By Reina Hasting
Did you know that October is Positive Attitude Month? Even if you didn’t, it is good to know that there is power in positive thinking every day. Positive emotions, like happiness, are linked with better health and greater well-being. Negative emotions such as chronic anger, worry and hostility are linked with having a negative effect on a person’s heart health.
An article published in the Social Science & Medicine journal “Happiness and Longevity in the United States” written by Elizabeth M. Lawrence, showed happy people live longer. Results showed that compared to very happy people, the risk of death over the follow-up period is 6% higher among those who are pretty happy and 14% higher among those who are not happy, even after controlling for an array of demographic, socioeconomic and lifestyle-related factors.
Being happy comes naturally to some people while others have to work at it. Why is that? We are a product of our environment and choices. We have different parents, friends, schools, churches and communities that have influenced us over our lifetime.
Key influential people in our lives may have had pessimistic habits believing bad events will last a long time and consequences of those events will undermine everything they do no matter what. Some may believe happiness can only come out of being successful or having good health or that once things get good, then they will get bad, so it’s best to avoid being happy.
But happiness is not earned or deserved — it’s a state of mind. The American Psychological Association’s Dictionary of Psychology defines happiness as an emotion of joy, gladness, satisfaction and well-being.
So how does one have more positive thoughts to be happy? According to an article published by Harvard Health Medical School, that’s where positive psychology comes in. It states that this field of research explores how people and institutions can support the quest for increased satisfaction and meaning, and has uncovered several routes to happiness:
• Feeling good: seeking pleasurable emotions and sensations to feel happy.
• Engaging fully: pursuing goals and activities that engage you fully.
• Doing good: searching for meaning outside yourself.
• Gratitude: expressing appreciation for what you have in your life.
• Savoring pleasure: placing your attention on pleasure as it occurs and consciously enjoying the experience as it unfolds.
• Being mindful: focusing your attention on what is happening at the moment and accepting it without judgment.
• Self-compassion: consoling yourself as needed, taking the time to nurture yourself, and building the motivation to try again.
If the thought of trying to practice positive thinking seems challenging, you are not alone. Does anyone have 100% perfect mental health? The answer is no. We all have struggled with a bad day. We can’t possibly know everything that someone is going through in their private life, and that’s something to stop and remember before we react or respond to some situations.
I have been told I am an optimist, but I don’t always have positive thoughts. If I’m not feeling happy, I can’t pretend and it shows, according to people who know me well. If I’m feeling sad for too long, I usually try to pull something out of my toolbox to try and feel better. In this case, my toolbox is a collection of practices and exercises such as dancing, spending time with loved ones, volunteering, going for a walk or run, taking care of my plants, meditating, practicing kindness, thinking of things to be grateful/thankful for or listening to music.
Of course, my tools aren’t going to work for everyone. Each one of us is unique. We need our own set of tools in our toolbox. You know yourself better than anyone, so choose practices and exercises that align with you and your life. You can never have too many tools in your toolbox, but sometimes we can’t find the right tool to make us feel better and may need more help. That’s OK. We just have to make sure to reach out and tell someone we need help because no one can read our mind.
Something we can do as a community is shift our focus to choose more positive mental health practices. If we have the power to create more positive opportunities for others, do so. We’ve heard many times that youth model adult behavior. Maybe all our positive thoughts and practices can help create a world with more happiness in the future. We will never know unless we try.
Here is a link to some science-based activities for strengthening skills of happiness, in ourselves and in society, from The Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley: bit.ly/3gjczas.
Reina Hasting is a coordinator with Extension’s Family Nutrition Program, which is administered by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. For questions, she can be contacted at rhhasting@alaska.edu or 907-474-2437.
