Mental Health Problems and Mind-Body Wellness
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.1, 2
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 medicine.
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 prayer.
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.
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| Author: | Jeannette Curtis | Last Updated: May 1, 2008 |
| Medical Review: | Patrice Burgess, MD - Family Medicine Adam Husney, MD - Family Medicine | |
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| Topic Contents | |
| Topic Overview | |
| Mental Self-Care | |
| Mental Wellness | |
 | Positive Thinking |
| Related Information | |
| References | |
| Credits | |