Wellness Committee Book Review

Practical Optimism: The Art, Science, and Practice of Exceptional Well-Being by Sue Varma, MD

Practicing medicine in both the outpatient and hospital settings has allowed me to see patients in the best of health and at their worst. What I find inspirational are the patients that cross my path who are facing their worst fate and yet they look at the world with optimism and not despair. Many of us find ourselves wanting to gravitate towards people who have an optimistic look at their own life and the world around them. Looking to embrace that optimism, I went in search of resources to help see how that optimism can be a prescription for health and well-being both personally and professionally.

After many reviews and books read, I found what I was looking for in a book by Sue Varma, MD. Practical Optimism: The Art, Science, and Practice of Exceptional Well-Being, published in 2024 by Penguin House Publishers, takes the reader through the eight important pillars of Practical Optimism to enhance our lives and boost our own happiness, which in turn can lead to improvement of health and longevity.  

Dr Varma is a board-certified psychiatrist, and she practices in Manhattan, New York. She uses her own personal experiences, as well as those she gained caring for both civilians and first responders who had survived the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, to walk the reader through these eight pillars. Each chapter enables the reader to understand how these pillars relate to our own lives through examples of her patients she has cared for or her own personal struggles. In turn, Dr Varma provides quizzes and lists that help the reader reflect and bring to the surface their own feelings and whether they ring true to their own lives, or perhaps what they might see in others around them as well. Her work is well researched and provides the readers with skills to practice and use in the moment as well as opportunities to be stronger when facing greater challenges.

By introducing patients by sharing their personal stories, she makes it possible for readers to connect with them, and see how the tools she offers can be used in their own lives. Each of these pillars can be amplified at different levels in our personal lives as well as our professional lives. Recognizing how much both our work and our daily lives are intertwined and affect each equally was truly a good starting point. Therefore, taking each pillar into account and not skipping one was important to allowing for all of them to be in balance and achieve that Practical Optimism.  

Reading this book is just the beginning. The need to practice these skills to achieve that lifelong balance is the next step and one that readers can be eager to embrace. This book is not a one-time read, but a reference that can be used to help guide new skills that are learned from reading this book. I am optimistic that these changes have already made a difference in me, and those who engage in reading this book will find the same.