their relationship to a nation they loved,
their relationship to a community and a large extended family. Faith in God, community,
nation and the large extended family have all eroded in the last forty years, and the spiritual
furniture that we used to sit in has become threadbare.12
The third reason he mentions is the strength that the self-esteem movement won in
the last century. This movement promotes the belief that people are worth for what they
feel about themselves instead of putting their worth on who they are as a human being and
on what good they are doing with their lives. As Seligman explains: Twenty five years ago
the values promoted in childrens books was about doing well in the world, about persisting
11 Learned Optimism, M.E.P. SELLIGMAN, Vintage books, USA 2006, pg.vi
12 Idem
12
and therefore overcoming obstacles. Now many childrens books are about feeling good,
having high self-esteem, and exuding confidence which teaches children an unwarrantedly
high self-esteem which can cause problems. When these children confront the real world
and it tells them they are not as great as they have been taught, they will lash out with
violence and drown in depression. So it is possible that the twin epidemics among young
people in the United States today, depression and violence, both come from this
misbegotten concern: valuing how our young people feel about themselves more highly
than how we value how well they are doing in the world13
Women suffer depression twice as much as men because the way they think about
problems amplifies their depression. Men tend to act and do something about their
difficulties. Women tend to reflect, which leads them to center their attention on their
difficulties and to contemplate their depression, overanalyzing everything and trying to
determine its source, mulling it over and over. This is called rumination, or brooding and
thinking over and over again about how bad things are. People who tend to ruminate start
this sequence all the time: anything that reminds them of the difficulty or cause of conflict,
with the breakout of negative thought after negative thought, causes them to have a
pessimistic attitude, leading them to expect only failure. 14
Depression has the same symptoms as pessimism, but enlarged. Negative thinking leads to
pessimism, and pessimism can lead to depression. Pessimism is a subtle phenomenon of
depression, so to understand it helps to look at the expanded, exaggerated form. Both
depression and pessimism involve the same four types of negative change: in thought,
mood, behavior, and physical responses.15 These will now be expounded on:
The negative change in thought leads to a sour picture of self, of the world, and the
future. When you are depressed, the future looks hopeless, and small obstacles seem like
insurmountable barriers. A pessimistic way of explaining the causes for events is at the core
13 Learned Optimism, M.E.P. SELLIGMAN, Vintage books, USA 2006, pg.vii
14 Idem. Pg. 83
15 Idem. Pg. 56
13
of depressed thinking. A negative concept of the future, the self, and the world stems from
seeing the causes of bad events as permanent, pervasive and personal, and seeing the causes
of good events in the opposite way.
The negative change in mood leads to sadness, discouragement, anxiety and
irritability.
It changes behavior: people become more passive, indecisive and in extreme
situations it can lead to suicidal thoughts.
It also affects people physically: appetites diminish, sleep is affected, and daily
activities become undesirable. 16
Negative thinking can lead to depression. Changing our way of thinking can help reduce
these four symptoms and the danger of falling into a depressive episode.
4. Negative thinking and helplessness
Pessimism or negative thinking can also lead to helplessness. Helplessness, as we
mentioned before, is the state in which a person believes that nothing he or she chooses to
do in a given circumstance will affect what happens to him or her. It is the opposite of
personal control: the ability to change things by ones voluntary decisions and actions.
There are a lot of things in life beyond our control such as our eye color, family and
country we were born in, or our race. But there are a lot of other areas in life that depend on
our options and attitudes. These actions, in which we have a degree of choice, involve the
way we lead our lives, the decisions we make, how we react to what happens to us, and
how we deal with other people. The way we think about our capacity to act in these areas of
our life can actually diminish or increase the control we have over it. If a person believes he
or she is helpless in making a difference in a given situation, they will feel impotent,
become paralyzed or hand over control to others. Our thoughts are not only reactions to the
events we face; they can actually determine how we react and act.17
16 Learned Optimism, M.E.P. SELLIGMAN, Vintage books, USA 2006, pg.57
17 Learned Optimism, M.E.P. SELLIGMAN, Vintage books, USA 2006, pg 5-7
14
Dr. Seligman explains helplessness in this way:

Learned helplessness is the giving-up reaction, the quitting
response that follows from the belief that whatever you do doesnt
matter. Explanatory style is the manner in which you habitually
explain to yourself why events happen. It is the great modulator of
learned helplessness. An optimistic explanatory style stops
helplessness, whereas a pessimistic explanatory style spreads
helplessness. Your way of explaining events to yourself determine
how helpless you can become or how energized, when you encounter
the everyday setbacks as well as momentous defeats. The
explanatory style that we have reflects the word in our heart: A no
or a yes18
For Seligman the way we explain to ourselves why things happen is key in forming
optimism or pessimism. He names this the explanatory style, and according to him, it is
from these habits of explaining the causes of our adversities that pessimism or optimism
has its origins. We are going to expound on his theory of explanatory style.
5. Explanatory style
We are all faced with difficulties in our life, and we try to find causes for the negative
situations we encounter. The way we explain to ourselves the causes of our adversities has
consequences. Explanatory style stems directly from what we think our place in the world
is- whether we think we are valuable and deserving, or worthless and hopeless. The
pessimist tends to believe that the difficulty is always his fault and will always be there, so
it is enduring and will affect everything they do. These thoughts keep the person in a
lethargic state and make them feel inadequate. Someone who is experiencing this will get
18 Learned Optimism, M.E.P. SELLIGMAN, Vintage books, USA 2006, pg. 15-16
15
depressed easily and accomplish less than his real potential, since pessimistic prophesies
tend to become self-fulfilling.
The optimists, who are confronted with the same hard knocks of life, think about
misfortune in the opposite way. They tend to believe defeat is just a temporary setback, or
that its causes are confined to this one case. The optimists believe defeat is not their fault:
circumstances, bad luck, lack of effort or other people brought it about. When they
encounter defeat or are confronted by a bad situation, they see it as a challenge and try
harder.19
Explanatory style has a sweeping effect on the lives of adults and children. It can help
adults react with resilience in the face of tragedy, as we will see in the third chapter, or it
can cause depression. As Seligman describes it: It can numb a person to the pleasures of
life, or allow him to live fully. It can prevent him from achieving his goals, or help him
exceed them. As we will see, a persons explanatory style influences the way other people
perceive him, disposing them to work against him or with him.20 The way causes for our
adversities are explained not only affects the person but it also affects others, especially
children since the explanatory style is crystallized in children as young as eight years old.
The habits of thought formed at that age are fundamental, since future setbacks and
victories will be filtered through those habits.
These habits of thought in children are shaped or influenced by three major factors: the
way their mother explains things to their children, the criticism children receive from
parents and teachers, and the crises they face in life. We are going to explain these three
factors that form childrens explanatory style:
a) The way mothers explain things to themselves and their children (mothers
explanatory style): Children are always attentive to the way their parents,
particularly their mothers, talk about why things happen. It is no accident that
why? is one of the first and most repeated questions that young children ask.
Children hang onto every word and gesture given, especially when something
19 Learned Optimism, M.E.P. SELLIGMAN, Vintage books, USA 2006, pg. 7, 53
16
goes wrong. They keenly listen to the form and the content of the answer: tone
of voice, expression, whether the cause of what happened is permanent or
temporary, if it is specific, or if it will affect everything, and whose fault it was.
The most influential person for kids is their mom, and they spend most of their
time with her, so they learn their explanatory style from her. This has been
proven by giving explanatory style questionnaires to children and parents. Both
sons and daughters had similar explanatory styles than that of their mother and
had no resemblance to the fathers style. 21
b) The second theory is adult criticism from teachers or parents. As mentioned
above, children listen carefully to what adults say to them, especially when they
fail. Children believe the disapproving comments they get, and use them to form
their explanatory style. When they hear comments that have a permanent or
pervasive connotation: You are lazy; You are a mean kid, they form this
theory of themselves. If they hear a more temporary or specific cause: You
didnt try hard enough or You got upset in class today they see the difficulty
as something that can be solved or changed.
c) Childrens life crises: The way kids see early losses and traumas resolved also
shape their explanatory style. If these losses and traumas (mom passing away,
economic crises, parents fighting, sickness or accidents) are solved or
understood, they will develop the theory that bad events can be changed and
conquered. But if they are, in fact, permanent and pervasive, the seeds of
hopelessness can be deeply planted in them.
As a conclusion, there are three kinds of influences that can cause pessimism or
optimism in children: the everyday causal explanations he or she hears especially from
17
their mothers, the form of criticism he or she receives when they fail, and the reality of his
or her early losses and traumas.22
We have seen in this chapter how throughout this last century, there has been a change in
psychological studies about the causes of human behavior: there has been a shift from
believing that men and women are predetermined by internal or external forces to believing
that each person can shape their behavior, taking personal control of their lives and the
influence that thoughts have in this process. We saw how negative thinking affects health
and emotional states, and therefore affects relationships, performance in school, sports and
work. The next chapter will explain the origins of pessimism according to Seligman and
Burns, as well as some strategies on how to become a more optimistic person.
CHAPTER II
HOW TO CHANGE NEGATIVE THOUGHT PATTERNS
18
We have seen how our thoughts influence the way we feel, our relationship with
others, our vision of ourselves and of circumstances, and how it can lead to a sense of
depression and helplessness. Thoughts shape what we end up becoming, what we do and
the way we react to circumstances. They can become self-fulfilling.
Since they can have such a powerful impact in our lives and in the lives of others,
lets use this talent that God has given us to build rather than destroy. Unfortunately there is
no place where we are taught to analyze what we think or to challenge the notions that go
through our head, even though our thoughts are always accompanying us. Most people
dont realize how important thought patterns are and leave their development to chance or
environment.
We are going to see two different ways in which we can change our thought patterns
to make them more constructive and positive. The first one is David Burns idea of
recognizing the automatic negative thoughts that flow through our mind, becoming aware
of them and of the effect they have on our moods and attitudes, and then learning how to
solve them by talking back at them. The second one is Martins Seligman ABCs to form a
more optimist explanatory style.
1.
David Burns strategy: Recognizing the automatic negative thoughts and
exterminating them by talking back at them.

The first step is to become aware of what we are thinking, realize the effect it is having
on us, and understand that our thoughts dont always tell the truth. Unless we think about
our thoughts, they are automatic. But this doesnt mean that all of them tell the whole truth
or are correct. If someone gets a bad grade on an exam he can think: Im stupid, I will
never be able to make it to college. These thoughts might not be objective and might not
be true. It could just mean that he doesnt do well on written exams, but would excel in an
oral one. We all need to learn how to filter our thoughts so as to remove from them what
is not true. Just as in some states or countries you need to put a filter on the tap because you
cant drink water directly from the tap, we need to put a filter in our brain that will
remove or modify the thoughts to make them truthful or correct. This filter in our minds
19
is important because it allows us to think about our thoughts and see if they help or hurt us.
We need to train our thoughts to be positive and hopeful. Once we are aware of our
thoughts, we need to notice them when they are negative and talk back to them. Talking
back to our negative thoughts makes them lose the influence they have over us because we
are able to see the situation or circumstance more objectively.
One way to talk back to the negative thoughts is to write them down and write down a
rational response next to it. For example: if you catch yourself thinking: They never listen
to my ideas and never take into consideration what I say you can write it down and then
write down the rational response next to it: They didnt listen to me this time; maybe each
one was thinking of their own idea. There have been other moments when they have
listened to me. Thinking in this way reduces the negative emotional influence the thought
has on us and can lead to a more positive action.
Here is a list that will help us recognize the type of thoughts that crowd our mind.
David Burns calls them different species or types of ANTs (automatic negative thoughts).
When we identify the type of ant we have, it is easier to talk back at it. We are going to
develop each one of them as explained in Feeling Good, the New Mood Therapy:23
1) ANT 1: Always/never or overgeneralization: It is the tendency to generalize
what happens. The person thinks that circumstances will always repeat
themselves or that people will never change. Expressions such as she is
always late, I am always messing things up or he never pays attention to
me, I will never make it in this project are some of the examples of this type
of thinking.
2) ANT 2: All/nothing thinking: Evaluating personal qualities or situations in
absolute categories: black or white, perfect or a disasterThis way of
1992, pg. 32-43
20
thinking leads to perfectionism. It causes the person to fear any mistake or

imperfection because they see it as a failure; it makes one feel inadequate and
worthless, and it takes away internal freedom, making the person more rigid. A
straight-A student who received a B on an examination and concludes that she
is a total failure is an example of this type of thinking.
This way of seeing oneself or circumstances is not realistic because in real life
no one is always right or wrong, absolutely brilliant or stupid, or completely
attractive or ugly. If the persons expectations are dominated by this type of
thinking, it will lead them to discouragement, since they see that they are not (or
other people are not) meeting the expectations they have. People with this pattern of
thought should avoid using all-or-nothing words like always, never, no one, every
one, every time, everything Another way to help people with this tendency is to
catch these absolute thoughts and recall all the examples that disprove the all or
nothing attitude.
3) ANT 3: Focusing on the negative: Tendency to pick out the negative in a given
situation and dwell on it while excluding the positive, thus concluding that the
whole situation is negative. For example, in the organization of an event, the
invitations where not given out on time, and even though the rest of the
organization was punctual, the person focuses on what went wrong. Noticing the
negative leads the person to see everything as if through a pair of eyeglasses
with special lenses that filter out anything positive. If the person is not aware of
this filtering process they conclude that everything is negative and this habit
causes needless anguish. This habit is also called selective abstraction.
4) ANT 4: Disqualifying the positive: This is one of the most destructive forms of
cognitive distortion, because the person inadvertently ignores genuinely positive
21
things that happen: in front of compliments they react internally, saying to

themselves that people are just being nice to them. They can also fail to recognize
the good things that happen to them; people with this difficulty tend to be very
negative with themselves and not acknowledge the good they have or do. This
causes the person to ignore the positive, so that they are always put down by how
the positive situation is turned into a negative one.
5) ANT 5: Jumping to conclusions: This occurs when someone who bases their
thought solely on personal feelings or perceptions, rather than on objective facts or
reasons, jumps to a negative conclusion that is not based on evidence. Two
examples of this cognitive distortion are fortune telling and mind reading.
MIND-READING: Assuming what other people are thinking about you or that
they are looking down on you. For example, a friend doesnt answer an e-mail
message you send, and you conclude that he is upset. The other person might
have never received the message. So the one that is mind-reading may respond
to these imagined negative reactions by withdrawal, being upset at the other
person or over reacting, when there is not a good reason for the negative
reaction.
FORTUNETELLING ERROR: Imagining that something bad is going to
happen or projecting negative things to come out of a relationship. This causes
the person to feel apprehension, so it doesnt promote action. Taking the
example mentioned in mindreading, the person decides not to call the friend to
see what happened because they believe that the other person is going to think
they are obnoxious. So this also causes a lot of self-imposed suffering.
6) ANT 6: Magnification and minimization: This thinking trap can be compared to
binocular vision. When a person is looking at his/her failings, imperfections or
fears, they tend to exaggerate their importance and look at them through
22
binoculars,which makes them appear enormous and overpowering. This is also

called catastrophizing and it can also happen when we look at other peoples
failings or imperfections. The opposite happens when the person thinks of
his/her strengths, looking at them through the wrong end of the binoculars,
making things look small and unimportant. If a person tends to magnify
imperfections and minimize good points, they will feel inferior. If they tend to
see other people with those binoculars, they will always be unsatisfied and upset
with the way other people are.
7) ANT 7: Thinking with our feelings or emotional reasoning: This occurs when
we believe our feelings without ever questioning them, or without thinking if
there is any evidence for them. These thoughts tend to start with statements such
as I feelstupid, like a failure, nobody will trust me It is important to check
if the strong negative feeling has real reasons (evidence) to make us feel that
way, or if we are just feeling that way and are able to channel those feelings ,
transforming them into more positive ones.
8) ANT 8: Guilt beating or should statements: A lot of people try to motivate
themselves by saying: I should do this You must but this statements
make people feel pressured and resentful, and even unmotivated and frustrated.
When personal behavior falls short of personal standards, should and shouldnt
statements create shame and guilt. The same happens when the all-too-human
deeds of other people fall short of someones expectations, which happens from
time to time. It makes the person feel frustrated and self-righteous. These
statements can generate a lot of unnecessary emotional turmoil in daily life, so it
is important to change expectations to be more realistic.
23
9) ANT 9: Labeling or mislabeling: Whenever we attach a negative label to

ourselves or to someone else, it stops our ability to take a clear look at the
situation. It is as if we were putting post-its on our foreheads or other peoples
foreheads that describe what we are based on inadequacies. It means creating a
negative self-image based on personal errors. If someone is on a diet and breaks
it, she may say: I am a pig or a loser instead of I broke my diet today. These
types of statements promote a self-defeating behavior. We cant define ourselves
with negative labels because we cannot be equated with one thing we do. The
same happens when we label other people, focusing only on every weakness or
imperfection; this attitude generates hostility and promotes defensive attitudes.
10) ANT 10: Personalizing: This distortion assumes responsibility for any negative
event, even when there is no proof for doing so; concluding that what happened
is our fault or reflects our inadequacy. A mom receives her kids report card with
a note that he is not working well, and she assumes that it is because she is a bad
mother. It can also happen when we invest inoffensive events with personal
meaning, taking things personally and believing that what others are doing is an
affront to our person: My boss didnt talk to me this morning, he must be
mad We need to realize that there are other reasons for others behavior
besides the negative explanations we give to ourselves. It is important not to
personalize other peoples behaviors.
11) ANT 11: Blaming others. Always trying to find someone else to take the
responsibility for their problems and rarely admit their own faults. This can be
called the most poisonous red ant since blaming something or someone else for
the problems one has makes us become a passive victim of the circumstances,
instead changing the situations ourselves. The only way to change a situation is
24
by taking personal responsibility for our own problems in order to be able to

change them.
Most of these ways of thinking go unnoticed. Just as an ant might crawl upon your
tennis shoes without you noticing it until it gets to your skin. Even worse, there can be a lot
of them crawling on you so that you finally notice their effect on you. That is why it is
important to know the types of cognitive distortions described above so as to be able to
notice them. If a thought is caught in the moment it occurs and is corrected, it is easier to
take away the negative influence it can have on us. A way to do this is by training oneself to
recognize the negative thought and write it down. One can write down the event that is
associated with the thoughts and feelings. Then in columns write down the thoughts it
provoked. Next to it write the type of ANT it is, and then the feelings it awakened. Finally
the most important step is to talk back to the irrational thought and channel energy to action
instead of rumination. Here is an example:
EVENT: I borrowed a pair of earrings from my older sister and I lost one of them at the
party
ANTs
SPECIES
FEELINGS
KILL THE ANT
Write out the automatic
Identify the type of cognitive
Specify how it is making you
Talk back to the irrational
negative thought
disorder
feel
thought
She is going to kill me.
Mind reading, fortune
Fear, anger
She will be upset but she
She will never lend me
telling
wont kill me. I lost
anything again
other things in the past
I am stupid, always
Frustration, regret
and she has understood
loosing everything and
Labeling and
Sometimes I am
I am so irresponsible
overgeneralization
irresponsible but it has

been a long time since I
lost something
ACTION: I will ask for
forgiveness and see if I
can buy her another pair
25
with my allowance
2.
Seligmans strategy: ABCs of optimism.
Learned optimism presents a set of skills on how to speak to oneself in front of

personal defeat, so as to view setbacks in a more encouraging viewpoint. This builds
resilience and endows the person with energy to overcome the difficulties instead of
giving up.
The ABCs presented by Learned Optimism were first developed by Albert Ellis in
order to stop the vicious cycle that is promoted by negative thinking in front of adverse
situations.24 The A stands for adversity. When we encounter adversity, we react by
thinking about it and it leads to forming beliefs about the situation. This can be so habitual
that we dont even pay attention to them unless we focus on them. These beliefs are the
direct causes of what we feel and what we do next. So they cause a consequence. The first
step is to see the connection between adversity, belief and consequence in daily life. In
order to do this, we need to tune in on the perpetual dialogue that takes place in our mind
and, if it helps, write down the following:
Adversity: This can be almost anything that we face in our daily life from a frown of
a friend, a large bill, a baby that doesnt stop crying, or an overload of homework. It is
important to be objective in front of the situation and describe what happened, not
evaluating the situation or the person.
26
Belief: This is how we interpret adversity; the thoughts that come to our mind after
the event.
Consequences: These are the results from what we thought. The feelings that were
awakened. Here it is important to record the feelings that came up and what one did.
After recording this, look for the link between the belief and the consequence. What
we will find is that pessimistic explanations or beliefs set off passivity and negativity,
while optimistic explanations lead to action.
So in order to change the habitual beliefs that come after adversity it is important to
dispute the beliefs and focus on the action to be taken.
Disputation and distraction: The best way to deal with pessimistic beliefs is to
dispute them. Sometimes is not possible to take the time to dispute the belief, or we are so
much emotionally taken by the adversity that is not possible to think objectively about it.
At those moments distraction could be another technique. Our brain is wired to think
about things, whether good or bad, which attract our attention and place demands on us.
Pessimistic thinking habits not only grab our attention, but they circle unceasingly
through our minds. That is why sometimes we need an effective thought-stopping
technique that helps interrupt habitual thought patters: wearing a rubber band around the
wrists and snapping it hard to stop ruminating, having a card that says STOP in huge
letters, and attention shifting (to focus on another object that can grab our attention).
Since the ruminations might come back, another way to undercut them is to schedule a
27
specific time to think about those things and write the troublesome thoughts down the
moment they occur.
Disputing beliefs is a more effective remedy to change disturbing beliefs. In order
to do this it is good to realize that beliefs may not be facts. It is important to distance
oneself from the situation and see it in perspective. There are four steps to dispute the
belief: finding evidence, alternatives, seeing the implications, and the usefulness of the
belief.
Evidence: in front of adversity most people catastrophize. It is important to search
for evidence, pointing to the distortions of this type of catastrophic explanations. There
will always be some facts on the positive side.
Find alternatives: Most events have multiple causes. It is important to look
for all possible contributing causes.
Implications: The belief a person has might be correct. In this case it is
important to think of the implications of the belief and this is done by decatastrophizing.
Seeing how, even though the belief is true, there are still solutions and it is not the end of
the world.
Usefulness: Sometimes holding a belief has a lot of negative consequences.
So when the negative consequences of a belief are not useful, it is better to think in detail
of all the ways one can change the situation in the future.
The E stands for energization. When an adversity is confronted with optimistic
beliefs, it leads to actions. Even if the first reaction in front of the adversity was a negative
28
one, if the beliefs are disputed and other alternatives are thought out, it leads the person to a
more serene and positive confrontation of reality.
We have seen the importance of knowing what are our negative thought patterns are
and how to dispute them. It is important to foster an environment where one can be aware
of the thoughts that are coming to ones mind so as to be able to detect and challenge the
negative ones. It is important as well to channel mental energy into finding solutions to the
adversities instead of dwelling on the negative beliefs that it provoked. In the next chapter
we are going to see how three people have faced very hard circumstances in their lives, and
how they were able to overcome them positively by their optimistic way of thinking.
CHAPTER III: OPTIMISM IN REAL LIFE CASES

It has been shown that being positive and optimistic in our thoughts and beliefs of
why things happen in everyday life is very helpful to live a serene and hope-filled life, How
29
much more indispensable it is to keep this attitude in hard circumstances. In this chapter,
we are going to see the example of three people who lived extreme circumstances of
suffering and injustice in their lives. They were able not only to survive and endure the
pain, but were able to turn those circumstances into opportunities for doing good to others.
First we are going to look at Viktor Frankl, a Jewish psychologist that was imprisoned in 3
concentration camps; then Daniela Garca Palomer, a university girl who lost her legs and
arms in an accident; and finally, the rescue of the 33 Chilean miners who were trapped 70
days 700 meters under the earth.
1. Viktor Frankl
a. His life
He was born in Vienna on March 26, 1905 from a Jewish middle-high class family.
From the age of four he wanted to be a physician. His interest in people turned him towards
the study of psychology. He finished his high school years with a psychoanalytic essay on
the philosopher Schopenhauer, a publication in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis,
and the beginning of a rather intense correspondence with the great Sigmund Freud. Frankl
did not agree with some of Freuds views and psychological current of thought, and started
to develop his own logotherapy and used it in a public lecture for the first time two years
after his graduate studies and began to refine his particular brand of Viennese psychology.
In his practice, Frankl organized cost-free counseling centers for teenagers in
Vienna and six other cities, and began working at the Psychiatric University Clinic. He
was also put in charge of the ward for suicidal women at the Psychiatric Hospital, with
many thousands of patients each year. In 1937, Frankl opened his own practice in
neurology and psychiatry. One year later, Hitlers troops invade Austria. He was able to
obtain a visa to the U.S. in 1939, but, not wanting to leave his elderly parents, he let it
expire. In 1940, Frankl was made head of the neurological department of Rothschild
Hospital, the only hospital for Jews in Vienna during the Nazi regime. He made many false
diagnoses of his patients in order to get around the new policies requiring euthanasia of the
mentally ill.
30
Two years later he got married, but in September of that year, 1942, his whole
family was arrested. Only his sister was able to survive, having managed to immigrate to
Australia a short while earlier. He and his wife, his mom, dad and brother were all taken to
the concentration camp at Theresienstadt in Bohemia. His father died there of starvation.
In 1944 his mother and brother were killed at Auschwitz. His wife died at Bergen-Belsen
in 1945. He spent three years in Auschwitz, Dachau and other concentration camps. From
his experience there he was able to develop more fully his Logotherapy or, as it is known,
the Third Viennese School. When he was taken to Auschwitz, his manuscript for one of his
works, The Doctor and the Soul, was discovered and destroyed. His desire to redo his
work, and his hopes of seeing his family again someday, kept him from losing hope in his
desperate situation. Finally, Frankl surrendered to typhoid fever. He was able to keep
himself fighting for life by reconstructing his manuscript on stolen slips of paper.
In April of 1945, Frankls camp was liberated. He went back to Vienna and there he
found out about the deaths of his loved ones. Although nearly broken and alone in the
world, he was given the position of director of the Vienna Neurological Policlinic. He
became director of different hospitals, and visiting professor at Harvard as well as other
universities in the U.S. He received twenty-nine honorary doctorates from universities in all
parts of the world, won awards and a nomination to for the Nobel Peace Prize. It should
also be noted that he was a vigorous mountain climber and earned his airplane pilots
license when he was sixty-seven!
Frankl authored 39 books which were published in 32 languages. His last two books
became best sellers: Viktor Frankl Recollections and Mans Search for Ultimate
Meaning. Before he died, it sold over nine million copies, with five million in the U.S.
alone!
He remarried to Eleonore Schwindt and he credited her with giving him the courage
to reestablish himself in the world. They married in 1947, and had a daughter whom they
named Gabriele.
31
b. How he practiced optimism in these hard circumstances

Reading Viktor Frankls Mans Search for Meaning, one marvels at the terrors he
endured during World War II: persecuted and oppressed for being a Jew, separated from his
family and not knowing what had become of them, being stripped of everything he owned
and being constantly ridiculed and mistreated in the concentration camps; enduring terrible
physical situations: eating only a piece of bread a day, working twelve hours a day and
sleeping in barracks cramped with 800 other men in terrible conditions, having to survive
in extreme weather conditions, to walk for two hours in the snow every day to the work
camp in the middle of the winter with broken boots and no socksIt is even more
impressive to see that he was able to survive, remake his life and live it with joy and
fulfillment, and even contribute enormously to help others understand suffering and give a
meaning to it.
Suffering makes people become more centered on themselves and the suffering they
are enduring, it can make them become bitter, aggressive and vengeful, isolated and
resentful for what others did to them. Frankl shows us that human beings are capable of
choosing their attitude before every circumstance they encounter. Even if they are confined
to a prison camp and are being treated like animals, they are still internally free to opt for
how they are going to face those circumstances. That is why it is so important not to allow
hopelessness and helplessness to grow, as well as to avoid any type of rumination, because
this takes away all the energy and motivation that could be use to do something about the
situation being faced. Frankl says that he could even tell which prisoners were going to
survive and which ones were going to die first just by observing their attitude towards life.
Usually it was not the older ones that would die first, but the ones who had become
hopeless. He saw that people who had hopes of being reunited with loved ones, or who had
projects they felt a need to complete, or who had great faith, tended to have better chances
than those who had become hopeless or helpless. He remembered what the philosopher
32
Friedrich Nietzsche had said: He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any
how.25,
This is how Frankl was able to survive: not allowing the adversities he experience
to dampen his hope, even in the most hopeless of situations. He maintained a strong belief
in the meaningfulness of life, in the fact that human beings are free no matter the
circumstances they face, and are responsible for the attitude they choose to have in front of
adversities. As we saw in Seligmans theory, these beliefs with which he was facing his
adversities had positive consequences on his attitude, as well as his mental and physical
health. This energized him to keep striving for his goals even though the circumstances
were so harsh. We are going to see how Frankl developed these beliefs in his mind which
enabled him to survive.
Frankl believed that human beings are never fully conditioned by the circumstances
they find themselves in. There is always a possibility of changing. Man will always have
the freedom to choose what attitude he will have facing life. As he puts it: Man is not fully
conditioned and determined, but rather determines himself whether he gives in to
conditions or stands up to them. In other words, man is ultimately self-determining. Man
does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become in
the next moment26. He saw that even if all familiar goals in life are snatched away (as in a
concentration camp: family members taken away, every possession lost, every value
destroyed, suffering from hunger, cold and violence, expecting to be killed at any moment)
a human being still has the last of human freedoms, which is the ability to choose ones
attitude in a given set of circumstances27.
He also emphasized the responsibility each person has for what he makes of his or
her life and of himself or herself. Being in the concentration camp, he could have spent his
days blaming himself for not leaving to the States when he had the visa (guilt beating
25 Frankl, V. E. Man's Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy (1963). New York:
Washington Square Press, 1997. (pg. 121)
Washington Square Press, 1997. (p. 133)
Washington Square Press, 1997. (p.75)
33
ANT). He could blame others justly for all that he was enduring in his innocence (the
guards, the prisoners who became spies, Hitler, etc). He could have dwelt on all the
negative aspects of his life (and it seemed that it was only negative in those circumstances).
But with this belief that he was the one responsible for his life, he faced these
circumstances as opportunities: Yet in reality, there was an opportunity and a challenge.
One could make a victory of those experiences, turning life into an inner triumph, or one
could ignore the challenge and simply vegetate, as did a majority of the prisoners 28 He
calls it the uniquely human potential at its best which is to transform a personal tragedy
into a triumph, to turn ones predicament into a human achievement.29
Another strong belief he had is the human capacity to turn something negative into
something positive or constructive. This is something he called tragic optimism: In brief it
means that one is and remains optimistic in spite of the aspects of human existences which
may be circumscribed by: pain, guilt and death. This presupposes the human capacity to
creatively turn lifes negative aspects into something positive or constructive. In other
words, what matters is to make the best of any given situation. Human potential which at its
best allows for: turning suffering into a human achievement and accomplishment; deriving
from guilt the opportunity to change oneself for the better and deriving from lifes
transitoriness an incentive to take responsible action.30
Frankl has showed not only with his teachings but with his life that human beings
are capable of transforming any type of situation, even the most hopeless and painful ones,
into an opportunity to grow and become more human. What is needed is to maintain a
strong belief that each person is free to choose what he makes of himself or herself, and is
responsible for his or her attitude in life. It is not circumstances which determine someones
well-being, but the internal attitude with which one faces life.
34
2. Daniela Garca Palomer

a. Her life story
She was born in Chile in 1980. Both of her parents were professionals in the
medical field. Her dad is a doctor in one of the most prestigious hospitals in Santiago, and
her mom is a dentist. She has four brothers; one of them is her twin brother.
Ever since she was in fourth grade, she wanted to be a doctor. She even, set up an
infirmary with one of her friends at school to play doctors at school. She applied herself
diligently in her studies during high school in order to be able to enter the Pontifical
Medical Institute in Santiago.
Every year, at the end of October, the Medicine Faculties from all universities in
Chile have a traditional sports competition called Inter-Medicine Games (JIM which is
the Spanish abbreviation for Juegos Inter-Medicina). Daniela was not planning on
attending, because the day after the games were over, she had an exam to take. It had been
a strenuous school year and she was counting the days for school and exams to be over.
Two days before the departure date for the games, one of her friends, Juan Pablo,
convinced her to attend. She signed up for soccer since it was one of her favorite sports.
Daniela tried to convince her best friend to attend, but she backed down at the last minute.
It was Friday, October 30th, 2002. Some of the medical students at the Pontifical
University already had their suitcases with them to leave straight from the university to the
train station. Daniela had to go home, pack, and then drive to the train station, and she
almost didnt make it. The train station was filled with university students going to the
games that were going to be held in Temuco, a smaller city three hours south of Santiago.
Daniela ran to meet her friends and go to where their train was waiting for them. Once they
saw the train they were going to take, Daniela realized that it was extremely old and not
very well kept; it had holes in the wooden floor covered with plastic, and the windows
would not open. She still felt as if she shouldnt go, but she tried to dissuade herself that
she was being silly and tried distracting herself with her friends. The organizers had
35
assigned one stage wagon to a different university. But since the Pontifical University had
numerous participants, they had two stage wagons that were separated. The train started
moving at 8pm. Diego and Mario, two of Danielas friends, invited her to visit the other
stage wagons and greet the athletes from different universities.
While they were passing though, they saw what each delegation was doing: some
were singing bonfire songs with a guitar, while others were dancing or reading. When they
got to the fourth stage wagon they realized that there was no light because of an electrical
problem, so the majority of the university students were sleeping. They were walking in a
straight line; Diego was walking first, then Daniela, and Mario at the end. When Diego
opened the door between the stage wagons, he realized that there was no light and that
there was a hole between the cars. One of their friends called from the wagon, so Diego
went to greet him, and suddenly Daniela fell in the hole. They were not able to see her.
After recovering from the shock, they ran to find one of the concierges to tell them what
had happened to stop the train.
Meanwhile, Daniela gained consciousness while she was still lying down in
between the rails of the train. She realized that the train had passed over her and that she
had no hands or legs. She started thinking of how her life was going to be without hands or
legs, and started to become very anxious. But she realized that she was alive. She reassured
herself that medical technology had advanced, and that her dad was going to put her legs
and arms back into place. At that moment she realized the danger she was in as she lay in
the middle of the rails. She made a strenuous effort to drag herself away from the rails and
was able to move a couple of feet away, but she was very weak and started losing
consciousness. Then she saw movement, but got discouraged when she saw a dog go near
the leg that was close to one of the rails. The scare gave her new energy to start yelling for
help, but she had lost so much blood that she became unconscious. A man who worked at
one of the haciendas twenty degrees from there heard her scream and went for help. When
the ambulance came, she regained consciousness and started explaining to the paramedics
what had happened. They were all impressed that she was able to give them so much
36
information. They took her to the nearest hospital and contacted her parents. She had lost
her four extremities and had lost a considerable amount of blood. She was moved to three
different hospitals, and remained in ICU for a couple of days. She stayed in the hospital for
a month and a half and had four surgeries. The doctors and nurses who attended her were
impressed with her joyful and fighting spirit despite what had happened to her. When
family, nurses or friends would look at her with pity or sadness, she would look at them
with a big smile and tell them: I am alive. 31 They were all moved by the joyful and
hopeful attitude with which she was living her recovery.
b. How was she able to survive?
The first moments after the accident were key for her survival. She was lying in the
middle of the railroad tracks with her arms and legs cut off. She could have lain there in
despair thinking of how terrible her life was going to be like in the future having no arms or
legs (ANT #3 and 5: Focusing on the negative and fortune telling error). She felt
helplessness since she couldnt move on her own, and was extremely dizzy and weak
because of the amount of blood she had lost. At that moment she decided that she wanted to
live, and she chose to live . Immediately she started dragging herself away from the rails
and started yelling for help. This determination kept her fighting throughout her recovery
which lasted a whole year, and is the attitude she has kept ever since, given that her life
changed so dramatically and would never be the same. That is why her book is called
Eleg vivir (I chose to live)
As the days and weeks went by she became aware of how slowly she was recovering,
and all she had lost. Both doctors and family members believed that she was never going to
be able to walk or be independent since she could not even eat on her own; she was
conscious of how dramatically her plans had changed: her dream to become a doctor was
shattered, and if she went back, she was not going to graduate with her classmates. She was
31 All information taken from Garca, P. Daniela Eleg Vivir, Santiago de Chile, Random House Mondadori
2004
37
afraid that Ricardo, her boyfriend, was going to leave her; they had been going out for three
years. Her parents were afraid that she was going to fall into depression. But surprising for
everyone, she started making remarkable progress. Her mom even commented that she
didnt stop to think of her limitations, since Daniela didnt stop to consider them herself. 32
She didnt blame her friends for convincing her to go on the trip; she didnt fall prey to
lamentations and beating herself up for having decided to go (both automatic negative
thoughts).
Daniela used to be a very active and independent young woman. With her siblings she
would go rafting and climbing mountains; and with Ricardo, her boyfriend, she used to go
biking every weekend. While she was prostrate in the hospital bed, she made the personal
commitment that she was going to learn something new every day. She channeled all her
mental and physical energy into recovering something of what she had lost. She started by
trying to turn on the TV on her own. She had both of her arms and legs on a cast so that
they wouldnt swell. Despite this, she made the effort to grab the TV control with arms and
turn the TV using her nose. Her doctor made her a harness with which she was able to eat
on her own and start writing. She would demand maximum effort on her part, knowing that
her future depended on that even though the pain in her arms and legs was so intense. She
relearnt how to drive a car, how to ride a bicycle with her prosthesis and even how to knit
with her hooks.
She also kept repeating herself, How good it is to be alive33 She fostered a grateful
attitude: she went to thank each one of the people involved in her rescue: the ambulance
drivers, the man who asked for help, doctors and nurses, friends and family members. She
wrote notes thanking each one of them personally. She was able to see all the privileges she
had which other people couldnt enjoy: being able to have medical care, a family that
supported her, and friends that cared for her. She enjoyed the simple aspects of life and she
32 Garca, P. Daniela Eleg Vivir, Santiago de Chile, Random House Mondadori 2004 pg. 12
33 Garca, P. Daniela Eleg Vivir, Santiago de Chile, Random House Mondadori 2004 pg. 114
38
would commonly express that there was always something that could make us happy:
Dont cry because you cant see the sun, because your tears will not let you see the stars34
Another aspect that helped her move on in life after this tragedy was her sense of
humor. After her surgeries she would experience intense pain when the anesthesia was
wearing down, so she would start joking with her doctors, telling them they were worse
than the trains. When people would stare at her, she would respond with a very sincere
smile that would make them forget about how different she was.35
When they were putting on her arm prosthesis, she was terrified of what people were
going to think of her. They looked like two hooks. She started looking for different
alternatives to this situation. One of her doctors also had a hook, and she only felt
uncomfortable during the first moments she was with him. People would react in the same
way with her. 36
During moments of great difficulty, when she was not making any progress in her
rehabilitation or when the prosthesis the doctors made caused a lot of bruises and intense
pain, she started wondering why it had happened to her, and what she had done to deserve
that. She realized that those thoughts and attitudes were not useful for her recovery, so she
decided that her life was going to be what she would make of it.37
3. The 33 Chilean miners
a. Their tragedy
On August 5th of 2010 some Chilean miners were trapped after part of the mine
caved in. No one knew the number of people that had been inside the mine during that
particular work turn. A couple of hours after this tragedy, the rescue team tried to reach
them. First, they entered through the mouth of the mine to see how bad the blockage was,
and to see if they could open a pass to reach them. But a couple of meters down the
entrance, they found a rock blocking any possibility of going through it. The second plan
34 Garca, P. Daniela Eleg Vivir, Santiago de Chile, Random House Mondadori 2004 pgs. 84, 159, 189
35 Garca, P. Daniela Eleg Vivir, Santiago de Chile, Random House Mondadori 2004 pgs. 69, 112
39
was to go through the ventilation chimney; a rescue team started going down but 48 hours
after the accident, there was another collapse blocking this point of entry as well.
Fortunately the rescue team came out unharmed.
On August 10th, five days following the tragedy, government representatives were
giving a 2% chance of finding the miners alive. It was highly improbable that these
working men had survived the collapse of the mine. The opinion of the media as well as the
rescuers was highly pessimistic: first of all, if they had survived the collapse, there was a
high risk of suffocation due to all the dust in suspension after the cave-in of the mine;
secondly, they had been 700 meters down into the earth, where breathable air is scarce.
They also didnt know if they had food and water. In addition to all these adversities, there
was the emotional state the miners would probably be in: being in the darkness for so long,
not knowing if they were going to be found, anxiety, being in close quarters with strangers
for so long, etc. The rescue team knew that it would take weeks or even months to reach
them, so the general mood was negative. As the days went by, the media was also giving up
hope.
Claudio Ibez, a Chilean psychologist who is the director of the Positive
Psychology Institute in Chile, started realizing that the way the situation was being handled
was not helping people to persevere in the search, and it was not helping anyone to have a
positive and hopeful attitude; this was damaging not only the miners families, but to the
rescue team as well. He decided to do something about it.
He contacted CNN and told them that it was necessary to present such tragedies
with a positive vision of the future, because any other vision promotes defeat and quitting
the battle. He was given an interview that same day. Claudio explained that in moments of
adversity it is important to foster optimistic and hopeful thoughts. That it is essential to
foster resilience, which is the capacity to recuperate emotionally from adversity by
fostering positive thoughts and emotions such as faith, hope, and optimism instead of fear,
anguish, desperation or uncertainty. He didnt want them to have nave optimism, but since
there was no proof that the miners were dead, it was better to think of all the positive
40
scenarios since it is with optimistic thoughts that positive emotions are activated; these
emotions build up strength, enthusiasm and persistence.38 No one knew if they were alive,
but what would have happened if they had given up the search?
The miners families decided to establish themselves at a camp on top of the mine
(Saint Josephs mine) to be able to be there when they would come out. The camp was
called The camp of Hope in order to help themselves keep their hopes up of finding them
alive.
Fourteen days after the accident one of the bores reached 726 meters of depth, but it
didnt reach them due to imprecision in the drilling, and because the mine maps had not
been updated. The place where they had drilled was the wrong spot. But the miners heard
the drilling and this kindled their hopes of being rescued.
Seventeen days later they were able to find them and make the first contact with
them. The miners sent a written note up with the probe saying Estamos bien en el refugio
los 33 (we, the 33 miners, are OK in the Refuge).
They had been on their own for seventeen days without any other external human
contact, but they had been able to unite and organize themselves, offer support to each
other, make the correct decisions and options, keep calm, and even preserve their sense of
humor. After the rescue team was able to establish communication with them, the miners
shared their side of the story: Once they realized that they had been able to survive after the
mine had collapsed and that they were all unharmed, they immediately started to look for a
way out. They were able to go up to the 235th level by a chimney, but they were not able to
go up higher because there were no more stairs. After 48 hours they realized that they were
not going to be able to get out on their own, so they started organizing themselves: they
decided to stay together and ration their food, which consisted of 2 spoons of canned tuna,
half a glass of milk, and half a cookie every 48 hours. Each one started putting their
personal talents at the service of others: an electrician secured the room with light taken
from the vehicles they had had with them at the moment of the collapse; a plumber
38 Ibaez S, Claudio. Los 33 de Atacama y su Rescate. Psicologia en accin y algunas
historias no contadas. Santiago de Chile: Origo Ediciones, 2010 (pg. 12)
41
managed to build a water system with hoses so they were able to distribute water; one who
had been a paramedic was in charge of keeping everyone healthy; another one even made a
domino game out of cardboard boxes painting each piece with a marker.
It is already incredible to think that they were able to survive for 17 days in these
circumstances. It is even more impressive to consider that they were able to persevere in
these conditions for 70 days, maintaining the same optimistic attitudes. Each one lost
between 25 to 35 pounds in those 70 days because of lack of nourishment; they had to sleep
in three shifts in order to have space as well as be able to take care of their different
responsibilities (bringing water, cleaning, etc.); they were not able to see their families and
know how they were handling the situation; some of them were not able to be with their
families at important events, such as the birth of one of their kids.
The experience of the miners and rescue team shows how people tend to help each
other and practice solidarity even when it means personal sacrifice, especially when there is
a situation of great need. Adversities can help people bring the best out of themselves. If we
are able to explain our adversities with optimism and hope, and if we are able to channel
our energy into attitudes of empathy, love, and collaboration, it will contribute to individual
and collective survival in front of catastrophes and tragedies. But these explanations and
the attitudes that come from them only arise when each person decides to think of the best
possible attitude one can have in front of each circumstance. We are going to see which
attitudes helped them survive for those 70 days under the earth.
b. How they survived
The first factor that helped them survive without any serious physical or
psychological damage was the strong belief that they were going to be rescued. They kept
telling themselves that they were going to be found and that they were going back home.
This was key in order to help them dedicate all their energies to make this belief real. When
one of them would start doubting or faltering, another one would keep their hope up so that
they wouldnt give up or fall prey to helplessness.
42
A second factor was the help that the psychologists team provided in making them
responsible for all the steps of their rescue. They engaged them actively, having them give
their opinion on the different strategies the rescue team was using to take them out, as well
as being involved in all the activities that they could help with from down there in order to
keep their minds occupied instead of being idle. Idleness during an adversity usually breeds
negativity and pessimistic thoughts. Keeping their minds busy was helpful in order to avoid
this.
A third factor that helped them was the decision not to lay blame on anyone or point
out any guilty parties. They were not blaming the company or the one in charge of them,
and they didnt fall prey to labeling each other; they were not thinking with their feelings
which during those moments could be very negative. They realized that all of these
thoughts or attitudes were not going to take them out. All their internal resources were
directed towards how they could get out of there and survive as best as possible in the
circumstances they were in.
Another aspect that stands out is how they were able to keep their sense of humor.
They would joke around each other, make fun of their bed made out of cardboard, calling it
Box spring. They called their table where they played dominoes their casino, and made
jokes about the rescue team and doctors once they were able to establish contact with them.
They laughed and cheered in different moments. They were able to find different
alternatives to face the hardships and see the usefulness of the thoughts and emotions they
were having. This shows that they were not centered on the suffering; they were
experiencing or ruminating about the causes of the accident or whose fault it was. Having a
sense of humor is a powerful tool in front of adversities because it opens the mind, and it
even helps the body to get rid of the effects of stress. It also shows that they were able to
see their adversity in perspective, taking a distance from it and not letting it oppress their
emotional well-being.
These 33 Chilean miners were not only able to come out physically and
psychologically sound, but some of them even flourished, coming out in a superior
43
emotional state, having learnt how to deal with extreme adversity by nourishing an
optimistic attitude.
CONCLUSION
The belief that the way one thinks has a profound effect on our moods, behavior and
health has been described and written about by a number of philosophers in the past 2,500
years. As we saw in the first chapter, studies of human behavior have been evolving and
have explained human conduct using different ideologies: some blame our genes, others the
environment, others our biological makeup, or early childhood experiences and traumas.
44
But psychology has been taking a different turn in the last 60 years. Previously, it had been
centered on how to treat and cure negative behaviors. Its focal point was on weaknesses,
deficits, negative emotions and reactions, limitations and all malfunctioning behaviors,
believing that the patient was condemned to suffer his or her limitations due to those
inevitable causes. This led to treating patients as helpless victims. Focusing on the negative
had its positive effects: they were able to find a lot of cures for mental sicknesses. In the
last century, psychologists have been acknowledging the influence that positive thoughts
and optimistic attitudes have on their patients, even to the point of becoming a more
effective cure than some antidepressant medications. 39 They also saw that these type of
thoughts, attitudes and emotions helped people live and do better in school, work, and
relationships, and even have better health. It even helped normal people live to their full
potential.40
But as human beings, we all tend to see the negative side of things or events. We
tend to explain events in a negative light. That is why it is important to teach young
children a positive set of thinking habits. Children have a great capacity for plasticity; they
absorb everything they receive from people that are close to them as well as from their
environment. They spentdmost of their time with their mother, and learn from her the way
to see the world that surrounds them and how to explain the negative events that happen to
them as we saw in the first chapter. Adults can also change their patterns of thought to
1992, pgs.1-10
40 Ibaez S, Claudio. Los 33 de Atacama y su Rescate. Psicologia en accin y algunas historias no
contadas. Santiago de Chile: Origo Ediciones, 2010 pg. 24
45
make them more positive, and in this way help people who live around them. We saw in the
third chapter different life stories of people who lived through extreme circumstances and
how they were able to survive thanks to their optimistic way of facing reality. They not
only survived on their own, but they influenced everyone around them. Optimism and
positive thinking are usually contagious if they are real and they are the most helpful
attitudes in any organization.
46
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I: Influence that thoughts have in the dispositions and behavior of man.
1. The study of cognitions or human thoughts and the influence it has on behavior
2. Thoughts and how they affect physical and emotional states
a.Influence of thoughts in our physical state and our health
b.
Influence of thoughts in our emotional state
3. Negative thoughts and depression.

4. Negative thinking and helplessness
5.
Explanatory style
CHAPTER II: How to change negative thought patterns and how to form optimism
1. David Burns strategy: Recognizing the automatic negative thoughts and exterminating
them by talking back at them.
1) ANT 1: Always/never
2) ANT 2: All/nothing thinking
3) ANT 3: Focusing on the negative
4) ANT 4: Disqualifying the positive
5) ANT 5: Jumping to conclusions
6) ANT 6: Magnification and minimization
7) ANT 7: Thinking with our feelings or emotional reasoning
8) ANT 8: Guilt beating or should statements
9) ANT 9: Labeling or mislabeling
10) ANT 10: Personalizing
11) ANT 11: Blaming others
2. Seligmans strategy: ABCs of optimism.
1) Recognize the adversity
2) Conceptualize the belief
3) See the consequences the belief is causing
47
4) Disputation and distraction

5) Energization
CHAPTER III: Optimism in real life cases.

1.Viktor Frankl
1) Lifes story
2) How he survived
2.Daniela Garca Palomer
1) Lifes story
2) How he survived
3.Thirty three Chilean miners
1) Lifes story
2) How he survived
BIBLIOGRAPHY
48
BURNS, D. Feeling Good, the new Mood Therapy, Avon Books, New York, NY June 1992
Frankl, V. E. Man's Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy (1963). New
York: Washington Square Press, 1997.
Garca, P. Daniela Eleg Vivir, Santiago de Chile, Random House Mondadori 2004
Ibaez S, Claudio. Los 33 de Atacama y su Rescate. Psicologa en accin y algunas
historias no contadas. Santiago de Chile: Origo Ediciones
SELIGMAN, M. Learned Optimism, How to Change your mind and your life, Vintage
books, USA 2006
The Oxford Pocket Dictionary and Thesaurus, Edited by Frank R., Oxford University
Press, 1997
49
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INFLUENCE OF OPTIMISM AND POSITIVE

THINKING IN ONES OUTLOOK ON LIFE

Cecilia Ramirez Vega

THE INFLUENCE THAT THOUGHTS HAVE IN THE DISPOSITIONS AND

Dr. Seligman explains helplessness in this way:

David Burns strategy: Recognizing the automatic negative thoughts and

exterminating them by talking back at them.

thinking leads to perfectionism. It causes the person to fear any mistake or

things that happen: in front of compliments they react internally, saying to

binoculars,which makes them appear enormous and overpowering. This is also

9) ANT 9: Labeling or mislabeling: Whenever we attach a negative label to

by taking personal responsibility for our own problems in order to be able to

KILL THE ANT

Write out the automatic

Identify the type of cognitive

Specify how it is making you

Talk back to the irrational

She is going to kill me.

Mind reading, fortune

She will be upset but she

She will never lend me

wont kill me. I lost

other things in the past

and she has understood

loosing everything and

irresponsible but it has

Seligmans strategy: ABCs of optimism.

Learned optimism presents a set of skills on how to speak to oneself in front of

CHAPTER III: OPTIMISM IN REAL LIFE CASES

b. How he practiced optimism in these hard circumstances

2. Daniela Garca Palomer

Influence of thoughts in our emotional state

3. Negative thoughts and depression.

4) Disputation and distraction

CHAPTER III: Optimism in real life cases.

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