Psychologist shares advice on maintaining optimistic attitude in tough times


Psychologist Irma Johnston believes realistic positive thinking can become a habit. Here are her suggestions for remaining positive in the face of serious illness:

  • Reframe. Rather than labeling your situation as a disaster or tragedy, see it as a challenge, an experience, an important part of your journey.
  • Let your feelings come, all of them, and then move through them. Again and again.
  • If plan A has not worked, don't stop; begin plan B and then plan C.
  • Be forgiving of yourself and others, not always scanning for flaws or imperfections.
  • Love yourself in spite of your shortcomings, and love others in spite of theirs.
  • Appreciate little things each day and do something to nourish yourself: read a poem, have a cup of good tea, listen to music, take a walk, watch a movie, sing a song, hold a child or a pet.
  • Ask for a helping hand when needed and be grateful for whatever is offered.
  • When you feel stuck emotionally, move your body: take a walk, exercise, dance, hug a loved one.
  • Pause and appreciate something beautiful around you.
  • Recall how you have made it through hard times in the past and remember your strength, capability, faith and resources.
  • Take one hour at a time, one day, one week and pat yourself on the back for having made it through.

KETTERING — When others are going through difficult times, Irma Johnston tries to help them appreciate the little things in life.

Johnston, a Kettering psychologist who has practiced in both hospital and private settings for the past 25 years and did a clerkship in health psychology, insists that “pockets of time when something good happens” can act as stabilizers and boosters during tough times.

Even those who are more prone to approaching life’s problems in a negative way, she says, can learn to be more optimistic and adventuresome rather than getting stuck in unhappiness.

Johnston says maintaining a positive attitude doesn’t mean you’re being unrealistic or “pie in the sky” or that everything will turn out wonderful and fine.

“You can look at reality, not float above it. It’s important to grieve the losses, go through them, then move on.”

Maintaining a positive attitude, she explains, means having an awareness that individuals have the strength to cope with their problems.

“It means finding resources to help you make it through the hard times — friends, allies and supplies.”

Examples of those resources may range from oxygen or chemotherapy to support groups.

Johnston says many people have a plan A for their lives and when that doesn’t work out they assume all is lost and there is no way out.

“As psychologists we help them to formulate plan B or even plan C,” she explains. “We had really good research in the ’60s that found that hope was the most important element of successful psychotherapy. If people get stuck in negativity, they begin to feel hopeless and become depressed.”

Johnston says it’s important to become aware that we are all “in process.”

“It’s best to see our health situation as a journey, an adventure,” she says, adding that those who are more anxious may need someone to help them along that path.

An 11-year survivor of aggressive breast cancer, Johnston is one of the founders of The Noble Circle, an all-volunteer support group offering women self-healing alternatives like whole-food nutrition, qiqong (a form of exercise and movement) and weekend retreats.

“I didn’t have a good prognosis, but I got on the computer to learn more and got into a clinical trial,” says Johnston, who was working out of four offices when she learned she would require surgery.

“I gave my work to other people in two of the health clinics, but I kept working in the other two. It helped my clients see I didn’t give up working even though I had heavy-duty chemo and radiation — no hair.”

Those who remain upbeat in the face of illness are modeling the joy of life and strength, Johnston says. “I think of it as putting some stuff in your backpack. You may still have to carry it, but you can enjoy life even though you may be carrying burdens.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2440 or mmoss @DaytonDailyNews.com.

About the Author