Page 841

Dietitian Reveals the 15 Best Foods to Support Your Circulatory System

April 21, 2020 by Power of Positivity

Your body’s circulatory system is one of its most essential components. It includes your heart, lungs, and blood vessels and inherently links to all significant health aspects of your body. Improving what you eat to support circulation will enhance the health of your body overall.

If you want to maintain a consistent level of good health, it’s essential to make sure that you treat your body well. A good starting point to doing this is to add the right ingredients to your diet over time. Take it slow. Health is a marathon.

Have you ever noticed that diets are tough to follow? Taking away the foods you enjoy from your menu is a tough thing to master psychologically.

Instead of taking things out of your diet, consider what foods you can add that will treat your body like medicine does. Adding a wide range of whole food ingredients to your daily diet can begin to work wonders for your health if consumed regularly.

Taking care of your body is a multifaceted effort. No one food is going to cure any of your health problems magically. However, a real lifestyle change towards healthier habits is a sure way to increase your overall health over time.

With that in mind, below are the 15 best foods you can eat to support your circulatory system.

15 Foods for Circulatory System Support

1. Leafy greens

Leafy greens like collard greens and kale are jam-packed with essential nutrients that create a suitable environment for your body. They have beneficial vitamins and antioxidants that support many of your body’s vital functions. Specifically, vitamin K is a great nutrient that benefits your blood flow and prevents over-clotting.

In addition, the rich content of nitrates allows these green veggies to help your body reduce blood pressure and decrease stiffness in arteries.

Intake of leafy greens can help decrease your risk of heart disease, according to some studies.

Eating a salad every day with a variety of leafy greens, olive oil, berries, and walnuts (see #5) is a great way to incorporate a handful of good-for-you ingredients in a single meal.

2. Whole Grains

A “whole” grain refers to grains that have the germ, endosperm, and bran included. Grains that have been minimally processed like quinoa or buckwheat are great examples of this. The fiber contained in these grains can significantly reduce the body’s retention of bad cholesterol.

In addition, oats are another incredible source of whole grains that can help the body fight bad cholesterol. “Ezekiel bread,” whole-grain bread with a variety of seeds and natural grains, is another great option in this category. Although whole grains have gotten a bad rap recently, they are outstanding for most people when consumed in their most whole and natural form.

3. Dark Chocolate

The flavonoids present in the natural cocoa plant links to improving blood circulation. A study found in the Circulation Journal stated that dark chocolates rich in flavonoids improved the patient’s blood circulation. In contrast, white chocolate (which is not actually chocolate) did not yield the same result.

Dark chocolate shouldn’t be too hard for most people to eat, but if you don’t like the taste, try adding raw cocoa powder to your coffee in the morning. This addition can be a great substitute for cream.

4. Cold-Water Fish

Fish that live in cold water contain high amounts of omega-3 fatty acids. Think salmon, mackerel, and cod. These fats are crucial for the heart and the entire circulatory system. Adding fish like salmon to your diet is a great way to get your protein and a ton of vital nutrients simultaneously.

5. Nuts

Nuts contain both magnesium and L-arginine. Magnesium allows your body’s arteries to loosen and relax so that they can make way for more blood. L-arginine helps to produce nitric oxide, which performs the same function.

Even just one handful of nuts per day can add a ton of vital nutrients to your diet. You can even blend them up in smoothies for even more convenience.

6. Oranges

The vitamin C present in oranges allows the blood capillaries to dilate and carry more blood to the cells. Vitamin C also aids in the production of collagen, which aids in circulation as well. Any food high in vitamin C is a great option to add to your diet if you want to increase your body’s circulatory health. Make sure that you eat an orange whole and not juiced so that you don’t miss out on the valuable fiber content.

7. Berries

Berries of all kinds are incredibly nutrient-dense. Besides, they contain anthocyanins, which protect the body from inflammation, which contributes to heart disease. Eating high amounts of berries can reduce factors for heart disease, including decreasing bad LDL cholesterol.

Adding berries as a regular part of your diet can greatly increase the health of your circulatory system. You can add a handful of berries as they are, blend them in smoothies, or add them to salads for an easy way to incorporate them into your diet.

8. Garlic

Garlic is incredibly potent food for your health for many reasons, but it also aids your body’s natural flow of blood. It can help lower blood pressure with the allicin present in it. This compound helps the arteries dilate.

Make sure to eat it raw — you can swallow whole garlic cloves without swallowing, like a pill. Adding garlic to your daily diet is an easy way to increase your body’s natural flow of blood. You can also cook it, but cooking it at high heats for long periods can diminish some of the valuable nutrients that it has to offer.

9. Watermelon

Watermelon contains lycopene, a natural antioxidant that can help to improve circulation. Other red foods like tomatoes contain high amounts of lycopene as well. This food is an excellent and easy health addition to aid your body’s circulatory system. Watermelon is another fruit that can be eaten as is or added to smoothies.

Learn how biohacking helps you make smarter health decisions.

10. Cayenne Pepper

Cayenne pepper can help increase your metabolic rate, which in turn stimulates the arteries and blood vessels. Luckily, cayenne pepper is easy to add to a wide variety of dishes and goes well on fish, poultry, or red meat alike.

11. Ginger Root

One of the healthiest foods on Earth, ginger root can aid in digestion problems and increase the body’s blood circulation. Ginger can be added to a wide variety of Asian dishes or shredded and blended in a smoothie. It’s pretty potent, so it might be a bit difficult to eat raw.

12. Goji Berries

Goji berries are a mainstay in health stores. They can work in conduction with other foods to increase the body’s blood circulation. They are also high in fiber, meaning they can help contribute to decreasing LDL cholesterol. While goji berries are healthy, they’re also a bit expensive, so use discretion when buying them against another berry.

13. Ginkgo Biloba

This extract from the ginkgo tree helps to dilate blood vessels. Some sources claim it increases blood flow to the brain specifically, although this is uncertain. You can et this in tea or pill form.

14. Beets

The presence of nitrate in beets converts to nitric oxide, which helps the blood vessels to dilate naturally. They are also chock-full of incredible nutrients that support your body’s overall health. Your circulatory system is related to all aspects of your body, so it’s never a bad idea to pursue holistic health along with it.

15. Natto

Lesser-known in the Western world, this food made from fermented soybeans contains high amounts of a blood-thinning nutrient known as nattokinase. This compound reduces the fiber in your blood, making it less “sticky.” Make sure that you stay away from natto if you are on any prescription blood thinner.

Bonus: The two worst foods for circulation

1. Sugar

Sugar is bad for your health overall. That’s no surprise. Eating sugar causes your body to release far too much insulin, causing your body to become chronically inflamed.

The chronic inflammation associated with overeating sugar can cause your body to develop type 2 diabetes, which in turn damages the circulatory system. The high levels of glucose present in the blood make the veins more brittle and unable to function as they were intended.

2. Salt

While your intake of salt (and its related effects on your health) are still being studied, it is clear that intaking massive amounts of sodium is terrible for you. While you can certainly counteract this with activity, it’s important to cut the excess amounts of sodium present in your diet.

Final Thoughts on Trying to Eat More Foods That Boost Circulatory System Health

Overall, try incorporating one or two of these foods over time into your diet. Apart from benefiting your system, these foods contain a ton of nutrients that benefit your overall health in a variety of ways. Also, one of the best ways you can benefit your circulatory system is by adding exercise as a part of your daily routine. This activity can also help your heart and lungs strengthen, along with the benefits added by nutritious foods.

10 Ways To Sharpen Your Sixth Sense

April 21, 2020 by Power of Positivity

Do you ever have feelings of Deja Vu, as you’ve experienced certain events before? Do you ever have a “feeling” that things are going to happen before actually experiencing them? Have you experienced a dream that has come true? Or do you happen to think or say something at the same time as someone else? Then you are using what is known as your “sixth sense.”

Your sixth sense can help you navigate your way through life—to better relationships, improved health and well being, and even success in your career. It can help you to realize your full potential and lead a life that you were always destined to live.

What is the sixth sense?

Your sixth sense is an inner sense of guidance. So use those intuitive promptings that urge you to take specific steps in life that lead you in a “right and true” direction for you. It is a cumulative power of all your other senses—sight, sound, taste, touch, smell. Indeed, these senses culminate to form a stronger sense of inner knowing.

We are all born with inherent tendencies; the degree to which we develop them will make an impact on our lives and the lives of those around us as we seek to build these inner knowings that lead us, quite often, to bigger and better things.

We experience higher levels of intuition when keen insight, subconscious nudges, and senses bring us to a conclusion that would otherwise not be reached using the five senses. When trying to understand your extra sense, it is essential to keep in mind that everyone has it, it has its basis in science, and it is not to be feared.

You have most likely already used this sense to navigate your way through life; it is just as powerful and beneficial as the rest of your senses, if not more! Your intuition will lead you to magical places if you allow the power inside of you to be expressed through you, and these places can definitely be more exciting than if you were to approach the world through your five-sense lens.

As you develop your powers of intuition, they add a whole new dimension to life and living, empowering us with confidence and infusing us with passion.

Can you develop your sixth sense?

This psychic ability is not only innate. It can be developed. In fact, you are probably already using your natural skills to predict specific outcomes in your life.

Stories abound of people who get a “bad feeling” about a flight, so they cancel their trip. Later, the person finds out that the plane they were to be riding on has crashed.

Others have a nudge that they should call to check on a neighbor or loved one. Upon arrival, they find that the person they have had a prompting to call has suffered an illness or injury and needs care.

The more you work with this “power” to develop it, the more you will be guided to those types of experiences that increase your faith in your abilities.

Taking some “natural” steps to exercise your “supernatural” powers could lead you to magical things in your life.

Consider these ways to work with and sharpen your sixth sense:

1. Take time out

We live in a busy, noisy world. The more you can tune into the wisdom of silence within you, the more likely it is that you will hear your inner voice speaking to you. It may not come in words, but pictures, hunches, and feelings; begin to act on the information that is given to you and open yourself up to the process of trusting your intuition.

2. Listen to your gut

We don’t say “gut feelings” for nothing—-we’ve all had those feelings roiling around in our midsections that tell us to steer clear of danger or to move toward a particular outcome. It may seem illogical at first, but the more you follow this gut feeling, the more likely it is that it will lead you in a real direction for your situation.

3. Follow the signs

The more you open yourself up to the possibility of a sixth sense in yourself and others, the more synchronicities will begin to show up in your life. Do you hear the same song over and over? Does a particular animal or icon catch your eye? Pay attention to the signals the universe is giving you; there may be hidden meaning in these visible clues.

4. Take note of when you experience your sixth sense

At times, your sixth sense may present you with a lightbulb moment. This occurrence may be a flash of inspiration, an answer to a problem, or a burst of awareness that leads you to a new level of understanding. Take notice of the events, and celebrate them as they happen. The more you acknowledge and appreciate your inner wisdom, the more likely you are to see moments like these happening regularly.

5. Guess!

Don’t take your psychic ability too seriously; play with your inner powers, and don’t be afraid to guess once in a while—who knows? You might hit the mark. Try to predict who is calling you, or see how many emails you will encounter when you open up your account. Playing with inconsequential outcomes such as these will increase your faith as you discover that you can be right—most of the time.

6. Pay attention to your dreams and visions

Whether you acknowledge it or not, we all have dreams and inner visions that lead us in a specific direction. Pay attention to the information that you get, and ask what the purpose of this information is and how it is meant to serve you in life. Asking will open up a whole new world of answers, and the ride is exhilarating.

7. Write it down!

When you first begin to open to the world of intuitive awareness, it can seem very overwhelming and a bit frightening. As you go through your daily experiences, begin to write down those “stories” that seem outlandish or unbelievable. If nothing else, they will be good conversation pieces as you start to share your experience with others. Revisiting your process as you look over past diaries will give you confidence that you chose to follow something valid.

8. Pay attention to your feelings

Have you ever met someone and had an instant “feeling” about them? When walking home on a dark evening, have you ever been tempted to look behind you to see if someone is following you? Those feelings are real, and you should pay attention to them.

If so, your own hunches are attempting to speak to you and guide you in a specific direction. Over time, these feelings will get more reliable and more persistent. So always be grateful for them, for they can lead you to opportunities, help you avoid calamity, and keep you safe from harm.

9. Visualize, and speak your intentions

Your subconscious mind, intuition, and dreams regularly speak to you; you should consider sending messages back to your subconscious!

Visualize an inevitable outcome. Or, tell your subconscious mind what you wish to achieve or accomplish in a situation. Perhaps you can plant a seed that will later bloom into the outcome that you intended.

The more you can develop a path between your conscious intent and your subconscious mind, the more it will go to work for you. Eventually, it will present itself in the form of people, places, and experiences that will move you toward your goals.

10. Stop saying “no”

To open up to your sixth sense completely, you must stop saying “no” to those inner hunches as they come through.

When you ask, be prepared for an answer, and do not brush off that inner voice that is trying to communicate with you. It may not be an answer that you are ready to receive or accept. But the process is not about getting the answer you want every single time. Instead, it’s about letting information come through that may serve a higher purpose to you or to someone else.

Final thoughts on sharpening your sixth sense to make serious breakthroughs

Like any sense or ability, you must practice with your intuition for it to bloom. Only them can you put it to work for you. As you do, you will eventually be able to call on your abilities at a moment’s notice; you may also wish to incorporate other healing modalities into your training for additional benefits. Practices like yoga, meditation, and tai chi all do their part to sharpen your skill and make the process of “at-will” direction even more accessible.

The more you use your sixth sense abilities, the more sensitive they will become. Enhanced intuition is healing for yourself and for others. Indeed, you will learn to eventually shift your focus in life from one of fear and separation to one of love and gratitude. This change will make your daily walk with intuition even more powerful and impactful.

10 Tips to Get Chiseled Arms at Home

April 21, 2020 by Power of Positivity

Did you know that you can get chiseled arms right from inside your home? Maybe strengthening and sculpting your body was one of your New Year’s resolutions all those months ago. You can get bigger biceps and toned arms without an expensive gym membership.

Think of all the work your arms do for you. Although many people have learned to cope beautifully after losing one or both limbs, it would make everyday tasks more challenging. Your arms have some of the most natural muscles to exercise for more definition.

Of the four muscles of your upper arm, you are probably more familiar with the triceps and biceps. Compare that with twenty muscles in your forearm, both front and back. All these muscles work together to create your arms’ fantastic range of motion.

Are you frustrated with your arms being too thin or flabby? It takes work to build arm muscles, but it’s worth it. The good news is that you can be set up and working out in no time.

Setting Up Your Home Gym

Are you ready to boost your appeal? Set aside a room or open space in your house for some necessary exercise equipment. Encourage the entire family to get involved to help you stay motivated. You will appreciate an inside gym when it’s scorching hot in the summer months.

Make a schedule when the family will exercise together or individually, print it out, and post it where everyone can see it. Wear loose-fitting, comfortable clothes, and place a fan nearby to circulate fresh air. Provide hand towels and plenty of water to stay hydrated.

To counter the dread of exercising, create a fun atmosphere in your gym with some of your favorite music. If you need some pointers, try exercising with online tutorials. Getting in shape doesn’t have to be boring.

As you build your swimwear body, pay close attention to your arms. Not only are chiseled arms attractive, but they will give you an edge in swimming and other exciting summer sports. You can enjoy pumping your biceps to show your hard work.

10 Great Tips For Chiseled Arms

Before you start any exercise regimen, you must discuss it with your doctor and your professional trainer. You can collaborate on a fitness plan that is right for you. They will also tell you that if you feel undue pain and nausea during a particular exercise, you should stop it immediately.

Consider adding regular arm exercises to your daily regimen. With dedication and practice, you can have the toned arms and upper body you want. Try these ten helpful hacks to get chiseled arms this summer without leaving the house.

1. Curls and Lifting Repetitions

Although buying hand weights won’t break the bank, you can do it without them. Want to do a few wraps while you are working around the house? Your answer is right on the pantry shelf.

Just grab a couple of cans of soup for your arm exercises. Choose any brand you like, making sure they are the 23 oz. family size varieties. Hold your soup cans like hand weights and do your curls and repetitions as usual. If you do this just fifteen minutes a day, you will see the difference in your chiseled arms.

2. Try Classic Pushups

If you remember high school gym class or you were ever in the military, you know the benefits of pushups. This iconic exercise has been around since the time of Constantine, though some fitness historians believe the modern version was popularized at the beginning of the 20th century.

The only thing you need to do pushups is enough room to stretch your body out comfortably. Pushups are ideal for creating a flat tummy, toned legs, and chiseled arms. If you have back or joint problems, talk to your doctor or personal trainer to see if pushups are safe for you. You may do a modified version of the exercise to achieve comparable results.

3. Get Your Zen On with Yoga

This ancient Indian art combines physical movement, mindful breathing, and meditation to benefit body, mind, and spirit. The graceful yoga poses, called prana, gently stretch your muscles and tone them.

Along with strengthening your core, many of the yoga pranas include leg and arm exercises to make them more robust and flexible. You needn’t be a master yogi to get chiseled arms and reap other benefits of practicing yoga.

Exercise at home–try an in-home yoga studio or high intensity interval training using your own body weight.

4. Do Pullups for Toned Arms

Pullups are a great way to build muscles in your upper back and arms. When you visit a gym, you will probably see several people doing pullup repetitions on the parallel bars. However, you can still do the same exercises without a gym and even without bars.

If you have a sturdy door with heavy hinges, you can hold to the top of the door for pullups. For a modified version, lie under a heavy table with your hand on its edges and pull your body up that way. During pleasant weather, try doing pullups from a sturdy tree branch in your yard.

5. Try Arm Airplanes

Here is another favorite exercise you probably learned as a kid in school. Airplanes, or arm circles, don’t require equipment, and they will work muscles in your shoulders, arms, and upper back. Be sure you have room to spread your arms fully from both sides.

Stand straight with your legs slightly apart and stretch both arms straight sideways. Start with little circles and gradually increase their size. If you like, you can turn your airplanes into windmills and touch each foot with the opposite hand.

6. Have a Seat

Who would believe that you could build muscle and get chiseled arms at home by sitting in a chair? Well, it’s almost that simple. All you need is a little space and a solid chair that will support your body weight.

Sit comfortably in your chair and move your body a bit forward to keep your feet flat on the floor. Now, grip each side of the chair with your hands and slowly lift your behind, ensuring that you are supporting your weight with your arms. Lower your behind down quickly and do these seat lifts about 10-15 times.

7. Turn Your Fitness Regimen Upside Down

Doesn’t it seem like kids know how to make boring exercise fun? Chances are you probably see your children doing headstands and handstands around your house or the yard. Would you believe these upside-down tricks that make the kids giggle are excellent exercises for adults?

These dizzying childhood pastimes are also used in ancient exercise regimens like yoga. While you are up against a wall balancing on your head and arms, you can nourish your brain with a little extra blood. Plus, headstands and handstands strengthen your shoulders and arms when done safely.

8. Bring It Over Your Head

Another way you can shed unwanted fat from your arms and make them ripped is by doing overhead tricep extensions. This exercise benefits your upper and lower limbs, shoulders, and upper back. You can use an appropriate weight of dumbbell or your large soup can.

Stand straight with your feet spread a little, and your knees slightly bent. Use both hands to hold your weight vertically with your arms overhead. Bend your elbows and gently lower the pressure behind your back and lift it again for 10-15 repetitions.

9. Do the Kettlebell Swing

Kettlebells are solid, round weights with handles on top, available in various sizes. You can pick up one or a graduated set inexpensively in a sporting goods store or online. Choose a weight that’s proper for you with a handle that fits comfortably in your hands.

With your feet spread apart, bend your knees and squat halfway down, and have the kettlebell positioned on the floor between your legs. Grab the handle with both hands and bring your body upright while stretching the weight straight in front of you. Kettlebell swings do wonders for strengthening your back, upper legs, and giving you chiseled arms.

10. Put Some Weight into It and Bench Press

If you are into physical training, you probably have a weight bench with graduated barbells at home. Bench pressing and gradually increasing the weights can benefit your whole body, including your arms.

Place the bench weights on the support, position your body on the bench, and lift the barbell up and down smoothly for 10-15 repetitions. As you feel your arms, shoulders, and upper back getting stronger, you can add a little more weight to the barbell.

When you are working with heavyweights, it’s recommended that you work with a partner who can spot you, meaning to place the barbell in the supports while you lie on the bench. To avoid serious injury, never lift any more weight than you are trained to do.

Final Thought: Chiseled Arms Come from a Solid Commitment to Change

This season, refuse to be a couch potato and get your body moving instead. Don’t be hindered if you can’t afford to join an expensive gym as there are things like yoga you can do at home. So use these tips and others to strengthen your body. And, you’ll have the chiseled arms and ripped biceps and triceps you have always wanted.

10 Behaviors That Reveal Emotional Abuse

April 21, 2020 by Power of Positivity

Emotional abuse harms its victims harshly. It can ruin one’s self-esteem, make one too frightened to leave a relationship, and stay disguised as innocent or loving behavior.

Luckily, as more and more information is becoming available regarding this form of abuse, people are becoming more educated on its signs.

Here are ten behaviors that reveal emotional abusers.

1. Putting You Down

It can be easy for emotional abusers to masquerade hurtful things under the disguise of trying to help you.

Belittling Interests

They call your interests annoying or childish. They may even try to convince you that there’s no point in pursuing your hobbies and passions.

Appearance-Based Insults

They may criticize you for being too fat or too thin or even laugh at your fashion choices.

Belittling Accomplishments

No matter what you do, it is never good enough. They may also claim your achievements for their own.

Trivializing Your Emotions

Your emotions and opinions are somehow never serious enough for consideration and care and are always brushed aside. You’re also told that you’re just overreacting, and it’s not as severe as you think.

General Dismissiveness

They ignore you when you try to tell them about something you’re excited about, or they act like they would be anywhere else but here.

2. Derogatory Personal Attacks

Today’s world derives so much money from tearing down positive self-esteem. Unfortunately, emotional abusers are no different.

Character Attacks

They attack you directly and make you think there’s something wrong with you as a person. They’ll say you’re always wrong, or that you never can be relied on, or worse.

Name Calling

“Stupid” and “useless” are prominent examples, but it can also be other horrible words.

Cruel Pet Names

They may call you by pet names that are very cruel or derogatory, especially in front of people who are listening.

Make Everything Out To Be A Joke

Abusers will say things about you that can be incredibly hurtful. But trying to object to this damaging behavior will have them excuse it as a joke, and accuse you of having no sense of humor.

3. Trying To Control You

Abusers think that once they can control you, they’ll have a more positive chance of you staying with them, ignorant of their real intentions.

Spying On You Digitally

They won’t respect your privacy, both online and in the real world. If they don’t already have your passwords, they may have spyware on your devices.

Keeping Track Of Your Location Constantly

They might sneak tracking devices into your vehicles and track location on your devices, and demand you instantly respond to all texts and calls from them no matter what.

Financial Control

Every single penny must be accounted for. They set things up, so you have to rely on them for any financial purchases.

Insisting On Receiving Respect

You can never be given for any of your faults, and you must defer to their authority. Good luck getting any respect in return, though.

Making Decisions For You

You don’t get a say in any decision, both big and small. They’ll cancel appointments and close bank accounts on your behalf, without your knowledge.

Commands

They’ll order you around, and expect instant obedience. Often, they’ll ignore your plans and bodily autonomy in the process as a result.

4. Isolating You is Emotional Abuse

The easiest way to control someone is to keep them away from any positive support systems that might protect and shelter you. It’s hard to maintain positive thinking when you feel alone.

Stepping In Between You And Family

They may lie to your family and say you can’t make it to family gatherings, or say you want to avoid them.

Preventing Your Socialization

If you try to go for an outing with friends or socialize in some way, they will find ways to prevent you from leaving their side.

Interrupting

They continuously try to demand your attention at every opportunity, interrupting any conversation you may be having at the time.

Building Co-Dependence

Codependency is a dangerous and toxic relationship and isn’t a positive one worth sticking around in. It forces you to conform your responses to your abuser’s behavior, to the point that you forget how to function without them.

Making Others Dislike You

They’ll lie to everyone they meet, convincing them to think the worst of you – preferably before they even meet you.

5. Neglect and Ignorance

Humans are social creatures. Needing affection and attention is hard-baked into our DNA – which means depriving us of such fundamental human rights can be incredibly harmful to our emotional health.

Withholding Affection

They’ll withhold intimate moments as a way to punish you, or even refuse to touch you.

Dehumanization

They won’t even give you the courtesy of making eye contact with you when talking to you or listening to you as if you aren’t worth that level of basic human decency.

Not Caring

You can cry, you can beg, you can scream in pain – it won’t make a difference. They refuse to do anything.

Openly Ignoring You

If they don’t outright tune you out, they’ll try to change the subject or gloss over when you try to talk to them about something important.

Closing Down Communication

Any conversation with them is always on their terms, no matter the medium. They might suddenly walk away in the middle of a conversation they don’t like, or ghost you entirely.

Accusing You Of Neediness

If you find yourself reaching out for help, they’ll make you feel as if you’re asking for too much. That you shouldn’t have to need help with such a tiny problem in the first place.

6. Changing The Narrative

Abusers will always try to rewrite the sequence of events and get you to doubt your thoughts, emotions, and even memory.

Gaslighting

Gaslighting is when someone denies an argument or event took place, calling your mind and sanity into question. In fact, gaslighting is a potent and toxic behavior that can derail your self-esteem and positive thinking.

Read to learn more about this type of emotional abuse.

Arguing About Your Feelings

Abusers will insist that your emotions are somehow invalid or not what you think it is, regardless of how you genuinely feel.

Denying Situations

Here’s an example of denial. Abusers may damage or steal your belongings, then claim innocence over the matter. This is just one example of how far emotional abuse can go!

Refusing To Admit To Abuse

When you try to bring up evidence of their abuse, they will vehemently deny it.

Claiming You’re The Abuser

They’ll try to flip the tables on you and accuse you of being the abuser. They’ll paint themselves as the victim, and you as the one with the control and anger issues.

7. Inability To Accept Responsibility

Most abusers refuse to accept responsibility for their actions – even if they somehow agree to go to counseling sessions. Instead, they’ll always try to push the blame onto someone else.

Trapping You

After getting to know what your triggers are, abusers will then take advantage of it to upset you. But if you retaliate in any way, then you’re somehow at fault.

Blame

If abusers are to be believed, you are somehow the reason they have the control and anger issues they have.

Making You Feel Like You Owe Them

They develop a sense of debt in you, so they can control you with guilt.

Pinning It All On You

Abusers often claim that it’s your responsibility to prevent their anger and control issues from acting up. Either you ought to have been faster, or work harder, or keep your head down – the reasons are endless.

8. Poor Emotional Control

Extreme emotions can be difficult to handle, especially if you have a condition that causes emotional dysregulation. However, abusers often use this as an excuse to inflict harm on you.

Jealousy

Abusers will often accuse you of acting flirtatiously towards other people or even cheating on them.

Shouting

Abusers will yell and scream at you – anything verbal that will scare you into obedience. They often will act violently and destroy belongings as well, though it may never lay their hands on you.

Sudden Outbursts

If you don’t comply with their demands or orders, you may find yourself on the receiving end of their furious, red-faced tirade.

Unpredictability

There’s no real rhyme or reason to their behavior. One moment they may make you feel like you’re on top of the world, the next they’re moody and reclusive, or they’ll suddenly explode and unleash hell on you.

9. Knowing How To Get To You

Abusers don’t show their true colors immediately. They’ll seem to be the most attentive, caring person in the world, and coax you to make them a confidant.

Knowing What Buttons To Push

Armed with emotionally intimate knowledge about you, abusers will use it to annoy, upset, or frustrate you whenever they please.

Threats

Abusers will make all sorts of threats, terrifying you into compliance as a result.

Acting Like You’re A Child

You are given no autonomy – your abuser will dictate what you can and cannot do, who you can befriend and who you cannot, and even what you’re allowed to eat.

10. Humiliation is Emotional Abuse

They’ll do anything to make sure you stay under their control – and belittling you is one of the most important tools they have in their toolbox.

Being Patronizing

They’ll often make you feel less intelligent than you really are by talking down on you, or dismiss subjects with the excuse that you wouldn’t understand it.

Jokes That Hit Hard

When in the company, they make jokes at your expense. It doesn’t matter if the jokes are based on facts or complete lies – they all serve to hurt you and make you appear foolish.

Sarcasm

Abusers will make all sorts of sarcastic remarks that are hurtful digs in disguise. They will later claim that they’re simply teasing you and that you’re taking things too seriously.

Public Humiliation

They’ll make a huge scene in public, doing their best to attract as big a crowd as possible so they can humiliate you in front of an audience.

Saying Everyone Hates You

They’ll twist your perception of reality, and make it seem as though the whole world wants nothing to do with you.

Walking Out

They may simply leave a situation or an argument. If this is a social event, it forces you to handle whatever problems they leave behind in their wake and cover for them. If it’s at home, it allows them to control the conversation on their own terms.

Final Thoughts On Some Behaviors That Reveal Emotional Abuse

Emotional abuse is covert. It can seem hidden or appear less serious than other forms of abuse. But abuse is not a competition, and all types of abuse are damaging to the victims. If you believe you may be in an emotionally abusive relationship, reach out for help at your local domestic violence help center or talk to trusted people who can help you.

Doctors Explain the Health Risks of 5G Technology

April 21, 2020 by Power of Positivity

Some doctors are warning the public about the possible health risks of 5G technology, but are their fears valid? This technology offers unprecedented communication speed and buying/selling options. Could this groundbreaking science carry unknown dangers to you and your family?

Remember when the days of communication consisted of a phone connected to a wall in your house? If you were traveling and needed to contact someone, you had to find a dime and a payphone. Today, you can use your 5G technology to call anyone or access the Internet on the go.

You probably depend on your cellphone more than you know. However, do you realize that doctors have debated whether the radio frequency radiation (RFR) it uses could harm your body? Will this revolutionary technology turn on us like the stolen fire of Prometheus?

Are you and your family using potentially hazardous phones, or are the concerns baseless? Some of the questions scientists and doctors ask about 5G technology and its validity.

What Is the 5th Generation of Mobile Technology?

Mobile communication technology was born in the late 1970s and is based on an analog system. It revolutionized the world of telecommunications and was dubbed 1G, or first generation. As communications advanced with the dawn of the Internet in the 80s, mobile technology switched to digital, and the world saw 2G or 2nd generation speeds.

In the 21st century, telecommunication developers introduced 3rd generation power and 4G in 2010. Nine years later, everyone was in a rush to try the newly released 5G technology. You probably have 5G with your mobile devices and eagerly await the 6th generation revelation.

Users worldwide depend on 5G mobile technology because of its high-speed, reliability, and ability to connect in a flash. It is the lifeline for global business, communication, and healthcare. When speed counts, 5G technology is the best to date.

How fast is 5G speed? Compared to 2G’s maximum speed of .2 megabytes per second, 5G can reach maximum speeds up to 10 gigabytes per second. The difference between the two is like comparing a snail to a race car.

5G Technology and Radiation

The components of mobile technology are quite complicated. Countless towers are set up worldwide to send and receive digital data at astronomical speeds. They connect to smaller towers, WIFI, and hotspots in businesses and homes.

None of this technology could be possible without radio waves, a part of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum. This radiation is an integral part of the universe and has been around us since the beginning.

Mostly, the radio waves that power mobile technology are benign. However, 5G requires more towers, antennas, and masts. Many medical experts are concerned that the increase in electromagnetic energy (EMFs) may be dangerous to us.

The Invisible Power of the Universe

Audiologists say that humans have a hearing range from 20 to 20,000 Hz, depending on the individual. Much higher and lower pitches go through your body every second that you can’t hear. When your dog is howling for no apparent reason, it is often because he hears sounds inaudible to you.

Did you know that you are bombarded by radioactive electromagnetic waves constantly? Your electronic devices receive these waves and transmit them to you in sounds and images. Could these dangerous waves be a silent hazard to your health?

How 5G Technology and Frequencies Can Affect You

Building on the work of his predecessors, Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity says that all matter is energy. This energy, he proved, can only be changed but never destroyed. Everything around you comes from energy, including your body.

High-frequency vibrations produce this energy. All things in the universe and every cell in the human body vibrates, although you are unaware of it. Universal vibrations can resonate or clash with each other.

Like a snowflake, everything has a unique vibration frequency. Depending on how the vibrations rate on the frequency spectrum, they can be beneficial or potentially harmful. Often, you don’t even realize it.

The speed which atomic particles vibrate determines their frequency, measured in hertz, or Hz. Faster particles produce higher frequencies, while lower ones vibrate slower. How these two works together depend if they are beneficial or hazardous to you.

The optimal frequency range for human safety

At optimal health, human cells have a frequency range between 62-75Hz. If your frequency gets lower than 62, it can resonate with low-frequency bacteria and viruses, causing sickness and disease. So, your well-being depends on frequency interaction.

Stress and environmental factors can lower your body’s frequency. Many health experts believe that overexposure to 5G power may also be detrimental. The imbalance of frequencies can be responsible for several health issues, they warn.

How to Keep Your Body at a High Frequency

Fortunately, there are things you can do to keep your frequency on the high end of the spectrum. Changes in your lifestyle can boost your energy field and make you less susceptible to disease.

Did you know that your thoughts and the things you say have energy? It’s little wonder that negativity causes your cell vibration to be sluggish, and you feel an energy slump. This negativity can affect the power around you, causing lower frequency and potential health issues.

1. Eliminate the Negatives

Boost your vibrations with positive thoughts. It may sound like a bunch of New Age myths, but it has scientific data behind it. There’s a reason we say we are feeling down or low. Our body recognizes these lower, disharmonic vibrations.

According to medical experts, stress is one of the top culprits for physical and mental disorders. It has a low vibration and brings your body in tune with it. While there is no such thing as a stress-free life, you can minimalize it with a higher-vibration mindset.

Do you notice how light and energetic you feel with a positive attitude? Being positive does not mean you are naïve. It means you choose to focus on positive elements in your world, thus raising your vibration frequency.

2. Improve Your Diet

Like everything else, food also has unique vibration frequencies. There is a reason that processed junk foods are bad for you. Their lower frequencies disrupt your cell frequency, which can cause weight gain and accompanying diseases.

Do you want to lose weight and feel better? Trade low-frequency junk food for whole, nutritious foods. Their atoms have a high vibration, bringing your body’s cell vibration where it needs to be. A healthy diet can boost your vibration and energize your whole body when it’s matched with regular physical activity.

3. Limit Your Exposure to High-Frequency 5G Technology

You probably wondered how you ever did without your mobile devices and the Internet. However, humans have survived for millennia and never had these recent inventions. Because of how our modern world is structured, it is nearly impossible not to use them in some form.

Think of how often your eyes are staring at a mobile device screen. Not only are you causing severe eye strain, but doctors warn that you could be over-exposed to potentially harmful radiation. These high-frequency electromagnetic energies are used and emitted by 5G power.

Scientific research demonstrates a correlation between certain cancers and other deadly diseases from this over-exposure. Since you keep your 5G cellphone and other mobile devices so close to your body regularly, you may be more at risk.

Other hazards:

Other potential hazards flagged by the medical community include proximity to cell phone towers and other transmitters. People who live close to these large towers often complain of unexplained illnesses and cancer. Some experts theorize that proximity to these powerful 5G emissions could be the culprit.

To be safe, consider limiting your time on your mobile devices. Consider setting technology-free times with your families, such as during meals or devoted family time. If you live near a cell phone tower, discuss it with your healthcare provider and stay current with your checkups.

Learn how to use your 5G mobile devices safely. Remember to keep your cell phone in your briefcase or purse. Limit how long you are on your devices, and don’t keep them close while you sleep.

While you can’t avoid 5G radiation entirely, purchasing an electromagnetic field home adapter can help. These EMF devices can be placed in your home or worn as an attractive piece of jewelry. They can do some to correct the hazardous radiation, but not all.

4. Spend Time Outdoors

Think of how energized you feel when you spend quality time outdoors with your family. Limited exposure to sunlight boosts your mood, helps your body produce Vitamin D, and kicks up your vibration energy.

Make your outdoor time as technology-free as possible and take in the beauty of your surroundings. You will have a good time with family and friends while reducing your exposure to 5G technology.

Final Thoughts: Use Sound Judgment Regarding 5G Technology

Before you panic, remember that other reputable studies downplay electromagnetic energy radiation’s potential hazards and health risks. Stay informed, talk to your doctor, and use common sense with your 5G mobile devices.

30 Life-Changing Benefits of Positivity Everyone Must Know

April 20, 2020 by Kristen Butler

Many of us have heard that there are benefits of positivity. But do we all know what the benefits are? And more importantly, do we believe in the power of positive thinking and understand how life-changing it can be? How we think impacts all aspects of our physical and mental health, our relationships, even our overall success in life.

How we think about life directly impacts our reality, for better or worse. And a multitude of scientific research has proven countless benefits of thinking positively. A study published in Emotion analyzed the current research surrounding positive affect and mental and physical health outcomes. The authors determined that “prioritizing positivity predicted a host of well-being outcomes.”

They found encouraging results, including “less depressive symptomology, higher-quality relationships, improved physical health, and better work performance.”

Plus, it concluded that people prioritizing positive emotions have more considerable mental resources.

The broaden-and-build theory explains how people who lack positive emotions become stuck in many facets of life. Furthermore, their feelings of not moving forward in life can cause a lot of mental health issues. Conversely, people with abundant positive emotions truly “take off” in life. Positive people “become generative, creative, resilient, ripe with possibility, and beautifully complex.” Each of these things helps positive people reach optimal well-being.

MYTHS PERPETUATED BY THOSE WHO REJECT POSITIVITY

Unfortunately, misunderstandings about positive thinking can lead some people to believe it is not practical. Thinking positively isn’t a useless nicety. And it doesn’t mean being fake or pretending to be okay when you are not. That thought process is a dangerous trap.

However, thinking positively means trying to remain optimistic about current and future situations. It is a deliberate, conscious way of thinking that directly impacts reality. You can find thirty life-changing benefits of positivity below.

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind. –William James

MENTAL HEALTH BENEFITS OF POSITIVITY

1) Increases Happiness and Life Satisfaction

Much scientific research has suggested that a positive attitude and outlook on life predicts happiness. Individuals who see the positive aspects of life are more likely to be happy and have higher life satisfaction. It is often the case that optimistic people have more friends, which can be an essential factor in happiness.

The authors of a recent study examined whether positive emotions alone mediate the relationship between positive affect and happiness. Their results revealed that happiness was fully mediated by a person’s ability to be positive. Specifically, showing that “positive beliefs about the future, the self, and the life account for personality-happiness relationships.”

2) Positivity Increases Resilience

An abundance of research has shown that individuals who think positively have superior coping skills, which leads to increased resilience. Psychological resilience can be defined as “the ability to bounce back from negative events by using positive emotions to cope.” So it makes sense that having an increased ability to think positively would, in turn, increase your resilience.

This study demonstrated that having more positive emotions plays a critical and direct role in enhancing coping ability and resilience. Researchers revealed that higher stability impacts a person’s physical health. They state, “those with higher trait resilience evidenced faster cardiovascular recovery from negative emotional arousal.”

3) Reduces Risk of Depression

Thinking positively about your current and future outcomes has been shown to increase happiness and decrease the risk of depression. Individuals with chronic health conditions have an incredibly high risk of developing depression. Much research helps counselors and therapists better understand how to minimize the risk of depression. More importantly, that is essential for those who treat chronically ill individuals.

One study examined “positive affect and optimism as mediators of the relationship between improved depression” among multiple sclerosis patients. Results demonstrated that improved depression and benefit-finding were significantly related to increased positive affect and optimism. This effect has also been observed in individuals who do not suffer from a chronic illness. This study revealed that high levels of positive affect reduced the risk of depression in healthy participants by nearly 50%.

4) Decreases Anxiety

Anxiety is a common and persistent mental health condition that impacts nearly 300 million people, reports the World Health Organization. Suffering from anxiety can negatively impact a person’s life, causing them to feel hindered in countless ways. There are various treatment options for individuals who suffer from anxiety.

One treatment option involves training to replace negative thoughts with positive ones. This study examined alternative approaches to reducing anxiety and worry in participants diagnosed with a generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Outcome measures showed that individuals who received training to improve positive thinking significantly decreased anxiety and worry.

5) Positivity Increases Mental Clarity, Focus, and Concentration

The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions explains how increasing positive emotions lead to many beneficial outcomes in an individual’s life. Among the many benefits, there is evidence that positive emotions “broaden the scopes of attention, cognition, and action.” Barbara L. Fredrickson, the creator, and developer of the broaden-and-build theory, explains how and why this phenomenon occurs.

“Positive emotions promote discovery of novel and creative actions, ideas and social bonds,” describes Fredrickson. She states that this “in turn, builds that individual’s personal resources.” All of which result in improved mental clarity, focus, and concentration.

6) Increases Gratitude

In several scientific studies, gratitude has improved overall well-being and mental health. Defining the mediating factor between improved gratitude and improved well-being and mental health is also essential. The authors of one research review analyzed eight studies examining the role of positive emotion and positive reframing on gratitude. Study results revealed that “positive emotion mediated the relationship between gratitude and (fewer) depressive symptoms.”

Each study’s results indicated that experiencing more positive emotions led to more gratitude and, consequently, less depressive symptoms. These study results “demonstrate that gratitude is related to fewer depressive symptoms.” Researchers state that positive emotion and reframing serve as the mechanisms for this relationship.

7) Increases Self-Esteem

When you think positively about yourself and your ability to accomplish things, you naturally increase your self-esteem. Various scientific studies have evaluated the relationship between positive thinking and higher self-esteem. This study demonstrated that the more a child thinks negatively about their abilities, the lower their self-esteem. The opposite is true, as well. The more positively you think about your abilities, your self-esteem will increase.

8) Decreases Risk of Mental Health Problems

In countless scientific studies, practicing positive thinking and optimism proves protective against developing mental health problems. The authors of a review of recent research analyzed studies that evaluated the impact positive thinking has on mental health. They reported the findings of numerous studies. Each study revealed that optimism and positive emotions improve overall well-being and mental health.

One of the reviewed studies assessed how individuals who had coronary bypass surgery impacted their mental health. Results demonstrated that more optimistic individuals had lower levels of hostility and depression while preparing to undergo surgery. And in the week following the operation, the optimistic people felt greater relief and happiness than the pessimists.

9) Decreases Levels of Stress

When you think positively, you have far fewer things to become stressed about. Consequently, you won’t have to worry about experiencing many negative outcomes caused by stress. Among the adverse effects of stress are high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, headaches, ulcers, and more. Increases in positive emotions, which lead to decreased stress levels, have even been shown to help heal physical wounds more quickly.

This is likely due to the stress-buffering model of positive affect and health. The authors of this scientific study published by Health Psychology assessed the impact of positive affect on wound healing. Remarkably, the skin wounds of individuals with higher levels of positive affect (i.e., more positive emotions) healed faster. This amazing result makes it clear that thinking positively can literally heal your body. Indeed, it may save your life one day.

10) Positivity Improves Coping Skills and Stress Management

One aspect of the ability of positive thinking to decrease stress involves positive people’s ability to better cope with stress. Many scientific research has proven that a person’s “affect plays an important functional role in coping with stress.”

Positive people can see the bigger picture when a stressor comes their way. And are therefore able to respond in ways that allow them to overcome the harmful consequences of stress more quickly. A positive person can maintain a healthy perspective on the situation at hand. And does not let the stressor that they are facing send them into a panic or downward spiral.

However, negative people are more likely to focus on problems instead of solutions and have a narrower perspective, in general. This results in a negative person having a poorer ability to cope with and manage stress.

11) Increases the Meaning a Person Sees in Life

Seeing meaning in life is a key factor in living a happy, healthy, and fulfilling life. Previous research surrounding this topic has shown that seeing meaning in life is associated with better overall psychological well-being. The authors of this research report evaluated the findings of six separate scientific studies that aimed to understand this concept better.

Each study “examined the role of positive affect (PA) in the experience of meaning in life (MIL).” The outcome measures of the studies consistently showed that positive affect was a strong predictor of meaning in life.

Additionally, priming and manipulating positive moods in participants both resulted in higher reports of meaning in life. And “the most consistent predictor of the experience of meaning in a day was the PA experienced that day.” Researchers concluded that experiencing positive moods and emotions can predispose individuals to see more meaning in life.

12) Improves Emotion Regulation

Emotion regulation is a vital aspect of having a healthy and successful life. A person’s emotional regulation ability directly impacts their coping, problem solving, relationship quality, as well as mental and physical health. When you can focus on the positive aspects of all things, you’re better able to respond to any situation, especially when faced with stress.

If you think negatively and see everything like a catastrophe, your emotions are more likely to spiral out of control. One study showed that individuals who had more positive than negative social interactions had better emotion regulation. With their improved emotion regulation likely mediated by the fact that they experience more positive than negative emotions.

13) Increases Mental Flexibility

Mental flexibility is important in a person’s life for various reasons. Mental flexibility affects an individual’s learning rate, memory formation, error correction, and allocation of attention resources. With advancements in neuroimaging technology, brain research scientists can now physically see differences between different human brains.

This technology also allows researchers to determine what is causing those differences. The authors of a recent study published in Scientific Reports evaluated what, exactly, leads to a more flexible brain. Their results revealed that more incidences of positive mood states predicted a more flexible brain, or in other words, more mental flexibility.

14) Improves Overall Mental Health

As we can see, thinking positively offers a wide range of mental health outcomes. As such, positive thinking and emotions can improve a person’s mental health overall. But how much positive emotion is needed in a person’s life to achieve these mental health-benefiting effects? Thankfully, two researchers had this very question and discovered the answer.

Their recent study predicted that a higher ratio of positive to negative emotions would “characterize individuals in flourishing mental health.” The data that researchers collected proved that the researcher’s prediction was true and revealed a precise ratio. Individuals who had a mean ratio of positive to negative emotions above 2.9 had flourishing mental health. And individuals who were below the 2.9 ratios of positive to negative emotions did not have flourishing mental health.

PHYSICAL HEALTH BENEFITS OF POSITIVITY

15) Improves Sleep

Insomnia is a common and persistent health concern that can negatively impact many aspects of your life. Suffering from insomnia is very serious and can lead to obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, anxiety, and depression.

Research shows that utilizing cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to increase positive thinking benefits sleep quality for individuals with insomnia. CBT improves mental health outcomes by challenging and changing unwanted, negative thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes. Replacing unproductive and frequently harmful ways of thinking with positive thinking. In fact, the authors of this study assessed the outcomes of fifteen scientific trials to determine the effectiveness of CBT for insomnia.

The results of the study revealed that CBT is effective in improving sleep in adults who have insomnia. If you struggle with insomnia thinking positively throughout the day can have a beneficial impact on your sleep quality. In addition to thinking positively, you can try breathing exercises to relieve insomnia and help you fall asleep.

16) Positivity Decreases Blood Pressure

Having high blood pressure affects nearly one billion people worldwide and increases the risk of numerous negative health outcomes. High blood pressure can even lead to an early and unexpected death. Consequently, many scientific studies resulted in a better understanding of how people can effectively lower their blood pressure.

One of these studies tested the hypothesis that “high positive emotion would be associated with lower blood pressure in older adults.” Researchers revealed that increasing positive emotions significantly lowered diastolic and systolic blood pressure in older adults.

17) Improves Immune System Functioning

Several scientific studies have revealed that optimistic expectancy and thinking positively are related to having higher numbers of immune cells. Having improved immunity can save us from many strife and missing out on life due to being sick. Increased immunity can also help to keep us from developing much more serious illnesses than the common cold. This study published by Psychological Science showed that having optimistic expectations was strongly related to having increased cell-mediated immunity (CMI).

18) Increases Lifespan

Decades of research have proven that positive emotions positively impact both physical and mental health. It, therefore, makes perfect sense that you can increase your lifespan by simply increasing your positive emotions. This longitudinal study evaluated the impact that positive emotions had on the lifespan of Catholic nuns. Researchers revealed that positive emotions linked strongly to a longer lifespan. The nuns who expressed positive emotions regularly during journal writing activities lived an average of 10 years longer.

19) Reduces Pain and Increases Pain Tolerance

Living with chronic pain is one of the worst things to endure. Being in constant physical pain can hurt nearly every aspect of your life. There are certainly some types of pain you should never ignore. But other types of pain can be helped by positive thinking. Previous laboratory research has shown that producing positive emotional states increases pain tolerance and reduces pain.

To add to that body of research, scientists evaluated the impact of positive online activities on pain reduction. Their results revealed that participating in online positive activities reduced bodily pain in adults with mild to moderate pain.

20) Reduces Risk of Death from Cardiovascular Disease

Many understand that higher stress levels increase your risk of developing cardiovascular disease. When a person is under stress, stress hormones release into the body. Over time, this causes damage to their cardiovascular system. Conversely, research has shown that dispositional optimism and positive outcome expectancies correlate to a lower risk of cardiovascular complications.

The authors of a consequential longitudinal study evaluated whether optimism and positive expectancies were independently related to reduced cardiovascular mortality. The data gathered over 15 years proved that optimism and positive expectations reduced the risk of cardiovascular death.

21) Improves the Outcome of Serious Physical Health Conditions

We now know that positivity can help to prevent you from becoming ill. And that being positive can also decrease the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. Additionally, positive attitudes have improved outcomes in individuals already suffering from a severe medical condition. Therefore, researchers also studied the impact of interventions that increase positive emotions in individuals diagnosed with breast cancer and HIV.

Individuals who think more positively and optimistically frequently have better health outcomes. On the other hand, having negative attitudes surrounding survival seems to increase death from a serious medical condition. The authors of one study that demonstrated this assessed whether attitudes toward illness are associated with survival after a stroke.

Results revealed that a person’s attitude regarding their illness was associated with the survival rate in stroke victims. Patients who thought negatively and felt nothing they could do to help themselves had a lower survival rate.

22) Positivity Improves Cholesterol and Triglyceride Levels

Having healthy cholesterol levels improves your health immensely and can help to protect you from developing cardiovascular disease. Most of us know that a healthy diet and regular exercise are important for controlling our cholesterol levels.

However, having an optimistic attitude also connects with having a healthy lipid profile (i.e., healthy cholesterol levels). The authors of one study assessed the impact that optimism and positive affect had on an individual’s cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Their results revealed that having higher optimism and positivity was correlated with healthier cholesterol and triglyceride levels.

23) Decreases Risk of Heavy Substance Use

Heavy use of any addictive substance can lead to long-term physical health problems and even death. Not to mention the negative impact that heavy substance use is known to have on mental health and relationships. Young people are at an exceptionally high risk of experiencing negative outcomes due to heavy substance use.

Fortunately, research shows us that positive attitude and outlook on life decreases adolescents’ risk of heavy substance use. One longitudinal study assessed the impact of optimistic thinking on 5,634 adolescent’s emotional states, substance use, and behavior. Their data showed that high optimism and positive emotions had protective effects against heavy substance use.

24) Decreases Risk of Frailty During the Aging Process

Frailty describes a person’s impaired strength, endurance, and balance. Frailty increases an individual’s risk of experiencing physical trauma and other stressors, including disability, morbidity, and mortality. Preventing or delaying the onset of frailty is essential in improving a person’s physical health and lifespan. This study published in Psychology and Aging assessed the long-term association between positive affect and the onset of frailty. Results revealed that high positive affect (i.e., positive emotions) significantly lowered the risk of frailty.

25) Improves Athletic Performance

We now understand how positive thinking and attitudes can improve our physical health and abilities. It, therefore, makes sense that positive thinking can also improve athletic performance. Several scientific studies have demonstrated this effect, including this study about the impact of positivity on an athlete’s performance.

Results demonstrated a significant relationship between an athlete’s levels of optimism, positive emotions, and athletic performance. Specifically, soccer players with more optimistic attitudes showed better athletic performance than pessimistic soccer players.

Another study assessed the ability of a positive psychological development program to improve the swimming abilities of national-level swimmers. The program aimed to increase the professional swimmer’s ability to think positively, including optimistic disposition and positive affect development. Results revealed a significant improvement in the swimming strokes of those who participated in the program, including positive thinking.

HOW POSITIVITY BENEFITS RELATIONSHIPS AND OVERALL SUCCESS

26) Improves Leadership Skills

Positive thinkers have an improved ability to make the right decisions in high-pressure situations compared to pessimists. Positive thinking allows a person to focus on solutions instead of the problem and potential obstacles. And as explained above, positive thinkers tend to have more mental clarity, concentration, and focus. Therefore, positive people make much better leaders. Furthermore, positive leaders are perceived as more trustworthy and competent.

27) Increases the Chance of Career Advancement and Financial Success

As explained above, positive thinkers have improved leadership skills and remain positive, even in stressful situations. Consequently, companies are much more likely to hire a positive person for a leadership role. This increases their chances of career advancement and financial success. Dr. Martin Seligman conducted more than 30 years of research demonstrating this outcome with over 1 million study participants.

The analysis of Seligman revealed that a person’s optimistic expectations and positive attitude led to superior achievement in sales. Confident and positive salespeople have been proven to sell more and have higher incomes than negative salespeople. Seligman concluded that this is because a positive person has the persistence that they need to overcome adversity.

28) Increases Productivity and Work Performance

There have been many economic and workplace changes over the past few decades. Many of these changes are not for the best and have negatively impacted both employees and companies. One aspect of positive psychology is understanding how to use positivity for better employment outcomes at work.

The authors of one article evaluated how utilizing positive psychology could improve the workplace, including employee productivity and job performance. Results revealed that when motivation is externally controlled, increased positive emotions are likely to be associated with increased motivation. The data demonstrated that enhancing experiences of positive emotions result in increases in productivity and better performance outcomes.

29) Increases Success Rates in Relationships

Much scientific research has shown that positive people are more successful in marriage and friendship, among other things. The authors of this review of research analyzed numerous studies that assessed whether or not positive affect increased relationship success. The results revealed, “that happiness is associated with and precedes numerous successful outcomes, as well as behaviors paralleling success.”

Additionally, the evidence showed that positive affect, a critical factor in well-being, directly impacts a person’s increased happiness and relationship success. This is because positive emotions and attitudes increase satisfaction. And happy people have more fulfilling and satisfying marriages. Generally, researchers state that these findings “generalize to other romantic relationships” and also to friendships.

30) Increases Ability to Forgive

Forgiveness is an essential aspect of any successful relationship. Furthermore, forgiveness has a direct impact on mental health. Previous research links a person’s ability to forgive and improved mental health. Additionally, a connection between positivity and forgiveness resulted from the study.

The authors of a study published by The Journal of Social Psychology state that affective states mediate the relationship between forgiveness and mental health. Specifically, having more positive emotions allows someone to be able to forgive which leads to improved mental health more quickly. Researchers state that “forgiveness involves replacing the negative emotions associated with unforgiveness with positive, love-based emotions.” They explain “that it is through this transformation of emotional states that forgiveness affects physiological functioning.”

FINAL THOUGHTS ON THE BENEFITS OF POSITIVITY

Positivity works wonders.

Decades of scientific research have clarified that positive emotions and attitudes bring many benefits. Thinking positively proves to benefit our mental and physical health, as well as our relationships and careers. With so many studies demonstrating how powerful positive thinking is, who wouldn’t want to cultivate and practice using positive thinking today?

Like any life skill, consistently learning to think positively will take time and practice. But as this article has demonstrated, it is worth doing for countless reasons. Of course, nobody expects you to be positive every single second of every single day. No one can do that. Even the happiest and most positive people have moments in which they feel and express hopelessness and negativity. That is a part of the human condition. But the more you can incorporate positivity into your daily routines, the more beneficial outcomes you will see.

Here at the Power of Positivity, we want to do everything we can to help everyone live happy, healthy, and prosperous lives. And as the research in this article proves, having a positive outlook can help you accomplish this.

The Community

Our Free Community of Positively Powerful SuperFans

Every day is a day to shine. Shine on!