Power Thoughts: 12 Strategies to Win the Battle of the Mind Read Online Free PDF Page A

thought patterns. Your brain is still maturing, so you can still mature in your thinking.

    Think about It
    What comes to mind immediately when I ask: In what way(s) is your mind working against you?
     
     
    It’ll Help Your Health
    Your thinking can have a positive effect on your physical health. People have suspected an interrelationship between the mind and the body for generations, but in recent years, a variety of scientists and researchers from all over the world have studied and proven it.

    In a 2004 article in USA Today , Carol Ryff of the University of Wisconsin-Madison said, “There is a science that is emerging that says a positive attitude isn’t just a state of mind. It also has linkages to what’s going on in the brain and in the body.” Ryff’s research has proven that people who have higher than normal levels of well-being show “lower cardiovascular risk, lower levels of stress hormones, and lower levels of inflammation, which serves as a marker of the immune system.” 1
    In addition, a study conducted in the Netherlands in 2004 found that people who are optimistic have healthier hearts than those considered “grouchy.” Fewer self-described “optimists” died of cardiovascular disease and they had lower death rates overall than those of pessimists. 2
    Dr. Becca Levy of Yale University led a study that concluded that “a positive attitude towards aging was greater than physiological measures such as low blood pressure and cholesterol, each of which is thought to add a maximum of four years to life.” This study also found that optimistic people live longer than people who worry constantly and that positive attitudes can add more years to a person’s life than exercising or not smoking. 3 In some ways, I find this research astounding, but in other ways, I have no trouble embracing these findings because I have learned that the mind is extremely powerful and I am not surprised by the extent of its influence in our physical lives.
    According to the world-renowned Mayo Clinic, thinking positively may also result in the following health benefits: 4
• Decreased negative stress.
• Greater resistance to catching the common cold.
• A sense of well-being and improved health.
• Reduced risk of coronary artery disease.
• Easier breathing if you have certain lung diseases, such as emphysema.
• Improved coping ability for women with high-risk pregnancies.
• Better coping skills during hardships.

    Further affirming the mind-body connection in an interesting way, I was fascinated to see that in 2005, the Associated Press released an article that reported, “New research suggests that once Alzheimer’s disease robs someone of the ability to expect that a proven painkiller will help them, it doesn’t work nearly as well.” 5 Isn’t that amazing? As long as people are able to think painkillers work, these medicines seem to help us, but when we stop thinking they are effective, they actually stop being effective. Our minds are incredible!
    We know positive thinking is good for our attitudes and emotions, but the research I have referenced in this section, plus an enormous amount of research available in various forms today, clearly indicates that positive thinking is also extremely beneficial to our physical well-being. If we want to live healthy lives, we have to have healthy minds—and that starts with thinking positively instead of negatively.

    The Results of Positive Thinking
    You have read about a number of studies and experiments that prove how our thinking influences us. One case I find especially interesting is an experiment conducted by an MIT professor named Dan Ariely and some of his colleagues. They established a bogus testing facility where they asked people to undergo a series of electric shocks before and after receiving a certain pain reliever. The participants first received shocks with no pain reliever and then took pills called “Veladone-Rx” before receiving the shocks