Generally speaking, those who have suffered with mental illness don’t have much to be happy about. Although Truehope offers a safe and effective nutritional product and a comprehensive support program, there are still many things that you can do individually to improve your health.
For example, consider this magazine article about the healing power of laughter.
Every time you laugh, it’s like taking a miracle pill for your health. According to doctors, laughter can reduce stress, lower blood pressure, boost the immune system and protect your heart. It’s no wonder we say that humor is “contagious” and that laughter is “infectious.
So why are we so drawn to humor? Why will we watch Seinfeld reruns over and over again? To answer this question, Dr. Allan Reiss, at Stanford Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory, went looking for the brain‘s “funny bone.” He used MRls to monitor volunteers’ brain activity while they read cartoons. The scans revealed that humor makes us feel good because it activates the brain’s reward centers — the funnier we find something, the greater the reward.
In a 15-year study of 678 nuns, researchers found that those who used positive words such as “happy,” “joy” and “love” when describing their lives lived almost 10 years longer than those who expressed fewer positive emotions. The researchers concluded that good feelings can act as a biological shield against daily stresses that take their toll in the form of high blood pressure and heart disease. And a Dutch study of people aged 65 to 85 at the outset found that 10 years later the optimists had a 55 per cent lower risk of death from all causes than the pessimists.
Happiness can also help even if you are already ill. For 11 years, researchers monitored 866 men and women (with an average age of 60) who had heart disease. Those who most frequently ticked phrases like “ability to laugh easily” or “lightheartedness” on questionnaires about themselves were 20 per cent less likely to die prematurely of any cause than those whose responses were less positive.
Given the established link between physical health and laughter, it only makes sense that laughter and overall happiness can also have a positive effect for those who deal with mental health issues.
At Truehope, we encourage you to seek out those things in your life that make you the happiest and that can promote laughter and positive feelings. Doing so can help you experience true mental wellness.
Source: Excerpt from Living Well, Reader’s Digest Association (Canada) Ltd., Spring 2007