142 brilliantpositivepsychology Optimism is not the opposite of pessimism: We can lessen our negative thinking while not increasing our positive thinking. 126 And vice versa, we can increase our optimistic thinking without lessening our pessimistic thinking 127 The trick is to do both: reduce pessimistic thinking and increase optimism. brilliant tip You can test how optimistic you are at www.authentichappiness.com and take the free optimism test. Coping optimistically and building your resilience 1 Problem solving Overcoming any adversity or situation requires that we can assess the situation and find different routes through it. Being better able to cope involves both the ability to problem solve and the emotional capacity to stress-manage the situation. As we saw in Chapter 4 on achieving goals, being able to problem solve is an important coping strategy, so keeping in mind all the factors that support your ability to problem solve is also building your coping skills. Having an optimistic interpretation of your situation allows you to problem solve better. Optimists, like the mouse, have the ability to imagine positive outcomes, or believe they can influence their situation.They continue to see possibilities and act on them rather than acting `in defence' or simply accepting negative interpretations. People who continue to act this way experience less stressful and less negative emo- tions. We have seen in Chapters 3 and 4 the cognitive effect of