Is the glass half empty or half full? Although there is no objectively “correct” answer, this is a question that can reveal your entire mindset. If you view the glass as half full, you are practicing “optimism,” which can lead you into a much brighter state.

Optimism is the expectation that good things will happen or the belief that the future will be favorable because one can control important outcomes. Think of it as an action-oriented growth mindset.

“Everybody’s different, but you’ll be infinitely happier if you just try to focus on the
good things,” freshman Burke Morris said. “I would say I’m an optimistic person, and it’s helped me a lot with my view on life.”

Numerous studies conducted by the American Psychological Association show that optimists have better sleep, lower levels of stress and overall better mental health. The results further suggested that optimism was related to lifespan, as optimistic people tend to live 15% longer than those who were less optimistic, even when controlled for other factors such as education and income.

“Positive individuals engage in more positive behaviors,” Orlando-based behavioral psychologist Alex Richmond said. “These positive behaviors could be engaging with others, engaging in games and activities with others, smiling frequently, greeting others, etc. I think behaviors by optimistic individuals have higher reinforcement of genuine friendships, which can reduce stress levels and increase mental health.”

Some students are tapping into these benefits through embracing optimism. Senior Eva
Wasyliw founded the Happiness Project, a club aimed at building a community of people where they share what makes them happy.

“My club is a lot about positive psych, which is about how to be your best self through doing different activities to make you feel happier,” Wasyliw said. “One of our most popular activities is plate breaking using the idea of catharsis. It’s the idea that if you let your emotions out, you feel relieved afterwards. Everyone writes down things that make them upset on the plate and then we smash them.”

Wasyliw’s club has in influenced many students on campus to have a more optimistic mindset through engaging activities.

“My friends and people that are in the club tell me that they’re excited for our activities and that they get things out of it,” Wasyliw said. “As long as people are feeling more relieved, less stressed, going into their day excited to go to my club, that’s what matters to me the most.”

Where some students stumble is when they mix up true optimism with toxic optimism. Toxic optimism refers to the misguided belief that a person should maintain an optimistic state in all situations, which in turn invalidates other feelings such as anger or sadness.

“Talking about positive activities or a positive mindset could result in positive feedback and attention from adults or peers within their lives,” Richmond said. “ is can be harmful when it comes to toxic relationships. If a student has a friend who continuously puts them in bad or potentially harmful situations and they continue to only look at the positive attributes of the person while ignoring the negative attributes, this could potentially put that individual in an abusive situation.”

When people are optimistic in a toxic way, they can think that only bad things will happen to other people. This is called the optimism bias. When we learn positive news, such as life expectancies increasing, we readily update our beliefs. But when faced with bad news, such as a higher risk for disease, we resist adjusting.  is why some people skip flu shots or ignore warnings.

In order to practice a more realistic, regulated form of optimism and avoid toxic optimism, it is helpful to surround yourself with optimistic people.

“If you’re surrounded by people who are constantly unhappy, that’s going to affect you pretty negatively,” Morris said. “I have a lot of really good friends, and a lot of them are happy like me, so that is what contributes to my positive outlook.”

The circumstances of life — both successes and setbacks — underscore the necessity of an optimistic mindset.