The Power of Positive Emotions

Research has shown that there is strong link between happiness, optimism and good health, increased well-being and the body’s potential to heal itself. Not surprisingly, close, supportive relationships with friends and family and a good sense of humour can promote positive feelings.

 

Being able to express yourself and emotions that lie beneath the surface can also contribute to a positive outlook.

 

Family and friends

The more isolated we are the less healthy we are likely to be. It can be very difficult to lead a healthy emotional life alone. A good network of family and friends are essential for the body’s well-being. A readiness to seek emotional sustenance through others is a strong element in the body’s healing pattern.

 

Hope and humour

The ability to laugh and seeking the opportunities to do so, make for a brighter emotional life. People with a sense of humour, suffer less depression, fatigue, tension and anger. Laughter eases muscle tension, deepens breathing and releases the body’s own natural pain killers (endorphins).

 

Hope is a component of optimism. It doesn’t have to be unrealistic, or a dream. Hope can mean facing up to a problem and finding a way to resolve it. Research has shown that women with breast cancer, who could harness their anger and fear, lived longer than those who didn’t.

 

If you watch a young child develop, you will notice how they hardly ever accept "no" for an answer. Failure does not stop us until we learn that failure means something bad. We then spend the rest of our life trying to reprogram our mind with clichés about how failure is the foundation of success, do we really believe this? As children we fall, we hurt, we let the feeling go and we take off running again. As adults we fall, we hurt, and we tell stories about it for the rest of our life to anyone who will listen! Sound familiar?

 

Look forward, move on and keep smiling...