Willie Nelson once said, “Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.” We often hear that we should start thinking positively in order to get positive outcomes, but did you know that optimistic thinking can also affect your health? Research has found that negative thinking can harm your health, while positive thinking can bring about health benefits.
A study by a team of researchers led by Nancy Sin, PhD at Penn State University observed 1,000 people who had coronary heart disease to find out whether optimistic thinking would have any effect on their health. The participants’ initial mental well-beings were assessed. Five years later, they were asked to rate how much they felt the ten types of positive emotions, such as “interested”, “proud”, “enthusiastic”, and “inspired”. Physical activity, sleep quality, medication adherence, and alcohol and cigarette use were measured both times. Demographic factors, depressive symptoms, and the severity of their heart conditions were also considered.
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Patients who said that they had higher states of mental well-being had greater chances of being active, having better sleep quality, and taking their medications properly. They were also less likely to smoke, though there seemed to be no clear correlation between a positive psychological state and alcohol consumption.
Overall, the researchers found that optimistic thinking leads to reductions in the risk of death and heart complications. With positive mindsets, patients most likely had more motivation to consistently maintain high levels of physical activity and good health habits. Positive emotions may have helped motivate patients to exercise and keep a regular and healthy sleep schedule, as well as help patients to combat stress.
Psychological well-being has more influence on us than we may think. We should do our best to keep up our psychological states in order to be physically healthy because everything starts with how we think.
Feature Image Source: Summer Lovin’ by Caro Wallis
