Are you going to be healthy in 2009? How you answer that question may actually influence how well you feel – and how long you live.
If you’re a “glass-is-half-full” kind of person, enjoying an optimistic outlook on life, you’re much more likely to have better physical and mental functioning than people who believe the glass is half empty, research suggests.
Regular exercise, a well-balanced diet and access to sound medical care are critical components of good health. But scientists also point to evidence of a mind-body connection, and say that, at the very least, being pessimistic doesn’t boost health.
In one groundbreaking study, researchers at the Mayo Clinic found that pessimists had a lower quality of life, poorer emotional health and complained of more bodily pain than those who tended to see the sunny side of things. The patients had taken personality tests in the 1960s and more than 30 years later were asked about their health.
Mayo Clinic researchers also determined that optimists had a better survival rate than anticipated, living 20 percent longer than pessimists.
“The wellness of being is not just physical, but attitudinal,” said Mayo’s Dr. Toshihiko Maruta in a written statement. “How you perceive what goes on around you and how you interpret it may have an impact on your longevity, and it could affect the quality of your later years.”
One leading researcher on the topic, Martin E.P. Seligman, explains that it isn’t entirely clear whether “pessimism shortens life, optimism prolongs life, or both.” Is it that pessimists have worse luck and more bad events in their life that make them unhealthy? Or, thinking that nothing they do matters, they are discouraged about taking control of their health and seeking preventive measures?
No matter what the reason, Seligman says there is reason for pessimists to try to be more optimistic.
“Pessimism is identifiable early in life and changeable,” he wrote. “So it is possible that individuals at specific physical risk might enter into brief programs that stably change their thinking about bad events and so lower their risk for physical illness and even death.”
Making a concerted effort to see the glass as half full sounds like a perfect New Year’s Resolution to me.
custom closets Mar 8, 2009
Is it just me or are the findings of this research common sense. Happy people have more to live for than bitter sad people..so live longer.