Cultivating an optimistic personality can add years of happiness to your life. Positive people enjoy life more than Debbie Downers, but they also have a 35% lower risk of heart attack, cardiovascular death, and stroke. They also have a 40% lower risk of dementia than the most pessimistic people.

However, many people question the power of optimism because they see it as a Pollyannaish, pie-in-the-sky outlook that makes positive people appear naive or removed from reality. That type of positivity is actually known as toxic positivity, the type where people ignore the facts and respond to every problem with, “Don’t worry, everything will be okay.”

What is practical optimism?

Dr. Sue Varma, a psychiatrist and cognitive behavioral therapist based in New York City, has found over her 20-plus years in practice that the happiest people she works with have a common personality trait: Practical Optimism. “Through my research and clinical work, I started to learn that there was........

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