Barack Obama is no stranger to grim circumstances: staying positive despite them helps keep him in a good mood.
Obama, 61, discussed the best tactic he uses to stay sensible in a interview with comedian Hasan Minhaj released on Wednesday.
Minhaj asked the former president, whom he called the “boy of hope and change,” if he ever gets depressed amid current conditions like climate change, anti-abortion laws and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.
“I try to keep some perspective,” Obama responded. “Ask your parents or grandparents if this is the worst they’ve ever seen. I’m pretty sure between World War I, World War II, the Great Depression…we can go down the list of times that are significantly worse than this.”
Instead of dwelling on upsetting events, you subscribe to the “glass half full” mentality that things could always be worse, which helps you foster a sense of gratitude.
Obama added that many of us, including himself, grew up in a time when the positive events seemed to outweigh the negative, so it can be hard to be optimistic when it’s the other way around.
“I grew up in this anomalous period of time where, even though bad things happened, for the most part, the trajectory of humanity was [that] things were getting better,” he said. “We were becoming less racist, less sexist and less homophobic… there was this huge sense that a lot of humanity’s ills were behind us.”
Over time, you can train yourself to be more optimistic by viewing negative situations in a positive light, according to the health and wellness site. mind very well.
“When you’re thinking negatively, take a moment to assess how realistic your thoughts really are,” psychotherapist Amy Morin wrote on her website. “Reframing your overly negative thoughts into more realistic statements can help you maintain a healthy dose of optimism.”
Obama gave his daughter Malia’s friends similar advice, he says, after she asked them how to make her friends more hopeful about stopping climate change.
“What I told him is: ‘Look, we may not be able to limit the temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius. But here’s the thing: if we work really hard, we may be able to limit it to 2.5 instead of 3 ‘”. ” He explained. “That extra centigrade, that could mean the difference between Bangladesh being under water.”
Mindset shifts like this are what “matters,” he continued. “It can hold your spirit.”
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