Learning to be Optimistic

We often think of certain attributes such as optimism and pessimism as givens, permanent and ingrained into our personalities, something that we have little control over or can do nothing about. That’s not a very helpful point of view. It renders us helpless, powerless, victims of either our genetics or early child upbringing.

However, scientists are learning today that we are much more fluid in personality, biology, and even intelligence than we have long believed. Epigenetics asserts that...