Home
>
Positive Attitude Tips
>
Your Best Defense Against Aging: Your Attitude To Life

Your Best Defense Against Aging: Your Attitude To Life

In the international bestseller, Blink, Malcolm Gladwell explains how researchers who study mind-reading using body language and facial expressions found that the old clich?d 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.

Priya Shah edits the health naturale portal. For more tips on anti-aging and living a longer, healthier life, visit health naturale

This article may be reprinted as long as the resource box is left intact and all links are hyperlinked.

cleaning service near Glencoe ...

In The News:

Lyft rolled out safety upgrades with a new Safety Hub, driver blocking capability and a favorite driver option to give riders more control over their experience.

New research shows Americans increasingly trust AI for wellness guidance over social media, with 63% finding artificial intelligence reliable for health.

Luxury fashion brand Dior experienced a January 2025 data breach affecting customer personal information, and notifications were sent months after the discovery.

The commercial Unitree H1 humanoid robot weighs 104 pounds with 365 pound-feet torque per joint and demonstrates dangerous potential when software glitches occur.

Americans average 10-plus hours online daily, according to recent survey, splitting time between streaming shows on TV and browsing websites on multiple devices.

Boost your smartphone privacy instantly with these security tweaks for iPhone and Android that limit ad tracking, hide notifications and prevent unauthorized access.

Platforms like Hoax Tech and JS Click Cloaker help cybercriminals bypass detection systems using machine learning to selectively display scam content to victims.

A new battery recycling technique transforms old lithium-ion batteries into high-performance components that retain 88% capacity after 500 cycles with minimal waste.

Google's Android operating system can warn users about earthquakes before the shaking even begins – and there are ways to do it on your iPhone, too.

Meta's new gesture control wristband might just be the most seamless way to control a computer yet. And no, it doesn't require surgery, a camera, or even a touchscreen. All it needs is your wrist.

Long-haul trucks are now being upgraded with a surprising twist, thanks to California-based startup Revoy. Their electric boost doesn't replace diesel but works alongside it to cut emissions and fuel costs without major disruption.

PayPal and Venmo just rolled out something big: AI-powered scam alerts for Friends and Family payments.

As data centers multiply across the United States, energy demand is increasing at a rapid pace. This has not escaped the notice of large investment firms from Wall Street.

The Unicode Consortium, the nonprofit organization that maintains the Unicode Standard to ensure emojis work across devices, has announced Unicode 17.0, which includes nine new emojis slated for release this fall, in September 2025.

OpenAI is one of the world's leading AI research labs. Founded in 2015, it's behind some of today's most talked-about tools, including GPT, DALL·E, and ChatGPT.

Ever catch your dog staring at the screen during movie night and wonder if they're actually watching? Turns out, they might be. A new scientific study from Auburn University found that many dogs really do engage with television, and not all pups react the same way.

Stop the scammers from making contact in the first place. They're getting your parents' contact information and much more personal data besides, from somewhere.

The Walker S2 robot from UBTech autonomously exchanges its batteries in just three minutes, allowing continuous operation in car factories operated by BYD, Nio and Zeekr.

The FX Super One electric MPV from Faraday Future offers flexible seating, zero-gravity recliners and an AI system that creates a personal connection between driver and vehicle.

Practical solutions for reducing unwanted charity mail, political texts and email spam by opting out of shared lists, replying "STOP" and using data removal services.

Delta's new AI pricing system eliminates static airfares for personalized rates based on individual data, raising questions about fairness while promising optimized revenue.

AI data centers are straining the power grid across 13 states, contributing to a $9 billion increase in electricity costs, and PJM customers face monthly bill increases of $25 or more.

Artificial intelligence is transforming the music industry as AI-generated bands like The Velvet Sundown earn substantial streaming revenue, prompting lawsuits from major record labels.

Microsoft phishing scams use fake security alerts and links that redirect to credential-stealing pages with warning signs, including urgent language and unusual senders.

Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future.

Your Best Defense Against Aging: Your Attitude To Life

Positive Attitude Tips