Mar
13
The Benefits of Happiness and Positive Emotions in Reducing Risks of Heart Disease
March 13, 2010 | 1 Comment
Posted by: Kathleen Daniel
In a ten year study seeking to understand more attitudes affect our health, a team of researchers from Columbia University has found that, just as negative emotions such as anger, depression, and hostility are risk factors for heart attack and stroke, feelings of happiness seems to protect the heart. Specifically, the study examined the impact of positive personality traits like happiness, contentment, and enthusiasm on heart disease risk. While previous studies show that negative emotions are predictive of heart disease, researchers wanted to find out if positive affect is protective. They found that the happiest people were 22% less likely to develop heart disease than people in the middle of the scale, that those with the most negative emotions had the highest risk for heart disease, and people who scored highest for happiness had the lowest risk. The protective effective of happiness persisted even when naturally happy people were experiencing transient depressive symptoms.
While they are not suggesting this proves happiness protects the heart, they do suggest the belief that people are hardwired to be naturally happy or not has been replaced in recent years by studies in the science of happiness, or the field of positive psychology. There are numerous strategies that can help naturally negative people become happier, including
* A daily schedule of at least 15 – 20 minutes doing something enjoyable
* Express gratitude on a regular basis.
* Practice being optimistic.
* Engage in frequent acts of kindness.
* Visualize one’s best self.
* Savor joyful events.
* Practicing forgiveness.
* Regular exercise, sex and sleep
Comments
1 Comment so far
Happiness is a state of mind that really depends how we see the situations in our lives each day. you can have all the riches in the world but still see it as a lonely place.:’,