Your view of the world and what happens to you is colored by the way that you think. People who are negative thinkers may be more realistic than positive thinkers on some issues, but negative thinking can lead to an unnecessarily gloomy view of life. And when it comes to health, it seems there may be health benefits in adopting a more positive way of thinking.
Events, even stressful ones, are mostly neutral in themselves – it is how we think about them that affects the way we respond. A job may force someone to move away from a place where he or she is happy, but the change may offer the chance to get to know a new area and make new friends. Of course, finding a positive aspect in traumatic circumstances, such as bereavement, is difficult, but there are still differences in the way people cope. A negative thinker is more likely to stay isolated in grief, guilt, and anger, while a positive thinker will eventually be able to move on and be thankful for happy memories.
Healthy attitudes
The way people perceive everyday events is affected by their thinking style. For example, if a friend does not call when promised, negative thinkers will assume that they have done something wrong and that the friend is angry with them; positive thinkers, in contrast, will probably assume that the friend is busy or will ring when they get the chance.
On a more serious level, the way you perceive potential threats governs your stress response, which in turn can affect your health. So, does this mean that negative thinking can make you ill? There is no overwhelming evidence for this, but it does seem that a person’s thinking style may play some part in their state of health. Conditions such as arthritis, asthma, headaches, and heart disease can all be affected by the state of mind.
A positive outlook seems to help people to cope better with serious illnesses. For example, psychologists have found that men who had coronary bypass surgery recovered more quickly if they had a positive, rather than negative, outlook on the situation. They returned to normal life more quickly, and when asked about the virtuality of life six months on, we’re still doing well.
The health cost of hostility
The type of negative thinking that is linked most strongly to ill health- particularly heart disease – is hostility. Hostile people complain a lot, are suspicious, get into a lot of arguments, and always seem to put the worst interpretation of other people’s behavior. Psychologists at the University of Kansas rated 750 men for hostility and then followed their progress over many years. They found that those with high hostility scores were more likely to die prematurely. The same study found that hostile people are also more likely to lead unhealthy lifestyles, being prone to smoke, drink, or use drugs.
A generally hostile attitude also has a more direct effect on health, as it can lead to more wear and tear on the central nervous system during stress. Psychologists gave a group a frustrating puzzle to solve (a device designed to elicit a measurable stress response). Those who had previously admitted, via a questionnaire, to be more hostile and suspicious in their attitude to others showed bigger increases in blood pressure over the puzzle than those with a more positive attitude. Over a lifetime, these surges in blood pressure in response to normal daily frustrations may well damage the arteries, perhaps setting the scene for heart disease – although this link has not been conclusively proved. In contrast, positive thinking involves a constructive response to life’s problems while keeping a sense of perspective. Positive thinkers are less likely to feel frustrated, helpless, or overwhelmed by circumstances, and this can be very helpful in coping with the stresses of everyday life.
