Nov/Dec 05

The Power of Positive Emotion
We've long known that the happiest people ten to be the healthiest. But don't despair if you've spent a whole lifetime believing the glass is always half empty. Even a natural grouch can learn to see the glass as half full—and reap optimism's health-enhancing rewards.

By Lisa James

     A woman loses both breasts to cancer after surviving an unrelated melanoma. Her response 30 years after the fact? “I maintain that living more in today than tomorrow is a good thing and a benefit brought about by my experience with cancer.”
     Another woman is hit with two cancers, breast and cervical, simultaneously. The medical treatments and resulting debt overwhelm her husband, who abandons her and their young sons. Deciding to try her hand at car sales so she can make a decent living (and wearing a wig to hide her chemo-induced baldness), she goes to 17 dealerships before finally finding one that will give her a shot. Today she owns two dealerships and an ad agency, and is a multimillionaire.
     How did you respond to these two stories—with an inner recognition of other optimistic souls like yourself or with the thought, “That could never be me”? Your answer can provide an important clue to your overall welfare, now and in the future. Scientists are just starting to tease out the subtle but significant connections between general outlook on life—positive or negative—and well-being.
     Dr. Bernie Siegel, a leading figure in the field of mind-body health, has long argued for the existence of those connections. “As physicians, we use the term ‘spontaneous remission,’ in which someone who is expected to die ends up well,” says Siegel, author of 101 Exercises for the Soul (New World Library). “The problem has been that nobody looks at success as something the patient has participated in. They rarely say to the patient, ‘How come you didn’t die?’”
     What we’ve learned is that your mind, hormones and immunity are all linked. In one London study, more than 200 people underwent physical and psychological tests before being monitored for blood pressure and heart rate over the course of an average workday, all while keeping diaries of where they were and what they were doing. The happiest individuals had the lowest levels of cortisol, a major stress hormone, and of plasma fibrinogen, a clotting factor linked to higher heart disease risk.

Biology and Outlook
     Science has long understood how stress triggers an outpouring of body chemicals involved in the “fight or flight” response that facilitates survival in the face of an immediate physical threat. Most of today’s threats, though, are chronic and not directly life-threatening; if you don’t learn how to adapt your stress response to the pressures of modern existence, you can be dented physically and emotionally. That may explain why “on Monday mornings the rates of heart attack, suicide and stroke all go up,” according to Siegel.
     Now, however, a number of researchers are focusing on a more uplifting subject—the connection between biology and happiness. One reason lies in improved technology: “When you think of the body chemistry we can measure and the scans we can do, we can see that how you think and feel are related to what’s going on in your body,” says Siegel. “For instance, looking at nature instead of a brick wall outside a hospital window makes people feel measurably better. You pet a dog and your serotonin and oxytocin [body chemicals linked to positive emotions] levels go up. You put dogs in nursing homes and there is a difference in the mortality rate.”
     Such sophisticated circuitry allows scientists to monitor the biology of mood, and what they have found is that the bliss experienced in deep meditation creates altered patterns of electrical activity within the brain. Their conclusion: While it’s true that each individual has an emotional setpoint, or natural level of joy, affirmative feelings can be induced by accenting the positive and downplaying the negative.
     Siegel thinks the link between positive emotion and better health lies in love. He cites a study in which Harvard students were asked, “Did your parents love you?” Of those who answered no, 98% had suffered a major illness 35 years later compared with 25% among individuals who said yes. Positive people have what he calls “survivor personality”: “These are empowered people who take responsibility for themselves and their decisions,” Siegel explains. “They have self-worth, which is not about ego but about knowing that you’re a child of God.”

Bounceback Capacity
     One skill optimists tend to possess in abundance is resiliency, or the capacity to roll with life’s punches. While it’s likely that genetic factors are involved, resiliency (or its lack) is largely rooted in early childhood. “You can be born with a love gene, one that allows you to be resilient and loving, but when you have parents who abuse you, that gene never manifests itself,” as Siegel puts it. “But when you have someone born without that natural resiliency but who is loved a child, that lack never manifests.” Some of the more common traumas that can lower resiliency include abuse, living with alcoholic parents or other relatives, and being removed from the home.
     Resiliency and optimism reinforce one another. “If you expect a good outcome, your brain spots little events and momentary opportunities that can lead to that outcome,” says Al Siebert, PhD, author of The Resiliency Advantage (Berett-Koehler). “It is during the worst of times that an intrinsically optimistic person is made visible by his or her creative problem-solving, positive expectations and resiliency.” (The two women whose stories are told at the beginning of this article are good examples; to read more about them, visit www.resiliencycenter.com.)
     Even if you had it rough as a kid you can still learn to bounce back from setbacks. The key is to locate the center of control over your life within yourself instead of ceding it to other human beings, who all suffer from frailties of their own. “Life isn’t fair, and that can be very good for you,” says Siebert. “Resiliency comes from feeling personally responsible for finding a way to overcome adversity.”
     How do you manage to sing a brighter tune? For one thing, you should “stop blaming others for triggering reactions in you that you don’t like,” Siebert advises. “Write a new theme song for your life.” He also recommends learning to ask for help when you need it and to increase those experiences in life that increase your joy, anything from spending time with friends to losing yourself in a book. The idea is that as you meet challenges creatively instead of fearfully, your self-confidence—and resiliency—will increase.

Strong Faith, Strong Health?
     One thing that keeps many people resilient is faith in a higher power. Study after study has found that those who turn to God can stay in touch with their joy even when times get tough; religious folks are less prone to anxiety and depression, and less likely to commit suicide. On the positive side, they are more likely to sense a purpose to their lives, a meaning to their existence. As one woman said after undergoing repeated misfortune, “We’re putting our lives in God’s hands and trusting he has our best interests at heart.” Some studies have even found a correlation between attending worship services and increased survival.
     People of faith often feel a strong sense of community with other members of their congregations. That’s important because “life has become very depersonalized—we’re not touching each other,” asserts Siegel. “We don’t have the relationships that we used to have.” Most religious traditions also expect that their adherents will attend to the needs of others, which has the effect of limiting the amount of time one spends fretting about one’s own troubles.
     But for all the health benefits offered by religion’s outer framework, the core of the faith-hope-health triad lies in the seamless links among body, mind and spirit. “Our body and soul are intended to work together,” says Siegel. “To accomplish this we must respect our bodies and keep them fit, and we must also understand, respect and care for that which lies within us.”

Learned Optimism
     Some people are born optimists, just as others seem to be born with great resiliency or an enlarged capacity for religious belief. But just because you’re more of a natural pessimist doesn’t mean you have to accept an unhappy, unhealthy life as your fate. Here are some suggestions:
• Express the way you feel in a helpful manner. To an extent the old clichés hold true: Many men have trouble expressing the more tender emotions while women tend to bottle up their anger. The latter is especially hazardous, warns Siegel: “If you internalize anger and act like the ‘good girl’ all the time, you are likely to end up sick because you’re turning everything in on yourself.” The idea is to focus on how you’re feeling (“When you turn away from me I feel unloved”) instead of going on the attack (“You never say you love me—you just don’t care”).
• Once you’ve vented, let it go. Holding a grudge may not hurt the person you’re sore at, but it can certainly hurt you. People who can forgive have healthier hearts and suffer less pain, in addition to being happier and enjoying better relationships.
• Stop operating out of an eight-year-old’s mindset. Many capable, charming people sabotage themselves with beliefs formed in childhood: “I’m worthless,” “No one could love ever love me” and “I always lose” are some of the more common traps. You may have felt that way when the school bully was pounding you into the pavement at recess, but that was then. This is now.
• Don’t let the clock run your life. Feeling like you’re trying to stuff 28 hours of activity into a 24-hour day is a recipe for anxiety and frustration. Set reasonable goals for each day and plan your time around them. Don’t forget to take time for yourself; if you’re constantly grinding away there will eventually be nothing of you left.
• Practice patience. “Patience is the countermeasure for mental dissatisfaction,” the Dalai Lama once said. If a man who’s been living in exile most of his life can learn to chill, so can you.
• Trust your heart. “Your heart, not your head, should decide how to spend your life,” says Siegel. One of the problems in living in a logic-ruled world such as ours is that going with your gut can be difficult if you’ve been trained to think your way through everything. But the more you listen to your heart’s desire, the easier it gets.
• Set your inner artist free. Creativity can free you from the prison of time by totally engaging you in doing something you love: painting, writing, making music, sewing clothes, restoring a ’66 Mustang. Don’t let what you perceive as a lack of talent stop you, either. This isn’t about gaining the world’s approval, it’s about expressing yourself.
• Believe that you can change. If you don’t think you can change, you’re right. Belief has to come before action.
     Learning to look at life optimistically isn’t easy; nothing worthwhile ever is. But the wisdom and contentment you gain—to say nothing of the benefits to your body and mind—will be priceless.

Back To Top