Key messages to communicate to your child about being optimistic
Look on the bright side.
This means being positive and expecting that things will work out well or get better. When you look on the bright side you believe that good things CAN happen and you don’t give up easily.
It’s good to be a positive tracker.
A positive tracker looks for and points out the good things in themselves, in others, and in what happens in their life. They are more fun to be with and others like them more and want to be their friend.
Look for the small good bits in the bad things that happen.
Sometimes things happen that you don’t like. But you can usually find something good in the situation if you try. Sometimes the good thing is that it could have been worse. Sometimes the good thing is the lesson you learned from it. Sometimes a small good thing happened anyway even if the rest was bad.
Bad times don’t last. Things get better.
When a bad thing happens in your life, it isn’t forever. Bad times and bad feelings always go away again although sometimes it might take a bit of time for this to happen. Things will get better faster if you talk to your parents about what’s worrying you.
It’s important to stay hopeful when you have unhappy times.
You will get over unhappy times in your life more easily if you stay hopeful that good things will happen again and things will get better. If you stay hopeful then you don’t give up.
Be thankful and grateful.
Being thankful for the nice things people do for you and the good things that happen in your life can help you to feel happier. Letting people know that you are thankful or grateful for how they have supported and cared about you also makes them feel happy too.
Good memories of things help you to bounce back.
When you are feeling sad because you have lost someone or something you love, it helps to remember some of the good times you shared with them to help you feel a bit better.
When one unhappy thing happens in your life it doesn’t spoil everything else.
When one thing in your life goes wrong or you feel unhappy or worried, try to remember all the things that are still good in your life. It’s just one thing that is going wrong for a while, not everything.