Healthy Living

“An optimist is someone who falls off the Empire State Building, and after 50 floors says, 'So far, so good!' ” — Anonymous

That quote may make us laugh, but there are true benefits of being an optimist, according to recent research studies.

Researcher Shane Lopez and colleagues at the University of Kansas analyzed data from the Gallup World Poll, which included 150,000 people from 142 countries. Data included responses to questions about life satisfaction, expectations for what the future holds, positive and negative emotions and physical health. The researchers found that 89 percent of people involved in the poll said they believed their future was going to be good or better than their current situation, and most had a "glass half-full" mentality.

Positive thinking and optimism have many proven benefits, including stress management, improved performance and productivity, and superior overall health.

Stress management expert Elizabeth Scott, MS, writes that “Optimists tend to experience less stress than pessimists or realists. Because they believe in themselves and their abilities, they expect good things to happen. They see negative events as minor setbacks to be easily overcome, and view positive events as evidence of further good things to come.”

Always the skeptic, I kept trying to find out exactly why optimists have superior overall health. I found one possible explanation — one that makes sense to me. Julia Boehm, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health co-authored a scientific review of this exact question: is optimism linked to a healthier heart, and why?

According to Dr. Boehm, “The evidence suggests that people who are happy and optimistic are more likely to engage in healthy behaviors, like doing physical activity, eating healthy foods and getting enough sleep. It also shows an association between positivity and measurable biological factors, like lower blood pressure and healthier lipid profiles.”

Well, that makes sense, but is it anything new? We have been told all along that engaging in healthy behaviors like eating healthy food, getting enough sleep, and exercising was exactly what we all need to do to maximize our health status.

Even the most optimistic person can find it challenging to be positive in this day and age of instantaneous news updates on the internet and constant exposure to various kinds of social media. My husband, a self-proclaimed pessimist, recommends focusing more attention on the positive things that are happening in your life with family and friends rather than monitoring someone else’s view of how the world stage is in seemingly constant conflict. In effect, simplify your life. Perhaps help brighten someone else’s day with an act of kindness. The reward will be positively amazing.