Are We Optimists, Pessimists Or Realists?

We can only know by looking at our own mind’s reactions.

From the dictionary:
Pessimist: believes that evil will ultimately prevail over good.
Optimist: believes good must ultimately prevail over evil.
Realist:  accepts a situation as it is, and is prepared to deal with it accordingly.

The ideas in the mind are our software, and the brain is the hard drive.
Our personal psychology affects the way we see the world,
because the ideas we repeat create a repetition that fixes our
brain’s neuron pathways in a particular way.
Both pessimism and optimism impose on a situation, so our view has a bias.

From Wikipedia:
“Optimism bias is a cognitive bias that causes someone to believe that they
themselves are less likely to experience a negative event.
It is also known as unrealistic optimism.

“Pessimism is a negative or depressed mental attitude in which an undesirable
outcome is anticipated from a given situation. Philosophical pessimists are
often existential nihilists, believing that life has no intrinsic meaning or value.

“Reality: existence that is absolute, self-sufficient, or objective,
and not subject to human decisions or conventions.”

We all hope that life will work out well for us, so we live in that hope.
When we find that it doesn’t work out well, we fall into disappointment,
dissatisfaction and misery, and so we live our lives in some sort of fear.
It is this dissatisfaction that can lead us to question our so-called reality,
to find our genuine reality.

If we can understand what has been driving us – our emotions such as hope and fear – we are then no longer controlled by emotions. After all, we were only following the hopes and fears of others.

We still have passion, but it’s now directed towards a refined potential.

What do you think?