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It's Tune-up Tuesday.

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And this morning, we are looking on the bright side

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of things to focus on how to practice optimism.

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Psychologist,

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Dr Deepika Chopra

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is known as the optimism doctor and is here to help. Good morning doctor.

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Good to see you. Good

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morning. It's so good to be here.

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Well, first of all, so what's the difference between

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optimism and positivity? How do you differentiate those?

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So, I feel like people are always so surprised when I say positivity is not the

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first word that really comes to mind for me when I think about optimism.

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The first two words that come to mind to me are resiliency and curiosity.

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And so, I think there's this misconception of what being optimistic is.

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And I think people just think that being optimistic is about being positive 24/7.

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And in reality, that's not possible.

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And so, a true optimist is really someone that is very keenly aware

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of the setbacks and the roadblocks and the less than ideal situations.

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But the caveat is they see them as temporary

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and something that they have the ability to overcome,

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even if they don't know how or when. So, it's really about this resiliency.

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Yeah. It's interesting because it's more realistic, I guess

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because you're dealing with robots. So, if you are optimistic, you're saying that

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you will not only be mentally better but physically better. Yes.

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So, there is just a host of research done.

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I think we can all sort of agree that it makes sense that our

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emotional

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selves are better if we have a more optimistic mindset.

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But what I think is so interesting is there's been a ton of research done and

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optimistic people are sick less often.

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They have better cardiovascular health; they live longer; they thrive longer.

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So, not just in terms of how many years they live, they have better support system,

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more able to reach their goals, and 

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they just experience more positive mood.

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You make better decisions.

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Yeah,

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you make more actually optimistic people more

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likely than not make more healthy decisions.

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And I think it makes sense because they can kind of,

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they can see who they are going to be in the future, and they kind of invest in that.

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Would you say that we're born optimist or pessimists or is it a muscle

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we can kind of work on to get better at? You hit the target word.

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It's totally a muscle.

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So, there is a lot of research to support that there is a, you know, genetic component,

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but good news is it's only really up to 25%.

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So, the remaining part really can be learned.

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And so, I like to look at optimism as a

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muscle and really this thing that's on a continuum.

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And so, you know, you often hear, 

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you know, I just think I was born more pessimistic or I'm a pessimist or an optimist.

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And

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I actually feel we are all sort of neither. We're all both.

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So, there are aspects of our life that we are more prone to being optimistic.

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And I know, for me, you know, I'm known as the optimism doctor, but I gotta be honest,

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I am not the most optimistic person.

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And yeah,

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my like Achilles Heel with optimism is really like medical stuff and health.

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So, it depends on the different—yes—

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the different thing.

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May be optimistic about your kids and their future, but maybe your health is. Right.

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Right. And so, that's where my work lies.

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And so, I think we're all on a continuum, and the good thing is, you know,

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we can grow on that continuum, and there are actual exercises we can do

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to

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increase.

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In fact,

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you created this deck of cards called "Things are looking up." 

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So, this is a deck of cards.

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There's 52 of them, and they each have a science-based prompt

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or an actionable item that actually tells you what to do.

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So, they're not affirmation cards, and they all work to

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increase your optimism and your resiliency and your joy. So, can we try this?

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Yes. In fact, I'm gonna have you go first.

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I gonna pick a card for you.

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Ok.

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Pick any card.

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Pick any card.

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Any card.

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All right, I've seen this on 

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on the street. I

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lost a bunch of money. Just for today, instead of making a to-do list,

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make a ta-da list or and I did it list. So, what do you mean by that?

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So, you know,

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I think we get bogged down, and it can be very stressful for us to

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constantly think about all the things we need to do or we have to do.

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And oftentimes, I hear people at

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the end of their day making a list for the

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following day of all the things they have to do.

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And I say, why not make a ta-da list?

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These are all the things that I have accomplished today.

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Gratitude for what you've done. Yeah. Gratitude for what you've done.

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And you start to realize at the end, and

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I'm talking about small things because those really matter.

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You start to realize how accomplished you really are.

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And it's really about this sense of self mastery and empowerment.

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You've got to make a big ta-da list.

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He's got a

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lot of

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things

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going on.

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It's really

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important.

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Thank you so much. Really appreciate this.

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OK? Wait, there's more.

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Unfortunately, we

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are, we are... I am gonna

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take my card for later. You know what

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we're gonna do, we're gonna put this online.

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Ok. So, everyone

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can check it out.

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