Happiness is valuable in its own right, but did you know that positive emotions and a positive outlook can impact your physical health?
It’s not surprising that happier, more optimistic individuals tend to suffer from mental illness at lower rates. However, fostering a good mood and a good mindset can also help improve your physical health.
The Health Benefits of Positive Emotions
A large body of research has shown the benefits of positive emotions on physical health. It is possible that positive emotions help keep the body in a state of homeostasis.
In one study, researchers showed participants a fear-inducing film clip followed by either an amusing, peaceful, neutral, or sad film clip while measuring their cardiovascular response. The cardiovascular response of those who saw amusing and peaceful film clips following the fear-inducing clip returned to baseline more quickly than those who watched the neutral or sad film clip. This finding suggests that positive emotions may help regulate our physiological response to stressful or upsetting events.
Research also suggests that mood can affect the immune system. Researchers tracked participants’ immune response to an antigen as well as their mood over the span of 8 weeks. They found that participants’ antibody response was lower on days when the participants reported themselves to be in a worse mood. So the immune system functioned more poorly on low mood days.
Optimism and Health
Your mindset can also have a major impact on your physical health. Specifically, a large body of research suggests that optimism leads to better health outcomes.
Optimism and Pessimism
Both optimism and pessimism have to do with how we make sense of the world. Optimism can be defined as an explanatory style characterized by the belief that the future will be pleasant because one can control important outcomes. Pessimism, on the other hand, can be defined as an explanatory style that views problems as permanent reflections on one’s shortcomings. Pessimism is linked to negative emotions such as anger, anxiety, and depression.
Pessimistic individuals tend to explain bad events as being self-caused, due to chronic factors, and generalizable to other situations while good events are interpreted as external, transient, and due to specific causes. Optimists explain events in the opposite way, namely that bad events are external, transient, and due to specific causes while good events are the result of stable factors and are generalizable to other situations.
The Health Benefits of Optimism
A large body of literature suggests that optimism has health benefits, especially for the heart.
According to one study of 54 patients recovering from coronary artery bypass graft surgery, those who expected better outcomes demonstrated a faster rate of recovery. Another study focusing on the same procedure found that those with positive expectations were half as likely to be hospitalized again in the following 6 months. Surprisingly, the effects of positive expectations were independent of sociodemographic and clinical variables as well as the diagnosis of depression. These studies suggest that optimism can speed and improve the body’s recovery from major surgery.
The health benefits of optimism extend beyond improving cardiovascular health. In one longitudinal study over 30 years, pessimists were found to have a 19% increased risk of all-cause mortality. One study found an association between optimism and serum antioxidants, which fight inflammation, atherosclerosis, diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease, and cancer. The higher the levels of optimism, the higher the levels of serum antioxidants.
Another study found that higher levels of pessimism are associated with shorter telomeres in leukocytes, which are part of the body’s immune system. Pessimism was also associated with higher basal levels of IL-6, an indicator of systemic inflammation.
In a study on head and neck cancer patients, pessimists experienced higher rates of mortality independently of both sociodemographic and clinical variables.
It is possible that the positive health outcomes for optimists result not only from their explanatory style, but also how that explanatory style helps them mobilize effective psychological, social, and behavioral coping resources. Optimists tend to be less socially isolated. They are more likely to engage in healthy patterns of eating and exercise. Some individuals with an optimistic explanatory style report lower rates of stress. While your mood and outlook can impact your physiological response, it can also inspire you on towards healthier behaviors.
Fostering Optimism and Positive Emotions
Exercise is one of the best things you can do to improve your mood. Exercise promotes the release of endorphins, which combat stress. Also, the feeling of accomplishment that results from exercise can boost your mood as well.
Fostering social connection can help improve your mood. Humans evolved as social creatures. Forming communities helped improve our chances of survival. While it can be hard to foster social connections, given the demands of work, family, and maintaining one’s physical health, having our value affirmed by others can play a positive role in improving one’s outlook.
Sleep is another factor that can help your mood. Insomnia can both reduce well-being and diminish one’s capacity to engage in mood-elevating recreational activities. It can exacerbate the effects of stress and worsen preexisting illnesses. Poor sleep can make one withdraw from social activities and work obligations. Practicing good sleep hygiene, such as avoiding screens, moving TVs out of the bedroom, refraining from eating before going to bed, and going to sleep and waking up at regular times can help improve sleep.
Gratitude can help foster positive emotions and a more optimistic outlook. By focusing on what is positive in your life, you can become more attuned to what is going well. Gratitude can crowd out more negative emotions and increase your sense of well-being.
While it may feel like an indulgence, remember that taking some time out to engage in activities that create positive emotions isn’t just fun: it’s good for you.
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