This morning I was watching a Live with Kelly that I had obviously missed the first time around. As mentioned in a previous entry or two, my ears usually perk up when I hear on the news: “Recently published in the Journal of [fill in with something science-related] … ” or when I read it in the paper. This morning was no exception.
When I’m facilitating a session on stress, optimism and/or resiliency, I will highlight how important it is to have a good laugh every once in a while (hourly if you can manage :)) and to lead a self-empowered existence. Time and again, those with an upbeat, out-going attitude and a “c’est la vie” take on life have shown in research to live much longer, healthier lives. Dr. Martin Seligman, the guru of the Positive Psychology movement has spent the majority of his brilliant career focusing on this very topic. If you’d like to pick up a good, proof-is-in-the-pudding kind of read, buy his latest book “Flourish” to see just how having an optimistic attitude can positively influence your health.
Anyway, back to Kelly and her show from, what I later learned, this past May. In her opening tit-for-tat with her co-host of the day she mentioned the published findings from the journal Aging. The article was titled “Positive attitude towards life and emotional expression as personality phenotypes for centenarians” and if you would like to read the abstract, please click on this link:
http://www.impactaging.com/papers/v4/n5/abs/100456a.html
Although a bit heavy on the science lingo, the title speaks directly to the findings of the research (which is part of the Longevity Genes Project based at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City). 243 men and women of the same ethnicity, 100 years of age, or close to it, were asked to fill out a 98-point questionnaire designed to identify personality traits. The results proved what a number of researchers had seen before. The majority of subjects in the trial had active social lives, a friendly demeanour and an ability to not “sweat the small stuff .”
That last finding, once again, highlights the importance of stress management and our perspective on life. Thankfully, if you have been a Grumpy Gus or Negative Nelly your whole existence, all is not lost. Co-author of the study, Dr. Nir Barzilai, found that not all subjects had these positive attitudes from birth, indicating that there is still time to adopt a different take on life.
The fact is, it does take time, practice, patience and an open attitude. Often people associate optimism with kittens, rainbows and Oprah, and shun it immediately. Is that you? If so, maybe it’s time to do a little self-assessment and figure out why you feel that way. What harm is there in being grateful for the good stuff happening to you, or for having a sense of humour? It’s not always easy, I’ll give you that, but making the choice as often as possible that you’re going to at least try might let you, personally, live to see an age of triple digits 😉