Positive Thinking: Do Optimists Live Longer? 5 Health Benefits

Do Optimists Live Longer
Optimism and Longevity
Last updated:

How much can positive thinking really help you and your life? Do you know that positive thinking may contribute to your health and possibly prolong your life?

Positive thinking is beneficial in a lot of ways, including boosting one’s self-confidence, boosting self-esteem, and improving one’s physical well-being. Find out how positive thinking can help you live longer and how it can boost your health!

Think Positively: 5 Health Benefits

Positivity is the attitude with which you approach challenges and everyday life in general. Positive thinkers understand that they may encounter negative situations in their lives, but they know how to handle those situations with positivity.

There are many obstacles and challenges in life, but changing your mindset and becoming more positive can benefit you on many levels, including your health.

The 5 health benefits of positive thinking and how it can benefit you in a variety of ways will help you further realize that positive thinking is something that can really benefit you.

1. It could extend your life by several years

Studies have shown that positive thinking has a direct impact on life expectancy. Positivity can help lower stress as well as boost your self-esteem and immune system, but it can also help add years to your life.

Researchers studied 660 people and found that those with a more positive outlook on their own aging lived an average of 7.5 years longer than those who did not have this outlook.

Despite controlling for factors such as gender, age, income, loneliness, and health status, these results remained consistent throughout the study.

2. Boosts the immune system

Studies have looked at the connection between positivity and our immune systems. The study involved 124 participants, and those who exhibited optimistic thinking also showed a stronger immune system.

An individual with a negative outlook actually demonstrated a negative impact on their immune system. The study indicates that being more positive may actually help you prevent the common cold by boosting your immune system.

It also shows that a negative outlook can increase your risk of illness.

3. Increases your resilience

Whenever you face trauma or negative situations in life, how you handle them is very important and can affect how you feel.

Researchers have found that positive thinking can actually help you recover more quickly from trauma or crisis. Positive thinking can help you be more resilient, which is helpful when you find yourself in difficult situations.

Rather than being negative in life, try to be more positive so that you can deal with negative situations more quickly and easily. While it’s hard to remain optimistic during tough times, it has been known to help people recover quickly, so you can’t go wrong with it.

4. Stress-relieving

Stress is common for many people, but if you can handle it, it can have great health benefits for you. Stress is actually known to cause health problems, but on top of that, it can also worsen health conditions and does not provide any benefit.

Positive thinking can reduce the stress levels in our lives, which in turn can help prevent health problems in the future. Because the way you think can affect the amount of stress you experience, positive thinking can actually reduce and combat stress.

5. Reduces the risk of hypertension

Besides reducing stress, positive thinking is also capable of preventing high blood pressure. It has actually been proven that positive thinking exercises lower blood pressure!

A number of factors contribute to high blood pressure. Stress, anxiety, diet, and lifestyle choices such as smoking and drug use commonly cause it.

Heart disease is infamously caused by high blood pressure, so by lowering blood pressure, you can reduce the risk of heart disease and possibly extend your life expectancy.

Positive thinking can be a very powerful tool, and if it can decrease heart disease risk, it’s certainly worth practicing more!

Though it can be hard to know how to get rid of negativity, it’s not impossible. It may help you with all the things I’ve discussed if you can develop a positive attitude and show positive thinking.

6. How did I boost my positive thinking?

Being positive all the time can be quite challenging, we all have our daily challenges. Making a short list of positive affirmations to repeat every day was one of the best, yet simplest, methods I found for boosting my positive attitude. Continue here to discover the power of positive affirmations and how to use them effectively in your everyday routine.

You may also like:

21 Money Mindset Coaching Tips to Transform Your Wealth (Fast)