Lighten Up and Live Longer: It's Easy - Here's How

Recent scientific studies have shown that happy people are healthier and live longer. Furthermore, scientists have discovered that happy people have activities they share in common -- and these activities can be learned and practiced by unhappy people with the proven result of making them happier. This is very good news!

Back in the nineteen sixties a well-known journalist named Normal Cousins was diagnosed with an “irreversible” condition that was debilitating him. Instead of buying into his doctors’ prognosis and sinking into gloom and despair, he arranged to see Marx Brothers movies in his hospital room and made of point of enjoying them. “Miraculously”, his condition reversed itself and he recovered.

The medical authorities disregard evidence like this as “anecdotal” -- meaning that it doesn’t prove how or why a cure occurred -- and they ignore it.

Fortunately, Mr. Cousins was both famous and a good writer. His book, “Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by a Patient”, started a major trend in medical and psychological research. Scientists started studying healthy mental states, not just ill ones. A whole new discipline of “Positive Psychology” grew out of it, and the person who led the movement -- Dr. Martin Seligman -- conducted major scientific studies into the roots of happiness, which he published in several important and easy-to-read books.

Dr. Seligman discovered that if unhappy people routinely did 8 things, they became happier. And because being happy is positively linked with a healthier, longer life, I encourage all of my patients to do them. How long do you want to wait to get happier? (There’s no catch.)

Here they are:

Count Your Blessings
Practice Kindness
Savor The Joys Of Life
Thank Someone Who Has Helped You
Forgive and Move On
Make Time For Friends and Family
Honor Your Body
Be Prepared to Cope with Unforeseen Hardships - they will happen

Lightening up like this is one of three core practices I teach my patients so they can develop a natural cure mindset. Every patient I have seen fully recover from terminal illness has developed a natural cure mindset. In my experience, it is an essential component of an overall natural cure.