Your mindset can have an impact on your health, believe it or not. Positive thinking can make a difference in your health results. Take, for instance, the Johns Hopkins University study that examined people with a family history of heart disease. Those who had heart disease but also had a positive mindset were 33% less likely to have a heart attack or similar event compared with those who had a more negative outlook.
The positive findings about positive thinking also remained true when the risk for coronary artery disease was higher.
Yet that’s not the only finding that shows how positivity can affect health. Here are a couple more examples:
- A positive outlook was associated with a lower rate of death among those living with diabetes in a 2008 Health Psychology study.
- A meta-analysis of 15 studies with more than 229,000 patients found that optimism is associated with a lower risk for cardiovascular events (like a heart attack) and deaths from all causes. The research was published in JAMA Network Open in 2019.
- A study of people aged 50 or older who had more positive thoughts about aging both lived longer and had less stress-related inflammation.
Keep in mind that a positive mindset about your health and about life in general does not mean that you ignore real-life circumstances. It simply means that you generally expect good things to happen.
How to Have a More Positive Mindset About Your Health
- Observe your thinking patterns. If you know that you tend to look on the negative side, take a week to observe your thinking patterns. What’s your negative approach? Do you see things as good or bad, with nothing in between? Do you think one bad thing means everything else will be bad? Do you assume the worse about something or someone? Recognizing your thinking patterns is the first step to changing how you think.
- Challenge yourself to see the good. Once you know the way negative thoughts affect you, challenge yourself to see the good, even if it feels weird at first. Instead of thinking something bad will happen because of a minor morning mishap, assume the rest of the day will improve. If you are having trouble reframing negative thinking to positive thinking, seek help from a counselor or psychologist.
- Smile…even if you don’t feel like it. The act of smiling helps you feel better, even if you don’t feel completely happy. It will feel weird at first, but give it a try.
- Spend time around positive people. There’s no question that the people we choose to spend time with affect how we think and feel. If you’re spending time with negative people, that can change the way you think about your health or life in general. Look for people who have a positive outlook on life.
How Reveal Vitality Can Help You Live a More Positive Life
At Reveal Vitality, we believe in positive thinking and its ability to lead toward better health. You’ll find that we have a positive mindset toward making your health better, so you can live a full, productive life.
Contact Reveal Vitality today at 941-217-2777 for health changes that will make you smile.