Positive Thoughts, Affirmations Shown to Boost Overall Health

January 25, 2012

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Are the majority of your thoughts positive, or are they hampering your mood and subsequently bringing along negative health consequences? New research has found that savoring the moment and thinking positively can help to improve your health and help steer health-conscious decisions in the right direction. In particular, the findings found positive thoughts to be especially beneficial to those already suffering from diseases like coronary artery disease and high blood pressure.

The research involved 3 different studies involving 756 participants, and was published online in the January 23 edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine. This research is the first of its kind to use large, randomized controlled trials to show that you can use positive thoughts and self-affirmations to create behavioral changes and true health transformation. It was funded thanks to a $9.5 million contract from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

One tip researchers offered was to consciously think of happy thoughts as soon as you wake up. Found to have a therapeutic effect that can shape your decision making process for the day, the researchers offered beautiful sunrises and happy babies wearing hats as examples. Increasingly, it is being recognized that a ‘mind over matter’ approach can actually produce noticeable results in your health.

These same results have been found in previous trials, in which patients demonstrate improved health benefits after being given placebos. It has been found that participants often respond positively to placebos due to the expectation that they are receiving some form of traditional medicine. This leads to a mental response that stimulates healing through stress reduction and a number of other factors. This kind of self-treatment can be seen in one case where a woman’s own thoughts made her lose nearly 112 pounds.

It is important to remember that your own thoughts and beliefs do manifest themselves physically, and can affect your overall health and mood. Start changing your mentality today by starting your day off with positive imagery. You can also ponder on the many ways in which you can use your own gifts and talents each day to better the world and create the change you would like to see in your daily life.