Being more positive

Scientists have discovered that people who think positively live longer. 

Scientists have discovered that people who think positively live longer. Because psychologists have been obsessed with negative emotions they have failed to investigate positive emotions until very recently. If positive emotions have been shown to help people live healthier and happier lives the key question is can such emotions be harnessed? Is it possible to teach people how to be more optimistic? Can we learn to be less negative? Or are we genetically programmed to being negative? Research shows that personality traits are only 50% genetic. Therefore there is a potential scope of another 50% of our personality open to change. People who cannot contemplate speaking in public have learned to gain the confidence to stand proudly and address the crowds. People who have been terrified of social situations have learned to take their rightful place back into their communities. It is possible to teach people to be more optimistic. In fact Martin Seligman has shown that teaching children the skills of optimistic thinking can halve their rates of depression in puberty. Isn’t it wonderful that those of us who tend to have a bias towards negative thinking can actually shake the habit?

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