Do you see the glass as being half full? If you don’t, you are most likely someone who has a negative outlook towards life. Neuroscientists, psychologists and researchers from the medical profession tell us that having a negative outlook is not good for our mind and body. These medical researchers have found that positive thinking can enhance the quality of our health both physically and mentally. When medical researchers encourage us to have a positive outlook, they certainly do not suggest that we all become Pollyannaish. Of course, there will be moments in our lives when we will feel sad and discouraged but we cannot go through our entire life with a negative attitude. Neuroscientists inform us when we have negative feelings, it triggers a part of our brain called the amygdala, which processes our fears, anxieties and other kinds of stress. When the amygdala is slow to recover from fear or anxiety, we are more at risk of health related problems.
Neuroscientists also tell us that our brain is like plastic and is capable of producing new cells. We can train our brain to think positively by practising skills that engender positivity. According to Dr Barbara Fredrickson, an eminent psychologist at the University of North Carolina and the celebrated author of Positivity and Love 2.0, who has been training patients to think positively, we can all produce positive emotions from the everyday activities that we engage in, which determines to a large extent who succeeds in life and who doesn’t. She points out that repeated brief moments of positive feelings can provide a buffer against stress and depression and foster both physical and mental health. The latest scientific evidence shows us that positive outlook doesn’t simply reflect success and good health. On the contrary, it also helps us achieve success and good health.
According to a recent report in The New York Times, a study that was conducted with more than 4,000 people who were 50 or older demonstrated that having a positive attitude helps in our overall wellbeing and longevity. This research also indicated that a positive view actually helps in building a person’s self-esteem and lowering the level of stress while producing healthy behaviors. Furthermore, medical studies have shown that older adults with positive attitudes have a reduced chance of having major heart diseases and other illnesses. These people also live significantly longer than individuals who are habitually negative in their outlook.
Medical research findings also show that positive thinking actually helps in bolstering our immune system, combating depression and in lowering blood pressure, blood sugar and our body weight. Positive thinking has also been linked to reduced heart ailments. Recent research studies that were conducted in the United States with HIV, Type 2 diabetes and breast cancer patients revealed that when the patients developed a range of skills that cultivated a positive attitude, the patients were found to be more positive about themselves and they relied less on anti-depressants and other medications. Specifically, the HIV patients had fewer negative thoughts about their infection; they also seemed to be in a better frame of mind to take charge of their own lives. The patients with Type 2 diabetes, on the other hand, were found to have better control of their blood sugar. A positive mindset also motivated them to engage in more physical activities while enjoying a more healthy diet and avoiding smoking. More importantly, research showed that these patients with Type 2 diabetes, who started cultivating a positive attitude towards life, had a lower risk of dying. Having a positive outlook also benefitted patients who had breast cancer because they had decreased symptoms of depression. They felt physically and mentally stronger and more optimistic about their future.
Research studies indicate that only six weeks of training in meditation and compassion have helped enormously in engendering positive emotions and in building effective social networks. It also helped improve the function of one of the main nerves that control our heart rate. According to the neuroscientists, the consequence of this training is a variable heart rate that yields better control of blood glucose, less inflammation and faster recovery in the event of a heart attack. Research also demonstrates that even a short training course of two weeks in compassion and kindness meditation can prove to be highly beneficial in changing the circuitry of the brain, which produces enhanced positive social behaviors such as altruism and compassion.
Like many other experts in the West, Dr Frederickson has engaged in training people on how to cultivate positivity in their lives. Her best-selling books on positive thinking provide a long list of recommendations that help foster positive emotions. Due to the constraints of space, I have selected only ten of her important guidelines.
1. Be Sincere: Positive emotions cannot rise when we are not being genuine. Insincere positivity is not positivity at all. It is negativity in disguise. So, what is called for is that we are honest and sincere in our attitude and our interactions.
2. Find positive meaning: Our thinking reflects how we interpret our life and our environment ~ the meaning we find in them. We can enhance positive emotions by looking at positive aspects of life instead of focusing on the negative. When we are facing adversities, we must not lose our sense of perspective, thinking that it’s the end of the world. We need to realize that ‘this too shall pass.’ In other words, we are required to think differently by turning the unpleasant or difficult situations to positive ones, making them ‘teachable moments.’
3. Appreciate nature: Albert Camus said that there are thousands of people moving about around us carrying their own corpses. In the frenzied pace of modern living, many of us have forgotten to stop and appreciate nature in its splendor. We need to learn to pause and enjoy the sights and sounds of nature whether it is a flowering plant, sunrise or sunset, or the sound of the rain and wind.
4. Count your blessings: We often forget all the good things that we are blessed with and, instead, be obsessed about what we don’t have. This is why all leading experts advise us to keep a gratitude journal, every day writing down five things that we are blessed with and grateful for. Research studies show that individuals who remember aspects of their lives that made them feel grateful increased their positive outlook.
5. Practise kindness everyday: Research findings also show that when we engage in small acts of kindness with others it helps in fostering positive emotions because kindness and positivity feed on each other. When we do acts of kindness and recognize them, they take us to another level, which produces positive energy.
6. Follow your passions: We live only once. So, we must make an effort to make our lives fun and exciting by finding our passions, whether they are music, art, architecture, photography, travelling, photography, gardening, or anything that adds colour and zest to our lives. Given the enormous amount of time that we devote to work, we must absolutely remember to engage in fun activities on a daily basis in order to help boost our positivity.
7. Establish goals that can be accomplished: We need to be realistic about our goals. They need to be something that is doable such as improving our skills in tennis or reading more books. On the other hand, if our goals are too impractical, they can be a source of stress and dissatisfaction.
8. Build and maintain quality relationships: Medical research findings show that people who are capable of building and sustaining ‘quality relationships’ with their friends and/or family members have better self-worth, better health, and a longer and happier life.
9. Love yourself: People who have a positive outlook love themselves, accepting their imperfections and failures. Self-love doesn’t imply narcissism but accepting and loving ourselves with our flaws and all.
10. Mindful living: Positive thinkers live in the present in the here-and-now. They do not brood over the past because it is history and nothing can be done to undo what happened in the past. They also don’t always spend their time worrying about the future because it has not happened yet. Instead, positive people live their lives in the present, savoring every moment that the present brings. There are courses on Mindful Living everywhere in the west to train people to live mindfully.
Having a positive attitude doesn’t imply naiveté on our part, looking at life with rosecolored glasses. Instead, it suggests that we see positive meanings in life and possess optimistic attitudes. Positivity is such a vital force in our lives that it has captured the interest of science, and the new scientific findings about positivity are indeed fascinating. Now, whether we want to go on living a life of negativity, which will inevitably have adverse effects on our health, or choose to have a positive outlook, clearly the choice is ours.
The writer is professor of communication studies, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles.