By DMA Junior Emily Tzonkowski 

Optimistic Mindset is all about cultivating a positive outlook on life and embracing a “glass half full” mentality. It’s about training your mind to focus on the good things and to approach challenges with a hopeful attitude. Three important lessons we learned include the value of approaching all situations with love, the value of gratitude, and that our minds trick us about what will actually make us happy.

One of the key lessons we have learned is that we should approach all situations with love and an open mind. It allows us to approach situations with empathy, compassion, and a desire to make a positive impact. Reflecting on how our motivations affect our relationships, it is important to recognize that negative motivators like anger or greed can often harm our connections with others. On the other hand, when our motivations begin from love, it tends to strengthen our relationships fostering understanding, trust, and kindness. We learned that a subtopic of love is forgiveness. It is an important component of having loving relationships. By shifting our mindset towards positivity, we can actually influence our emotions and overall well-being. It’s like a mental workout that helps you build resilience and bounce back from setbacks. 

A second lesson is the importance of gratitude. Practicing gratitude allows you to appreciate the little things in life and find joy in everyday moments. It was a great way to shift our focus from what’s going wrong to what’s going right. We even did a gratitude rewirement that made us think about what we were grateful for everyday. A third valuable lesson we learned was that our brain is constantly trying to trick us with things we think will make us happy, but actually won’t. We think a good job, money, looks, a family, and materialistic things will make us happy. However, helping others, setting and meeting goals, and maintaining healthy relationships with our community actually make us happier in the long run. 

Overall, Optimistic Mindset is a fantastic opportunity to develop a more positive and resilient outlook on life. It has taught me many strategies that have helped me become a more positive and happy person.