The Power of Pessimism

Are you a Good Witch or a Bad Witch?

I'm always amazed how many news articles about health relate to yoga. The latest is about pessimism, that dirty word that we yogis like to pretend doesn't exist. We prefer to focus on the Glinda the Good Witch of thoughts, Optimism. And for good reason, the power of positive thinking is well-documented to help in pretty much all areas of life.

But the news article that came out yesterday studied the dark side. It said that while optimism can help you feel better, pessimism can do the opposite. The researchers did this big long study about how the effectiveness of some pain meds can be made null and void by thinking they won't work.

Doesn't it just make you feel stupid to be a glass-half-empty person. Well, it makes me feel a little stupid and guilty, at least. That's because I'm a pessimist. And I'd rather be an optimist, but it's just so dang unnatural for me to think happy thoughts. That's where yoga comes in.

Now, yoga isn't so pushy as to give you a yellow brick road prescription to the land of Optimism, but it does give you one better. It teaches you how to control your thoughts, thus allowing you to build your own road.

Now I'm going to set off and tackle my day. And I'll even allow myself one optimistic thought: I WILL go to yoga today.