Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 9:41 pm Post subject: Re: Non-doomers live longer - Research-based evidence
Lumpy wrote:
I offer to you the following article, which gives the latest information on the well-known longitudinal "Nun Study".
Please note particularly the phrase "[people] with positive attitudes ... tend to live longer than their glass-half-empty peers ..."
This research has been going on since 1986, and is providing extremely valuable information regarding not only long-life, but prevention of dementia.
I am NOT advocating "head in the sand". I am advocating thinking and acting creatively in the face of reality. Knowledge, then preparation, then action -- versus "the sky is falling - and there is nothing to be done!" (Also known as a symptom of Chronic Eeyore Syndrome in my practice of psychiatry.)
Restructuring our lives takes time. It takes a balanced approach for one to be at peace with survival preparedness.
But no matter how hard we try, none of us will be ultimate survivors and make it out alive - we all have to die one day.
But the successful survivor extends his or her life beyond an earlier death - a death that was caused by ignorance of how to make that life last longer.
First let me say that almost everyone suffers from bouts of depression one time or another in their life just as all of us get colds every now and again. But just like it is not normal for one to go through life with a constant cold, it is not normal for us to be constantly depressed either.
We can define stress as "a state that evokes effort on the part of the individual to maintain or restore equilibrium."
The 2 R's are important to remember when it comes to stress management. They are Reduce stress and Relationship to stress.
Reducing stress is the number one tool at our disposal.
After we reduce what we can then we must work on how we relate to stress that cannot be reduced or eliminated.
A life of voluntary simplicity has helped me greatly in this area of stress reduction.
Tired of being angry? Just relinquish control and anger will be diminished. Anger and control go hand in hand. I discuss this topic in an earlier post "Justified Anger" If you want c copy write me direct.
Meditation and mindfulness helped calm my mind. A constantly busy kind cannot heal itself. Joining the simple living movement help make time for me to meditate and relax. Without time for contemplative practices and relaxation I am sunk. This is an almost top necessity for me.
I tell those that say they have no time to relax to get into voluntary simplicity. In a nutshell, voluntary simplicity reminds us that if you can't keep up, you need to scale back until you can keep up, if you desire to live a life at peace.
I need to eat right and sleep right and exercise right as well.
Many foods help trigger crazy thinking, disturb sleep and can lead to depression, especially the salty and chemical rich, artificial factory foods. This is much easier to see once we clean up our diet and our thinking.
Sleep is also a problem with me as well as many health related stress produced problems. My sleep has improved, but I have to keep a watchful eye on my lifestyle as it can be back to problematic living in short order.
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