This is Your Brain on Optimism

Blog #5

"It's extraordinary how far beliefs can take you." Caroline Casey's TED talk really truly inspired me. She is legally blind and was completely unaware until her 17th birthday. Well, how in the world could that possibly work? Well it was just how it was to her, thats how the world was. She didn't know any different. She fought and fought against her blindness and pushed through that difficulty, but she didn't realize that she was fighting herself. Casey talked about how her optimism and the acceptance of her true self  including her blindness made her see clearly and give her the final push to be happy.

I agree with Casey that self belief can push a human being so far. She did so much with her set back that even people without anything holding them back could do. I think it is absolutely astonishing what the human emotions can accomplish. In fact in an article about health and its relation to optimism and pessimism it stated, "A body of research has linked optimism to better health" ("This"). The human emotions are a complex and difficult aspect of life to fully understand, but they can prove to thrive when it comes to motivation. Casey's blindness originally was a negative in her life, something she wanted to push away. Once she gained a new and clearer perspective of her life she used it to go beyond her expectations of her limits. She helped people like her be able to see because of her passion. She turned that negative into a positive and I think that is an important lesson for anyone to learn in their lives.

Personally, I have had to go through multiple situations like that which eventually I learned to learn from rather than pessimistically go about it for the rest of my life. When I was around eight years old my mom was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Being an impressionable and sensitive eight year old I thought I was going to lose my mom. She had been sick with many other illnesses, but I thought cancer was the worst of all things imaginable. I was even scared to be away from her so I didn't go to sleepovers. Eventually, her thyroid was removed and she is happy and healthy today, but I took that negative situation and turned it into a lesson over the years. One needs to value the mortality of oneself; they need to live life to the fullest because it is not something you can just throw away or give up on, it is something you need to push through in the hardest of times. Another true tragedy was the death of my friend Sammy. In the summer before seventh grade I remember driving home and my mom telling me that she has some bad news. A plane had crashed on my classmates' Oregon vacation home and Sammy and his little sister Grace had passed away. I honestly had no idea what to feel, I was absolutely stunned. I went through a rough spot after that because I couldn't believe that someone my age was gone. My class of 42 kids pulled together and supported each other through the truly tragic event, but as I got older I still couldn't believe that someone so young and kind wasn't here. Being here is a gift that not everyone is granted, every gift taken away is a tragedy but all gifts should be embraced.

Casey's talk reminded me of the strength of the human soul and how far beliefs can help a person along their journey in life. I truly respect her story and the emotion she put into her TED talk . It was inspiring. It showed how the hard parts in life make a better person of everyone. Perseverance and pulling through difficult situations is something that I truly respect in everybody. 

Works Cited

"This Is Your Brain on Optimism - Newsweek." Newsweek - National News, World News, Business, Health, Technology, Entertainment, and More - Newsweek. Web. 28 Apr. 2011. <http://www.newsweek.com/2007/10/23/this-is-your-brain-on-optimism.html>.