I was listening to an interview with forensic psychotherapist Dr Gwen Adshead who works at Broadmoor earlier today.  It is her job to try to understand the behaviour of some of the most vilified people in our society.   She feels that we culturally fail to emphasise that rage, fear and pain are as much a part of normal experience as happiness.   As she put it, we are not taught to ‘withstand the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’.

What she is really talking about here is resilience.  That ability to cope with  adversity, to come back after a setback, and to adapt to (rather than magically ‘get over’) the impact of trauma.

So what would we need to teach in order to improve resilience?

Martin Seligman, psychologist and Positive Psychology guru, believes (and he is far from alone in this) that ‘Optimism and hope cause better resistance to depression when bad events strike, better performance at work, particularly in challenging jobs, and better physical health’

But can you learn to be more optimistic? Do you actually want to or it is more satisfying to hide under the duvet right now? Are we all just 'getting real' (see previous posts for how much I hate that expression).

Despite acknowledging his own innate grumpiness, Seligman believes that we can all learn to become 'attentive optimists' rather than blank eyed shiny, happy people.

It is a question of discernment. Taking credit where it is due for good events, not seeing them as proof of your own brilliance or never-ending good fortune. Accepting responsibility when things go wrong and seeing what can be learnt.

Research consistently shows that optimists live longer than pessimists. In a long, happy life this current turmoil will be nothing more than a minor blip.