The following article is a feature from

 

WEB MD

Better Information, Better Health

 

Positive Thinking

People with positive attitudes generally enjoy life more, but are they any healthier? The answer is often "yes." Optimism is a resource for healing. Optimists are more likely to overcome pain and adversity in their efforts to improve their medical treatment outcomes. For example, optimistic coronary bypass patients generally recover more quickly and have fewer complications after surgery than do patients who are less hopeful.

Your body responds to your thoughts, emotions, and actions. In addition to staying fit, eating right, and managing stress, you can use the following three strategies to help maintain your health:

1. Create positive expectations for health and healing.

Mental and emotional expectations can influence medical outcomes. The effectiveness of any medical treatment depends in part on how useful you expect it to be. The "placebo effect" proves this. A placebo is a drug or treatment that provides no medical benefit except for the patient's belief that it will help. Many patients who receive placebos report satisfactory relief from their medical problem, even though they received no actual medication.

Changing your expectations from negative to positive may enhance your physical health. Here's how to make the change:

• Stop all negative self-talk. Make positive statements that promote your recovery.
• Send yourself a steady stream of affirmations. An affirmation is a phrase or sentence that sends strong, positive statements to you about yourself, such as "I am a capable person" or "My joints are strong and flexible."
• Visualize health and healing. Add mental pictures that support your positive affirmations.
• Don't feel guilty. There is no value in feeling guilty about health problems. While there is a lot you can do to reduce your risk for health problems and improve your chances of recovery, some illnesses may develop and persist no matter what you do. Some things just are. Do the best you can.

2. Open yourself to humor, friendship, and love.

Positive emotions boost your health. Fortunately, almost anything that makes you feel good about yourself helps you stay healthy.

• Laugh. A little humor makes life richer and healthier. Laughter increases creativity, reduces pain, and speeds healing. Keep an emergency laughter kit that contains funny videotapes, jokes, cartoons, and photographs. Put it with your first-aid supplies and keep it well stocked.
• Seek out friends. Friendships are vital to good health. Close social ties help you recover more quickly from illness and reduce your risk of developing diseases ranging from arthritis to depression.
• Volunteer. People who volunteer live longer and enjoy life more than those who do not volunteer. By helping others, we help ourselves.
• Plant a plant and pet a pet. Plants and pets can be highly therapeutic. When you stroke an animal, your blood pressure goes down and your heart rate slows. Animals and plants help us feel needed.

3. Appeal to a higher power.

If you believe in a higher power, ask for support in your pursuit of healing and health. Faith, prayer, and spiritual beliefs can play an important role in recovering from an illness. See healing touch and spiritual healing.

Your sense of spiritual wellness can help you overcome personal trials and things you cannot change. If it suits you, use spiritual images in visualizations, affirmations, and expectations about your health and your life.

You can find about more about the above here

 

Thanks a bunch for the interesting information.  I will check it out more closely later when I have more time.

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Hi Chris,

      Thank you for that great article, Web MD is a wonderful site.

   Your Good Friend

Deborah

 

Hi, Chris, I could not let this one pass without comment. In my very long illness I have spent many years surrounded by people 'not in good health'. The one thing that I can say with some certainty, from personal observation, is that people deal with illness in two ways. 1) They simply go with the flow 2) They go with the flow but give the appearance of being miserable. It is a simple fact of life that 'life' has a very tenacious grip on itself. It will not let go voluntarily. I have been at the death beds of many people who, during our conversations and philosophising, have said things like "If I ever get that bad, I hope they shoot me." or "It won't be long before I part this world." Let me assure you, both types leave this world kicking and screaming - they are determined not to go. The terminal fights of some patients I have seen off have been awe inspiring. They didn't lie back thinking that they would get better. They didn't subscribe to some fanciful idea that thinking it makes it so. They acted! They did whatever it took to gain just one more minute. If you want humour and friendship, visit a hospice. Here you will be surrounded by people preparing to die but they will not die easily. They will laugh, joke, tell stories and generally have a good time. I have never visited a sad hospice. Pets, nowadays are much more welcome in sick rooms - their therapeutic powers are great, as the article says, but the power comes from the patient being reunited with a beloved member of the family who has, heretofor, been locked out. The pet receives as much therapy as does the patient and there is every probability that denying the pet to the patient could have been a debilitating action in the first place. There have been times in the past few weeks when my visitors have asked me how I 'put up with all the pain and mess that accompany my bad days'. My answer is always the same - I have no choice - not only that, for me, these things are now what I consider 'normal'. This attitude is common among many long term illnesses - many patients, like me, cannot remember what good health feels like - but we strive and we are generally much more content than our healthy peers. I do not consider myself the happiest man for no reason. One final thought - the most amazing fact that I see confirmed time after time after time is that fit people do not know what to do or say around sick people. They are uncomfortable. This puts extra strain on the sick person because he/she now also has to reassure the visitor.

Hello Chris,

Thanks for this very informative article. You've just provided three very important steps that will insure a person's well being along with a positive frame of mind that is always in a state of gratitude.

Best wishes and,