Positive Mindset = Long & Healthy Life
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Learn how a positive mindset can help you live a long and healthy life.
A recent article in the Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences In The United States Of America writes that “Previous studies reported that more optimistic individuals are less likely to suffer from chronic diseases and die prematurely. Our results further suggest that optimism is specifically related to 11 to 15% longer life span, on average, and to greater odds of achieving “exceptional longevity,” that is, living to the age of 85 or beyond.”
In normal speak, they are saying that being optimistic makes you healthier and makes you live longer. By 11-15% longer.
For some perspective, 15% longer life span for someone that is 70 is 10.5 years! If you are 80, then that’s an additional 12 years! That’s a lot! And not because you are eating better or exercising more, that’s just for THINKING differently.
In my opinion, that’s worth pursuing.
In fact, imagine if you were also eating healthy and doing regular exercise, 2 activities proven to improve longevity, you may very well live to be a hundred. And to be clear, I mean you may get to live a very HEALTHY 100 years old, clear and sharp with your mind and memory, active and able to do your own shopping, climb up stairs, and do all the things some people in my own family are struggling to do at 50.
See positivity, confidence, self-esteem, self-worth, mental health, it all goes hand in hand. You cannot really isolate any of them.
All because you are taking care of yourself RIGHT NOW by not even making a big effort. Just a little bit of positivity and optimism, enough vegetables, a long walk regularly, self-care and kindness to yourself. Nothing that sounds particularly difficult does it?
Well that is how you live a long and healthy life!
Also read:
- 15 Simple and Effective Ways to Stop Negative Thoughts
- How to KILL Negative Thinking
- 13 Things I’ve learned About Self-Belief Being The Key To Success
- 15 Easy Shortcuts you can do RIGHT NOW to Boost Your Confidence and Self-Esteem
- Positive Affirmations to say Every Day
- 15 Ways the Practice Of Gratitude Made Me A Kinder, Better And More Likeable Person
More Evidence That a Positive Mindset Can Help You Live a Long Life
Positive Mindset = Long & Healthy Life
Being happy doesn’t just improve the quality of your life. According to a new study, it may increase the quantity of your life as well.
Research on the topic has found that people who look forward to aging while they are young, rather than dreading growing old, have a greater chance of living longer. That’s because adjusting your perception of aging while you’re still young improve your positive outlook and can have a tremendous effect on your life expectancy.
Health benefits that positive thinking may provide include: Increased life span. … Better cardiovascular health and reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease. Better coping skills during hardships and times of stress.
In a study of more than 70,000 women, optimists were less likely to get fatal cancer, heart disease, lung conditions and stroke in their retirement years.
One of the researchers on the study, Eric Kim, has said gratitude journals – writing down three things each day you are grateful for and keeping a note of kind things you do for others – can help make you more optimistic. So can practising the best-possible-self exercise – in which you envisage your future self achieving what you would like, and think of the steps it would take to get there. Meditation could also help make us look on the bright side.
“A lot of evidence suggests that exceptional longevity is usually accompanied by a longer span of good health and living without disability, so our findings raise an exciting possibility that we may be able to promote healthy and resilient ageing by cultivating psychosocial assets such as optimism,” said Lewina Lee, the lead author of the study at Boston University School of Medicine.
A huge new study in the US found that optimists were less likely than pessimists to develop coronary heart disease (CHD) and less likely to die of any cause over the course of the eight-year trial. Hilary Tindle and colleagues looked at 97,253 postmenopausal women, all of whom were free of cancer and cardiovascular disease when they took personality tests at the start of the study.
So as you can see, there is a TON of corroborating evidence that links optimism with longevity.
Again, not just longer life, but a long and HEALTHY life.
But What is Optimism?
Optimism is a mental attitude reflecting a belief or hope that the outcome of some specific endeavour, or outcomes in general, will be positive, favourable, and desirable.
It’s the classic “glass half full” scenario.
Personally, I have gone from seeing the world as just always being a negative ugly place, to now utterly believing that tomorrow will be better than today. I have this sense that I can do anything as long as I get started and then keep going no matter how many times I face failure.
I KNOW that my choices and my actions directly affect my future for the better, so I take action when I need to so my future can be rosy and cosy.
In the past, the fear of failure or rejection would have held me back from even trying.
Now, I see failure as a learning opportunity to greater success.
It’s an incredibly freeing way to view the world and my place in it. I feel like I’ve been freed from fear in some way.
Optimism Even Leads To Greater Success
While positive thinking is just that, thinking in a positive way including some daydreaming and fantasizing, optimism is more likely to lead to ACTION.
Optimistic people are more likely to take ACTION as they have formed an expectancy, a belief or hope, based on past experience, that taking action will lead to a positive outcome and even success.
Basically, as Ben Goldhirsh, CEO of Good Worldwide said, “your expectations kind of dictate outcomes.” In other words, those with high expectations usually rise up to meet them.
There Is A Strong Relationship Between Optimism, Creativity And Mental Health
There is quite a bit of research that has concluded there is a strong relationship between optimism and greater creativity, and optimism and better mental health.
Social benefits – People feel more connected to others when they experience positive emotions. … Health benefits – Positive people are physically healthier. They have lower blood pressure, lower heart rate, lower levels of stress-related hormones, and stronger immune systems.
Optimistic people are less likely to be depressed, have pool social skills, or other psychopathological mental disorders such as borderline personality disorder, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.
In other words, optimism is a sign of good mental health.
If you have bothered to read all of that, then you will realise it’s not just about living longer, it’s also about having a good quality of life as you grow older.
How Do You Become More Optimistic and Positive?
I have written about this at length before. Becoming more positive is not as hard as you think.
All it takes is the desire for change. Let’s face it without that no-one can get anything done.
After that it’s merely a question of doing a handful of things regularly until they become a habit.
Read further for some of my favourite tricks.
My Favourite Ways For Becoming More Positive And Optimistic Are:
- The Practice of Gratitude
Honestly, I can’t talk about this enough. Read more here and here. - Positive Affirmations
Here’s a few to get started. - Keeping an Achievement Journal
Every day write one thing you’ve achieved. You went to the gym, you let your anger go, you showed up at work on time. ANYTHING. - Deliberate Positive Thinking on a Daily Basis
I have a whole course on this. Why not sign up below? - Exercise
Go for a walk, or just a gentle stroll. Take the stairs. Play throw-the-stick with your dog. - Self-care
Do some things that are just for you, not to please others. - Self-forgiveness
Forgive yourself for breaking your diet, for eating that chocolate, for having too much wine last night. It’s in the past. Don’t bully yourself over it. You’re not perfect, no point trying to be. - Setting achievable goals, and then achieving them.
Nothing makes us feel as good as completing something we set out to do. But don’t try to be perfect, find achievable goals. No-one can lose 22 pounds in one week of dieting. - Keep a list of everything you are doing and have done, things you can be proud of.
Just trying to become a better version of yourself is already something to be proud of. Forgiving yourself for that extra chocolate yesterday is another. Be Proud!
More Tips for Positivity
Also check out Candice Galek’s (founder and CEO of Bikini Luxe and a featured honoree on the 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 list) 9 easy tips on how to become happy and positive when life gets tough on INC.com.
How Does It Really Work?
The idea is to change the way you see the world. People who see the glass as half full are more optimistic and positive. Feeling grateful, healthy, stress-free and proud of yourself for achieving real goals will inevitably change your mind from a negative to a positive mindset.
So instead of trying to become more positive, which is difficult, work at becoming more grateful first, let yourself be proud of your achievements, take care of yourself, physically and mentally, and without really meaning to, you WILL become more positive.
And where there is a positive mind there is a confident and successful mind.
It all goes hand in hand.
30 Days of Gratitude
So if you want to become more positive, and live longer, plus have a good and happy life, then why not sign up for my 30 Day Gratitude Challenge?
Every day for 30 days you will get a short email from me telling you exactly what to do, and it takes no more than 5mins a day to get started.
I can’t tell you how much my mindset, and therefore my life changed when I started to practise gratitude. I’ve become so much more positive and happy, not to mention confident and relaxed. My self-esteem has gone through the roof (OK that makes me sound like a narcissist haha but I’m not I promise), while my anxiety has dropped like a lead balloon.
My glass is no longer half full, it’s overflowing.
And it all started when I gave this Gratitude thing a go. I have written more on how much I’ve changed in this article.
Join my 30 Day Gratitude Challenge here or sign up below.
15 Ways Keeping a Gratitude Journal Changed My Life
- I am happier
- I am at peace
- I have more self-confidence
- I have higher self-esteem
- I love my life
- I am excited about my future
- I feel genuinely loved
- I believe that I deserve to be loved
- I trust myself
- I trust the Universe
- I have become luckier
- I am kinder
- I am more generous
- I am more likeable
- I am a nicer, better human being than I was before
15 Easy Shortcuts to Feel Good about Yourself and Become More Positive
- Make an effort with your appearance.
Cleanliness is next to godliness. In other words, wash your hair, wear clean clothes, brush your teeth, smell nice, look nice. When I’m worried my breath smells, I automatically try and stand as far away from people as possible, and I keep my mouth shut. This makes me look stand-offish and unapproachable. - Dress for success.
Dress well and you will feel like you fit in. When I wear jeans to an occasion only to see everyone else wearing formal clothes, I instantly feel self-conscious. - Keep a list of your achievements, no matter how small.
This will remind you of all the things going well for you. Even when I climb just one floor of stairs, I note that down as an achievement, let’s face it, even if it’s just one floor, I’m still doing better than everyone else taking the lift. - Give yourself one compliment a day.
It trains your mind to not think negatively all the time. When I get dressed in the morning, while looking in the mirror, I quietly compliment myself for being well dressed and looking professional and successful. - Exercise.
Physical exercise, no matter how small, releases stress and pumps endorphins (the happy hormone) around your body and brain and makes you feel better. When I don’t exercise regularly, my body just becomes more and more tense, until I can’t fall asleep at night. This leads to me lying in bed thinking all kinds of negative thoughts, imagining the worst possible outcomes. - Accept compliments graciously.
Don’t put yourself down, and don’t write it off as luck. You worked for it, so own it. - Don’t be a victim.
Happiness is a choice. Happy, confident people weren’t born like that, they became like that by making certain choices. I used to be a very moody grumpy person, but after years of deliberately thinking positive thoughts, the way I see life, and my place in it, has changed dramatically. You can do the same if you take charge of your mind and how you see the world. - Smile more.
Studies prove that when you smile, your body releases endorphins. Also, smiling people are considered better looking. I definitely prefer to be around good-looking smiling people, I mean who wants to be around grumpy, miserable ugly-looking people? - Keep a gratitude journal.
Write down one thing that you are grateful for every day. Do this for a week. It makes me realise just how much I really have, and has the side-effect of making me more positive. And no-one can be confident without first being positive. - Eat healthy.
Ever noticed how sluggish (and fat) you feel after eating a ton of junk food? I am incapable of feeling good about myself when I feel like that. - Say no.
Remind yourself it’s ok to say NO when you don’t want to do something. You are not a doormat, you are a human being with complex thoughts and feelings. When I say yes to things I don’t want to do, I end up feeling an inner turmoil that stays with me for days, and I just end up resenting the person I said yes to in the first place. They don’t deserve my resentment, and I don’t deserve to feel that way. - Stand up straight.
Your grandmother was right about having a good posture. There’s lots of evidence to support the fact that posture affects how you feel about yourself. - Build on your accomplishments.
People who achieve things feel confident in their own abilities. When I complete a difficult task, or when I go ahead and do something I was afraid of, I feel proud of myself and that gives me confidence to try even more things. - Be brave.
Sometimes you just have to close your eyes and jump into the deep end and start swimming. - Educate yourself.
Not knowing enough about a topic will make you feel unsure of yourself. Read up on the topic so you have at least an idea of what it is about. Nothing makes me feel more stupid than having no idea what a group of people are talking about, from lingo to acronyms. But when I read up even just a little bit, I can at least follow a conversation.
Final Thoughts
Every generation has its own challenges, and I think for my generation, stress, long hours at work, a lack of a strong cohesive community (something your parents might have found in their own neighbourhood), online apps selling us the lie of how perfect our friends’ lives are, FOMO, economic, political, environmental and social pressures are the big issues we struggle with.
Life simply is busier than it was for my parents, there is WAY MORE pressure to be or do or look a certain way.
So it can be easy to see only the negative side of life, or to feel that maybe you have no control over your own life, that nothing you do can change the outcome of tomorrow, make it a more positive experience.
But I am here to tell you that you CAN change your life.
You CAN change the way you see life.
And you CAN CHANGE HOW YOU THINK and FEEL about life.
All you have to do is to start. Then you just have to keep trying.
That’s it.
Start today, decide to change the way you think about the world! Then every time you find yourself in a negative thought spiral, stop to remind yourself that you are building a better future for yourself, a healthier future, a more successful future.
Then remind yourself WHY you started in the first place. Keep a journal or notebook close by to record these moments and thoughts (I use a mixture of bullet journals and the Day One app, free on iPhone and Android).
It’s great to go back a year to see how far you’ve come and how much you have changed, it fuels the desire and the will to keep going no matter what.
There you have it, living longer and being healthier all starts in the mind.
More reason to change your thinking and become more positive.
As always, all of my love. I believe in you.
Lynette
After learning how and changing my own mindset, it is my mission in life to help others become their best self, positive, confident, happy and successful! 💕
