The Archives of Internal Medicine reported on a study that examined the impact of positive psychology; if we think we’re better are we actually going to be better?
The researchers looked at the impact of positive thought on exercise after a cardiac procedure. They found that patients who had positive thoughts had sustained and clinically significant increases in physical activity over a year compared to those that did not receive this additional intervention. In another study from this group, they looked at exercise among asthma patients and found that the positive thought group may have benefited those asthma patients with the most severe asthma.
While positive thinking in these studies did not always lead to health benefits, this is pretty good considering that there does not appear to be a real downside to the therapy! This is positively (pun intended) good news.
For a lot of people, it’s the right way of approaching things because it’s intrinsically beneficial and can and will deeply impact your life.