Today marks the start of February, a month known for having love and passion in the air. It also marks National Optimist Day! National Optimist Day is the first Thursday of February every year which just so happens to be the first day of the month this year. Let’s use this day as an opportunity to head into the month of love with a positive mindset that will hopefully carry us through the months to come. Having a positive mindset carries with it more benefits than simply feeling good about yourself in life, although that is an incredibly important impact of positivity. It also, as proven by an innumerable amount of studies, carries with it a garden variety of positive physical and psychological effects
The power of optimism has so many positive impacts on a person’s physical and mental health. According to the Mayo Clinic, something as simple as a positive mindset can help lower rates of depression and anxiety and lower your risk for a multitude of chronic illnesses such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and diabetes. This claim is corroborated by a study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health that found that on average those who frequently kept to a positive mindset and engaged in positive self-talk were on average 40% less likely to suffer from the chronic diseases listed above. These benefits extend to mental health as well with a study from the National Library of Medicine showing that those suffering from Generalized Anxiety Disorder had fewer episodes of intense worry or anxiety if they frequently employed positive self-talk. Positivity has also been linked to lesser feelings of intense stress which in turn increases overall life expectancy. In a modern world where it seems every week there is a new and confusing health fad, the power of one’s mindset is easily overlooked. The first step to gaining and maintaining a healthy lifestyle has been proven time and time again to be optimism!
Not only does optimism improve your health but it can also positively affect those around you. In an article by Ann Chastain of Michigan State University, she writes that those who have a positive attitude tend to attract and retain more friends because people like to be around positive people. However, it is not only important to be optimistic yourself but to also surround yourself with positive people who support you and are there for you. It is an important element that those around you are not negative and hurtful, as they can increase stress and make it more difficult to stay positive. Not only does this apply to your social life, but also your work life. A study done by Science Direct found that work teams made up of positive optimistic people were more efficient than those that were made up of negative pessimistic people. They also found that pessimistic team members can be positively affected by positive team members resulting in higher levels of efficiency. So even if your group is not made up of positive people, simply being positive yourself can improve the efficiency of your team. It is important to stay positive, not just for yourself but also for everyone around you.
Optimism and positivity can also have a positive effect on performance in school work for those of you still in high school or college. Another study, this time from researchers at Stanford, found that students with a positive attitude toward math tended to answer math questions more quickly and more accurately. It can be difficult for some people to have a positive attitude regarding math, but it could improve your performance. A positive attitude not only has a good effect on your performance in math, but academia in general. This claim is backed up by a study in Turkey obtained by the Department of Education that found that students with more positive thinking performed better in school and displayed more grit in difficult academic situations. So for all you students out there, try your best to keep a positive attitude, because it just might help you perform better in school.
As we can see a positive attitude can improve our lives significantly but it takes work. Some steps you can take to become more optimistic include reducing negative thinking and practicing replacing those negative thoughts with positive thoughts. Some tools you can use to make your thinking more positive include identifying when your thoughts are negative, being more open to humor, and living a healthy lifestyle.