Your Best Defence Against Aging: Your Attitude To Life
Copyright © 2005 Priya Shah
In the international bestseller, Blink,
Malcolm Gladwell explains how researchers who study mind-reading using
body language and facial expressions found that the old clichéd
advice to smile when you're feeling down really works.
Just moving those facial muscles into a happier position
can actually perk you up mentally and emotionally, say the researchers,
who are finally beginning to understand and accept the link between
mind and body.
Other research has found that simply recalling one
episode of anger depresses the immune system for up to seven hours
– but one episode of feeling compassion or caring enhances the
immune system for about the same amount of time.
A happy outlook towards life appears to trigger the
release of endorphins. Endorphins relax the cardiovascular system
and cytokines, which alert the immune system to pay attention in detecting
abnormalities like cancer cells.
Even though the physiological make up of emotions
themselves have not yet been identified, some researchers suspect
that a small portion of the brain called the insular cortex may be
the key.
The insular cortex regulates the autonomic nervous
system, which controls the automatic functions of our body such as
breathing heartbeat and blood pressure. It also plays a role in higher
brain functions and helps to process anger, fear, joy, happiness and
sexual arousal.
When the insular cortex is stimulated for long periods
of time, it can change heart rate and blood pressure and even cause
a kind of damage to the heart muscle that is similar to sudden cardiac
death. Its not surprising then, that sorrow, anger and other negative
emotions can cause a malfunction of the insular cortex.
Whatever happens in those six inches between your
ears, one thing is certain. Optimism, laughter, love and other positive
emotions can counteract many harmful effects at any age, even in your
sixties, seventies, and eighties, and beyond!
Research has shown that positive attributes as dependability,
trust, agreeableness and open-mindedness are associated with a two
to four year increase in life expectancy.
Let’s explore some tips for developing a better
outlook on your world.
Listen carefully to yourself. If you have put yourself
down since childhood, over a lifetime negative subliminal message
can take their toll by turning you into a pessimist.
Spend one week writing down the phrases you use in
your “self talk.” Chances are you will find that you repeat
a dozen or so phrases over and over again that reinforce that negative
image. If you know about them, you can change them.
If an issue is not resolved it will continue to plague
you and you will relive the negative emotions tied to that issue over
and over again. Write yourself a letter spending about 20 minutes
a day for four days and write about what you feel. Forget grammar,
punctuation and so on. No one else will see this but you and you can
throw it away when finished.
Once you begin to write, don’t stop until the
time is up. This exercise will help you organize your thoughts and
get them out of your system. By the end of the four days most people
feel much better about themselves.
Seek out new challenges and opportunities. Always
have something that is a goal just over the horizon. When you begin
to close the gap and reach that goal, set another and another. Keep
yourself consistently moving ahead.
Try and do one new thing every week or month. Visit
a museum, go to the zoo, go to a book signing or lecture. The goal
here is to eliminate monotony, which is a sure killer of optimism.
Look for a new marvel of nature each day. Discover
an abundance of happiness. Spoil your pet or if you don’t have
one, visit the human society and adopt one.
Learn to laugh at yourself. Allow yourself to experience
grief but don’t let it control you.
Find someone who is worse off than you and lend a
hand. Volunteer at a hospital; visit a nursery or a shelter.
Have a healthy sex life. Sex at middle age can actually
become better and more satisfying than ever before.
Don’t wait to plan for your retirement. Waiting
until you are 60 will have very bad repercussions on the quality of
life for your remaining years.
Here are a few quick tips for increasing joy, hope
and optimism that will work no matter what your age:
Make a list of at least 50 great things that happen
to you every day.
Laugh a lot. You’ll heal your body and your
mind.
Discover a new challenge each month.
Try meditating for just five minutes each day.
For more tips on anti-aging and living a longer, healthier
life, visit
Anti-Aging Treatments
Priya Shah edits The
Glutathione Report and Health
Naturale. This article may be reprinted as long as the
resource box is left intact and all links are hyperlinked.
