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Personal Development Articles
How to Add 7-and-a-half Years to Your Life
© Copyright Martin Avis. All rights reserved.
It's true! You can add seven-and-a-half years to your life,
according to a research study carried out at Yale University.
How can this incredible result be achieved? By looking on the bright
side of life.
Apparently, positive thinking does a lot more than make you feel
good.. The researchers found that keeping positive and not dwelling
on your worries is even more important to your life-span than the
things you'd expect to affect your health - like exercise,
blood-pressure and high cholesterol.
The researchers believe that the positive effects come from two
sources - positive people are worn down less by worry and anxiety,
and negative people are worn down more. And the deviation between
the most positive souls and the most negative is that magical
seven-and-a-half years.
People who are habitually positive about life have been found to
have stronger immune systems, less dependence on alcohol and
stimulants, and less risk of heart disease.
Not all stress is necessarily a bad thing, though. The message is
that what is more important to you is your attitude towards the
inevitable stresses in your life. Back to a positive outlook. If you
look for the silver lining, you are much more likely to find it than
if you close your eyes in despair.
In fact, the right kind of stress can be beneficial to you. The
right kind of stress is the kind where you have some control over
the outcome.
Researchers in the Netherlands found that when they gave people a
high-pressure task, over which they could influence some control,
their levels of immunoglobin - the body's defence against virus
attacks - shot up. Conversely, another group who were stressed with
no influence on the outcome showed a marked drop in their immunity.
Who needed an expensive university study to find that out? Mae West
knew it years ago:
"I don't do anything that's bad for me. I don't like to be made
nervous or angry. Any time you get upset it tears down your nervous
system."
Positive thinkers look for ways in which they can exercise some
control, whereas negative people simply bemoan their lack of
influence over events.
Another long-term study by the Mayo clinic over thirty years measure
people's optimism and pessimism in a written test. The optimists
showed a significantly lower risk of premature death than the
pessimists.
All this talk of death is depressing, but even better is the effect
positivity has on your health.
Another study - this time in Wales - found that optimists were far
more likely to change their lifestyle after serious illness in order
to get better quicker and to stay that way for longer.
Negative thinkers, on the other hand tended to accept ill-health as
inevitable and to do nothing to improve their lot.
Changing your life from abject negativity to vibrant positivity
isn't easy. Habits that lead to negative thinking are very hard to
recognize, let alone break.
Here are a few thoughts that can help you recognize and break your
negative thoughts and programming.
1. Wear an elastic band on your wrist and every time you catch
yourself thing an 'I can't' thought, snap it sharply. In a very
short time your mind will learn that 'I can' is a lot less painful
than 'I can't'.
2. Force yourself to look for the silver lining at least twice a
day. Like creativity, positivity is a muscle that has to be
developed. Once it starts to flow, it soon becomes a torrent.
3. Find something that makes you laugh every day. Read the comics,
find an Internet joke page, buy a funny book. Whatever it takes .
When you are really laughing, a light is turned on in your soul.
Where there is light, darkness can't exist.
4. Give yourself something to look forward to. A study by Loma Linda
University in California found that simply anticipating a treat can
lower tension and depression for up to two days beforehand.
5. Identify your deepest fears and turn them around by daily
affirmations. For example, you may absolutely dread meeting new
people and the thought of changing jobs is awful to you because of
all the new faces you will have to deal with. Try this. Every
morning on waking, and every night before you go to sleep, repeat
seven times: 'I love meeting new people because I can learn so much
from them.' In a few weeks, the dread will recede and a genuine
excitement will take its place.
"Every good thought you think is contributing its share to the
ultimate result of your life." Grenville Kleiser
You can get started on your extra seven-and-a-half years right away,
but the real benefit will be the joy that you experience in all the
years leading up to that.
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About the author: More plain speaking business articles by Martin Avis can be found at http://www.kickstartdaily.com
This article, and any others you find on this website are copyright Martin Avis. You are welcome to use this article in your own newsletter or website providing you do not change it in any way and that the 'About the Author' resource box is included with its live link.
Keywords: positive thinking, positivity, looking on
the bright side.
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