Focusing On The Brighter Things Has Health Benefits!

Well, after coming back from Spring Break, school has definitely kept me busy! With two quizzes, two tests, and a homework due this week, I've definitely been missing those days of lounging on the beach with my beautiful sisters!!! But, amidst my studying for my Psychology exam, I found some pretty cool info!
I've always tried to focus on the silver lining of life, not ignoring the bad parts, but finding the "silver" in the solution (constantly moving towards a solution instead of standing in the midst of the problem freaking out), but I didn't know that focusing on The Brighter Things was actually good for my health! So, I figured I would pass along the super information along to you!! :)
According to research, higher levels of hope were associated with reduced risk of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and respiratory tract infection and higher levels of curiosity were associated with reduced risk of hypertension and diabetes!
Being generally positive has been shown to make your immune system better and more efficient! (Marsland, Pressman, & Cohen, 2007)
People with positive attitudes not only have enhanced immune system functioning, but also have greater longevity than those with less positive attitudes. They also have fewer illnesses after exposure to cold germs and flu viruses! (Cohen, Alper, Doyle, Teanor, & Turner, 2006)

Here are some tips to make your life a bit better and in turn more healthy :)

• Allow God to heal you! (The Word says that He will give us "peace that passes all understanding." Let Him! Spend time in prayer and in the Word! The Holy Spirit is called our Comforter, so spend some time with Him and feel better!)
• Learn to relax (stress can cause some serious health problems if it stays around for too long...so take a deep breath and go read a book or watch a funny movie! Take a chill pill) :)
• Learn to cope (seek advice for problems, try new solutions, distract yourself with happy stuff, make jokes!)
• Build a strong support network (friends, family, sorority sisters, fraternity brothers, spouses, and church family are all great for this, but make sure you're going to go to your Positive Polly's instead of your friends who lean more towards Negative Nancy, remember you're trying to build yourself up!)
• Write about troubling events in your life!
• Keep active (you don't have to kill yourself, just go for a walk or do some crunches while watch a funny movie)

So yeah! I'm super excited! This has made me even more motivated to focus on The Brighter Things! Who knew that being Positive Polly would have been so wonderful biologically! So all of you Negative Nancy's out there, find that silver lining! I promise it's there! :)