How To Quit Pessimism

The mind is a great place to be. It is the ideal realm where one can either build his/her castle or make a battleground.

My mind used to be a battlefield where I would fight depression, mood swings, pessimism and other mind-breaking giants. I would give up before facing them because I did not believe in myself. No matter whom I spoke to it wouldn't make a difference.

One day I asked myself 'how do others do to smile at life?'

Well, it's simple it is a choice. Though times are challenging they choose to look at life from a positive perspective. I said to myself it was stupid but I came to realize why they had to do that. There are several reasons but I will speak on a few

Life never gets easier, We get stronger

Life will always put pressure on us but we have to be strong. At times this pressure seems crushing but we can rely on friends and family. I pushed away my friends and family members because I had given up on life. 

I no longer had the will to fight till I met a friend of mine who had lost his father. Though this had happened, it did not move him neither was he disturbed he behaved as though nothing had happened. I did not ask him how or why he was doing that. I tried following his example and it worked for a while but I returned to a pessimistic mood a week later.

Change of environment

A week after I returned to pessimism, I felt as though I was a burden to those who knew me so I
decided to hang around new people. My usual friends were into gaming and books so I began hanging around those who had a social life. Guys who would go for parties and spend on fashion items. I tried asking one of them how he did to be so positive and carefree. He told me that is just how he is. I spent about a week hanging around him but I still could not understand how he did.

Thanks to this change of environment I learnt how to interact with others and I began being an extrovert. This was quite good but it did not stop me from being a pessimist. So I quit their group

Decisions

One day after I left the previous group (crew mentioned above) I began asking myself what is it that they do that I don't? How do they do to see life positively? How do they do to handle the pressure of life? Don't they have worries?

That's when it struck me. They chose to see life from the positive side and I chose the negative. So I challenged myself that I will give it a shot for a couple of days. I had to force myself to see life from their end. I was about to give up but I said to myself, I have nothing to lose and if it hurts that's all I deserved.

Unknowingly I was pushing myself towards change. Before I realized it, I was already at 2 weeks without being as negative as I used to be. I was feeling a change but couldn't explain it. Occasionally, the feeling would return and I would remember my choice of being positive and it would keep me going.

The main idea here is not to give up on quitting pessimism. Once the choice of quitting is made, you can do it too. My method may not work for you, and I understand it is not easy. It took me more than 2 years to quit pessimism and it all starts with the desire of quitting. You may feel like quitting will make you like others and what made you special has left but that's not the case. Pessimism has nothing to give and it breaks what you have made. It might not be visible at the moment but in the long run, it shows up.

In case you want to read more on self-improvement, here is a book you could use Heal Yourself