How Can Positive Thinking Benefit Your Mind and Body?

In recent years, researchers have found that your mind can have a powerful effect on your body.

Immunity is one area where your thoughts and attitudes can have a particularly powerful influence.

• Researchers found that activation in brain areas associated with negative emotions led to a weaker immune response to a flu vaccine.
• Researchers Segerstrom and Sephton found that people who were optimistic about a specific and important part of their lives, such as how well they were doing in school, exhibited a stronger immune response than those who had a more negative view of the situation.

Not only can positive thinking impact your ability to cope with stress and your immunity, but it also has an impact on your overall well-being, including a reduced risk of death from cardiovascular problems, less depression, and an increased lifespan.

• While researchers are not entirely clear on why positive thinking benefits health, some suggest that positive people might lead healthier lifestyles.
• By coping better with stress and avoiding unhealthy behaviors, they are able to improve their health and well-being.

Resilience refers to our ability to cope with problems. Resilient people are able to face a crisis or trauma with strength and resolve. Rather than falling apart in the face of such stress, they have the ability to carry on and eventually overcome such adversity.

• Fortunately, experts also believe that such positivism and resilience can be cultivated.
• By nurturing positive emotions, even in the face of terrible events, people can reap both short-term and long-term rewards, including managing stress levels, lessening depression, and building coping skills that will serve them well in the future.