When I heard for this name for the first time it was watching UFC fighter, Polyana Viana. I had the impression this is the name of someone from Polynesia.
Then, listening to some self-help lecture, I heard about the little girl Pollyanna, who was always seeking something positive in every situation, no matter how bad it was. I also found out that she's the character from the children's book with the same title, written by Eleanor H. Porter.
In the book, Pollyanna got a name from her sisters Polly and Anna who died as babies. Her mother and father have died also. So this child of eleven, filled with so many tragedies already, moves to her rich aunt to live kind of Harry Potter life with Dursleys. But she's not a super-human. She's just a child to who the father said to seek positive things (play "glad game") in every bad situation, preparing her for his death.
So, she sometimes gets sad, tears start rolling, but she remembers her father's words and always finds something positive. By doing so, she changes situations and people around her.
This is exactly how we should be. If you had a chance to see The Unsinkable movie by Sonia Ricotti, you heard many stories of tragedy and bouncing back. If you think it is hard for you, and you can't come back, imagine you are the kid, and your father takes a gun and kills your mother in front of you, and then he kills himself. All a sudden your life is over. And this little girl came back. Not as unsinkable Pollyanna, but still.
Pollyanna's story is so strong that psychology knows Pollyanna's hypothesis, Pollyanna's principle, and Pollyanna syndrome.
Pollyanna hypothesis is a universal human tendency to use positive words more frequently and diversely than negative words.
Pollyanna principle is a principle saying the brain processes information that is pleasing and agreeable in a more precise and exact manner as compared to unpleasant information. So we tend to color our past experience more rosy than they really were. By focusing on positive, we program our subconscious mind to notice positive things more than they really occur.
Pollyanna syndrome in psychotherapy means “an excessively or blindly optimistic person.” Many psychiatrists think this is bad, as, in their opinion, people can only grow is they suffer. And life is and should be suffering. There is no space for positivity in the negative world as they see it. This is of course nonsense for many other, more spiritual people who don't see our life as "the valley of sorrow", but creative heaven. And find out that we can grow even more through positive stimuli. Meaning, if you are positive, your creativity is stronger than if you are negative. If you are depressed, you will hardly create anything good or useful, but when you are inspired (in spirit), you soar and your creativity bursts.
So my advice is, no matter how hard it seems, stay positive, find even the smallest positive thing in that situation and you will change your reality, and attract more positive things. Just remember the Oscar-winning movie "La vita e bella".
