What causes some people to be overly pessimistic and negative towards life and i

1. 86

   gmwilliamsposted 11 years ago

   What causes some people to be overly pessimistic and negative towards life and its opportunities?
   
   

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2. 41

   ChristinSposted 11 years ago

   It's conditioning and how we are taught to think and approach life.  What we believe we perceive, if most of what I think is negative, I will see the world around me in a negative, cynical way.  That perpetuates a vicious circle that leaves the person chronically angry, sad, defeated etc.
   
   Fortunately, we can consciously choose to restructure our thought processes.  It takes work and it means accepting accountability, but I know from experience it can be done.  I grew up around many "negative Nellies" and I tended to be that way myself until I finally got sick and tired of feeling drained, depressed and just "bad" all the time.  I started reading a lot about psychology, various self-help and spiritual teachings and over time I restructured my thought patterns to align with who/what I wanted to be. I never looked back because feeling at peace and good about the world around me has led me to many opportunities and blessings I wouldn't have otherwise accepted or recognized.   Optimism opens our eyes and hearts. Chronic pessimism imprisons and robs us of quality of life.
   
   People do not give their minds enough credit - our thoughts do create our perception of reality. If people truly understood just how true that is, and how powerful the mind can be, they'd spend more time learning to work with their mind, rather than allowing it to control them unsupervised .

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      gmwilliamsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Totally agree.  Our minds determine how we view things and eventually act.  Failure oftentimes devastates negative people while positive people view failure only as opportunities.

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   AngelOfDecayposted 11 years ago

   If you expect the worst case scenario you will never be disappointed. If the worst case scenario happens then you have already expected it to happen, and if something better happens, well you have something to smile about. That is why I'm pessimistic all of the time .

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      gmwilliamsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Not even going to touch THAT one!

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   MysticMoonlightposted 11 years ago

   In my experience with people like this, they often have a victim mentality. They think of themselves as the center of some sort of 'the world hates me' syndrome and struggle with needing constant emotional support from others and often uses others for an emotional crutch. If they never learn to be or become responsible for their own inner happiness, they find it very hard or impossible to have a positive outlook because they look to everyone around them to provide this 'service' to them.
   People around them often tire of this cycle and fall away or out of the life of the person which, in turn, leads to them feeling even more emotionally distraught. It's a vicious cycle, really.

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   AMAZING THINKERposted 11 years ago

   May be their previous experiences has effected their thinking, they lack motivation and will. Life is like a roller coaster, it goes up and down and it takes effort to go up!

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