The Benefits Of Negative Visualization By Oliver Burkeman

Since I was young, I have always had an affinity of people watching, and trying to figure out what type of life they lived. Especially, what type of events would cause people to adopt a positive (happy) outlook in comparison to people that dwell on the negatives attributes? Growing up, my mother had a peculiar thought process that would always managed to lead to negative (not happy) thoughts. In the beginning, I too would follow similar thought process, but I quickly realized how exhausting it was to maintain. Before reading Shawn Achor’s book, I wanted to clear my mental database and allow for this new information to be absorbed into my life.

In Oliver Burkeman’s essay, “The Benefits of ‘Negative Visualization’”, he discusses how Negative Visualization is more likely to make people happier than positive visualization. Burkeman supports his argument by describing Ottogen’s experiment and how one spends more time in thinking how well things will go instead of achieving one’s goal due to one’s lack of motivation.

Sometimes there is positive within the negative, yet other times the negativity outweighs the

Once the subject is relaxed, the therapist may invite them to use visualisation to visit a ‘special place’ where they feel safe and happy, and will usually give them permission to ‘stay’ there for some time. The special place can later be used as a trigger so that, once back to an alert state, the subject can use it whenever they need

In his article, The Power of Negative Thinking, Oliver Burkeman discusses the realities behind excessive optimism and the benefits to negative thinking. Specifically, Burkeman argues that positive thinking hinders the preparation and motivation necessary to tackle actual real world problems whereas negative thinking allows for such preparation. His argument’s strengths come from his constant use of logic in regards to his evidence whether it be the “fire walkers” in the first paragraph or the opinions of Barbara Ehrenreich in the paragraph nine. In short, Burkeman does a superb job of championing the benefits of pessimism through his criticism on positive thinking.

Lang, explains through a series of scientific studies that pessimism can sometimes be a better form of seeing life than optimism. Throughout the article studies are being done on different age groups, the youngest group always shows a “sunny” outlook on life while the middle aged group is logical and realistic. Optimism has shown health complications and mental issues in older people (Lang, 2013). I usually do not think negatively about life, but as an improvement I should start seeing life for what it truly is, unpredictable and inconvenient in order to prevent a distasteful lifestyle in the

An article written by Kendra Cherry states, “By nurturing positive emotions, even in the face of terrible events, people can reap both short-term and long-term rewards, including managing stress levels, lessening depression, and building coping skills that will serve them well in the future” (Cherry). Optimism has allowed for people to deal with conflicts in a healthy way. Neuroscientist Tali Sharot in her book The Science of Optimism: Why We’re Hard-Wired for Hope argues that optimism provides an adaptive advantage. According to her, “Expecting our future to be good reduces stress and anxiety, which is good for our health. Researchers studying heart attack patients have found that optimists were more likely than nonoptimistic patients to take vitamins, eat low-fat diets, and exercise, thereby reducing their overall coronary risk” (Popova). Dealing with conflicts positively is better for your health and it decreases bad health

Throughout generations people believed that having positive visualizations can make situations better, but when you are in a situation that gives you a negative outcome you become devastated. In the essay “The Benefits of “Negative Visualization”’ Oliver Burkeman discussed how negative visualization is more likely to make people happier than positive visualization. Burkeman supported that negative visualization makes an individual happier rather than positive visualization; he supported this claim by describing how spending time and focusing how well things would go reduces one’s motivation to achieve their goal, having tranquility would give individuals the opportunity to focus on negative emotions, positive thinkers are less prepared and more acutely distressed, “negative visualization” causes less stress, and being prepared for the to the worse-case scenario helps establish what to expect. When using negative visualization, it would be beneficial to use it to prepare oneself for the worse-case scenarios and to reduce both fear and anxiety. In regards to Burkeman’s position, I can relate to the information he is presenting and apply it to my personal life. Therefore, I can strongly agree with his point of view that negative visualization is more likely to make an individual happier than positive visualization.

Some people argue that happiness helps make good decisions because happy people strive for the best result. David states, “[Positive emotions] help build vital social, physical, and cognitive resources that lead to positive outcomes and affiliations” (124). David points out that with the right amount of positivity, people make good judgments. The author acknowledges that happiness can have benefits, but she states that too much happiness could hurt human development because the mind does not consider the consequences of an action. Julie Norem, a psychology professor, points out, “’If you’re a pessimist who really thinks through in detail what might go wrong, that’s a strategy that’s likely to work very well for you’” (qtd. in Wallis). She explains

Scientists have begun to realize that positive thinking can not only help during conflicts,but during everyday life. An article from the Huffington Post gives insight into this,”The benefits of positive emotions don’t stop after a few minutes of good feelings subside. In fact, the biggest benefit that positive emotions provide is an enhanced ability to build skills and develop resources for use later in life” (Clear). James Clear (taking insight for notable psychology experts) explains how positivity improves emotion and life quality. He also states that positivity is a useful resource in all social situations as well as

Over a span of only five years, the college spending per athlete has increased 61% not considering the idea of an annual salary for the collegiate player. Annual salary from a college could sway the athlete's decision when it come to committing to a school even though the college may not have the funds to pay a full salary for the player. Also, some division I colleges are already struggling to pay for scholarship they provide for the athlete which could cause the effectiveness of the education in the classroom to decline. College athletes would be forced to focus on their sport more than their academics because They will feel pressured to train harder and risk injury to keep their salary stable. Many experts agree that college athletes should not be at the college to play sports but to further their education.

Thinking positively can be a difficult task, no matter the circumstance. When negativity fills you up like helium in a balloon you should always try to find the light in the darkness. Thinking positively doesn’t make the hard times disappear, it helps you survive negativity and the daily conflicts that challenge you. Looking on the bright side of things increases attentiveness, improves your ability to think, and leads to happier thoughts (Psychology Today). No matter what you are going through, you should always stay optimistic. “Man’s Search for Meaning” and “Dear Miss Breed” are great examples of how having a bright outlook can help you survive conflict.

This Ted Talk is about optimism bias which is the tendency to think more positively about a person’s life than to think negatively. We have these high expectations that good things would happen than bad ones. It is a positive bias towards an event before the event actually happens. The optimism bias is a naturally occurring phenomenon that seems to become part of human nature because it is an overall tendency to bring upon good things in life over a pessimistic bias (Sharot, 2011).

“Beyond Happiness: The Upside of Feeling Down” article by Matthew Hutson explains that negative emotions often have a pessimistic stigma. Normally when one addresses fear, anger, guilt, and regret, a positive outlook is not the first thing that comes to mind. Because these emotions are mostly negative, people try to not act on them or conceal them when trouble arises; however, acting on these emotions can bring a positive feeling. Hutson sheds light on why anger, shame, envy, fear, and grief should not be looked at as “negative” emotions all the time, rather they should just be looked at as emotions.

Positivity is something that I have always been looking for but we all know that one cannot go through life being happy or positive at all times, with so many bad happening in the world or even just people in our lives trying to put us down due to them not being happy about themselves. The way that the strategies of coping are put in my assignment; I thought were perfect for myself due to my interpersonal style.