Accentuate the Positive!

Your mental attitude will lead you into the light

or hold you in darkness. It will lead you to hope

or despair, to a glorious success or a miserable failure,

and it is entirely within your own power to

choose which it shall be. ~ Orison Swett Marden

Ah ha! Something I've known for a long time has now been "proven" by modern medicine:

Attitude really does change everything!

More to the point, it has an effect on our health. ABC News carried a story tonight about how a positive attitude can have an impact on the body. Here's an excerpt of what was said:

Conventional wisdom and old wives' tales tout the benefits of a positive attitude, but now Duke University researchers believe a cheerier outlook on life actually may help save lives.

Their study indicated that the difference between optimism and pessimism can affect a person's heart, giving more credence to the mind-body connection.

"This study shows that heart patients who are more optimistic in their outlook are 30-50 percent less likely to die over the nine years following their diagnosis," said Dr. Redford Williams, of Duke University Medical Center.

Researchers suggested optimistic patients may survive longer because they adopt healthier lifestyles, and take their medications as directed. They also are less likely to feel stress, which can damage blood vessels.

30-50% less likely to die, folks. Now that's worth adopting a positive outlook on life!

I've always felt that whatever energy we give to the world comes back to us. So if you put out negative thoughts and words, that's what you draw to yourself. You find bad things often happen to you because that's what you expect to happen. But if we give off positive energy by looking at the glass as half full, we attract positive events and positive people because that's what we expect. That doesn't mean that bad things don't happen to positive people. They sure do! But we have a way of looking for the silver lining, searching out the lesson to be discovered in every hard thing we face.

So now I can admit it: I am a bona-fide, card-carrying optimist! That doesn't mean that I don't get down and depressed. I've had some really tough things happen in my life. But I've grown as a human being and learned something from every one of them. Heck, I'm still learning - and I hope that process never ends.

If you're a pessimist, it's not too late to change your view on life so that you too can reap the benefits of being positive.

What am I saying, though? If you're a pessimist, you probably skipped over this entire post!

Until next time...