Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Be happy, live longer


We all prefer to be happy, but we may not realize how much of an impact happiness may have on us.

There have been numerous studies the last few years on happiness and how it affects our health.

The research reviewed here looked at many studies that evaluated subjective well-being such as life satisfaction, absence of negative emotions, optimism and positive emotions and how it relates to health and longevity (Diener E, Chan M. 2011).

The researchers found that happiness resulted in better health which may not be a surprise, but it also showed that happy individuals also live longer.

While we all want to be happy, many may focus on the wrong things believing that these things will provide happiness, only to discover that the happiness it provided was short lived.

A better way would be to train ourselves so we could achieve a better state of mind and be less affected by circumstances.

Meditation can provide that tool if we do it regularly. Research comparing individuals who were meditators with non-meditators documented that meditators produced greater increases in gamma brainwaves (Rubik B. 2011). Gamma brainwaves from the prefrontal cortex was found to be involved with positive emotions of happiness and love, along with reduced stress.

To read the original abstracts, click on the reference below.

Reference:

Diener Ed, Chan Micaela Y. Happy People Live Longer: Subjective Well-Being Contributes to Health and Longevity. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being © 2011 The International Association of Applied Psychology. 27 JAN 2011. DOI: 10.1111/j.1758-0854.2010.01045.x

Rubik B. Neurofeedback-enhanced gamma brainwaves from the prefrontal cortical region of meditators and non-meditators and associated subjective experiences. J Altern Complement Med. 2011 Feb;17(2):109-15. Epub 2011 Feb 8.

Published with permission by Didrik Sopler, Ph.D., L.Ac : – www.TissueRecovery.com Dr. Marsh has worked with and referrers patients to Dr. Sopler for co-management for years . . . He is quite simply San Diego's top functional medicine consultant.

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