How positive thinking can help you live longer
While there’s no magic potion to live longer (yet), there are little things you can do to increase your lifespan. One such thing is positive thinking or thinking positive thoughts, which incidentally also has a number of benefits like stress relief, increased immunity, improved wellness, and better resilience. This Pacific Prime Latin America article tells you more about aging gracefully with positive thinking and unlocking the potential of positive thinking!
The power of positive thinking
Becca Levy at the Yale School of Public Health studied the connection between positive thinking and longer lifespans. She used data from the Ohio Longitude Study of Aging and Retirement, examining over 1,000 participants (with an average age of 63) since 1975. The participants had to provide their views on aging, such as by rating their agreement towards age-related statements.
Rather incredible, Levy found that those with a more positive outlook lived on for over 22 years (22.6) after the study began, while those with more negative ones survived a mere 15 years. Since then, numerous studies have continued to reinforce the association between people’s beliefs and their physical aging.
For example, a recent study from 2019 confirmed that positive thinking could result in an 11-15% longer lifespan and increase one’s likelihood of living to age 85 or older. It’s also important to note that this effect remained even after other factors such as age, gender, income, depression, and health status were accounted for.
Adopting positive thinking while still young
Positive thinking clearly works in lengthening one’s lifespan, but it works better for younger people. So rather than dreading growing old and worrying about those wrinkles, embrace the passing of time and adopt an optimistic outlook. Like fine wine, view yourself as getting better with age. After all, you’ll accumulate more experience and become more mature.
So, how does it work? Essentially, adopting positive thinking increases your will to live. As alluded to previously, this can make you more resilient to illnesses and more proactive about your health. You’ll also be less stressed, which reduces your likelihood of developing chronic diseases or disorders.
3 tips for positive thinking
Positive thinking is one of those things that are very simple and easy in theory, but can be quite a challenge to implement in practice. But just like meditation, yoga, or any other self-care ritual, staying positive is a practice and requires dedication to make it work. That means pushing through even if you relapse, i.e. shifting back to negative thinking. Here are some tips to help get you started.
1. Be thankful (and write it down in a journal)
One of the best ways to keep negative thoughts at bay is to think of things you’re grateful for. You can choose whatever format you prefer – brief lists on your phone, longer and diary-style entries in a notebook, or even buy gratitude journals with various templates to fill in. It doesn’t matter how you do it, as long as you’re consistently doing it.
2. Repeat positive affirmations to yourself
Have you ever heard the phrase ‘fake it till you make it’? That’s the logic behind saying positive affirmations. In other words, these are positive statements about yourself that you repeat numerous times to incorporate into your thinking. For example, “I am confident in my own skin,” “I am not afraid of growing old,” etc.
3. Surround yourself with positivity
Positive thinking is contagious. When you spend time with other positive thinkers, you’ll feel uplifted, happy, and supported. Likewise, you’ll feel drained when you’re around negative thinkers. So notice how you feel around family and friends, and consciously choose to spend time with the more positive ones.
Get in touch with Pacific Prime Latin America today!
While positive thinking can help you live longer, it’s also vital to secure access to good healthcare. What better way to ensure this than health insurance? With a comprehensive plan in hand, you’ll be able to visit the best doctors and benefit from the latest equipment and treatments – all without needing to worry about paying for sky-high medical bills out of pocket.
Whether you’re looking for expat health insurance, retiree health insurance, or any other health insurance plan in Mexico or elsewhere in the region, Pacific Prime Latin America can help. We have over two decades of experience matching individuals to the best plan for their needs and budgets, and providing heaps of support and assistance along the way.
Contact us today!
With over 5 years of experience in the field, Suphanida spends the majority of her day synthesizing complex pieces of insurance-related information and translating this into easy-to-understand, engaging, and effective content across a variety of media such as articles, infographics, whitepapers, videos, and more.
Suphanida is also responsible for planning and publishing three whitepapers released annually by Pacific Prime: The State of Health Insurance Report, The Cost of Health Insurance Report, and The Global Employee Benefits Trends Report. Additionally, she handles the LinkedIn profiles of Pacific Prime’s Founder and CEO, as well as Global HR Lead.
Suphanida’s strengths lie in her strong research and analytical skills, which she has gained from her BA in Politics from the University of Warwick and Erasmus Mundus Joint MA in Journalism from Aarhus University and City, University of London.
Being of Thai-Indian origin and having lived, studied, and worked in Thailand, the UK, and Denmark, Suphanida also has a unique, multicultural perspective that helps her understand the struggles of expats and globetrotters.
Outside of work, she enjoys traveling to new places and immersing herself in different cultures.
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