The world can be a depressing place. It’s also fairly relentless and is always coming at you, whether you’re ready for it or not. If a person doesn’t have something in place to counter the rougher side of life, then they can easily be pulled into a state of melancholy.

And that’s why it’s important for people to take a day out of the year to look on the bright side. Fortunately, the 21st of December has been set aside for such a day, and it’s aptly known as Look on the Bright Side Day.

Even though this holiday falls on the shortest day of the year, it’s the perfect time for people to adjust their thinking and be a little more optimistic.

The History of Look on the Bright Side Day

Although we’re not exactly sure who invented Look on the Bright Side Day, we can say that people have been observing the Winter Solstice for thousands of years. Ancient people viewed the shortest day of the year as the death of spring, and as a result, they lit up the sky with bonfires and other rituals. This provided a much-needed psychological boost to people and reminded them that spring wasn’t too far off. They just had to maintain a little bit of optimism.

Some Important Facts About Optimism

We wanted to highlight the importance of optimism in everyone’s life, so we took some time to do a bit of research. We think that the following facts about optimism are quite important to our discussion of Look on the Bright Side Day. Let’s take a look at these facts before continuing.

• A recent study showed that optimistic people were twice as likely to have strong cardiovascular health as pessimistic people.
• Showing gratitude for what you have boosts positive emotions and helps increase optimism.
• People who slept at least 7 hours a night were more optimistic than those who didn’t get proper sleep.

Observing Look on the Bright Side Day

There aren’t any rituals or specific celebrations that people have to perform on this day. All they really have to do is to take the time to be a little more optimistic about their lives. Studies have shown that people can become more optimistic by simply trying.

This can be done by noticing the good things that happen in life, not blaming themselves when things go wrong, and by reminding themselves that setbacks are temporary.

Another thing that people can do is to remind others to be optimistic and to celebrate this holiday by using the hashtag #LookOnTheBrightSideDay on social media.