Healthy Happy Hour: Brio

Healthy, Happy Hour: Claim Jumpers

Eat Drink And Be Happy!

How much time and effort do you put in each week trying to take the right vitamins, choosing just the right food to eat, pumping up the right exercises, and reading the right health articles, books and magazines?  How much time do you spend on trying to lose a few pounds?  You probably would not be reading this magazine or article if you didn’t think about these things and I bet you really don’t have the answers you think you should have by now.

I’m sure you can come up with a reasonable time estimate.

 Now ask yourself how much time and effort do you spend on improving your mental health, adjusting your moods, and improving your relationships?  How much do you really think about your life?

Living a long life may have to do with a combination of genetics and a healthful lifestyle.  Sorry to say that you may not be lucky enough to live a long life-but you may as well live as happy and healthy as possible with the time you have here.

Research is emerging with indications that obsessions with Cholesterol levels, body mass index, and strict or restricted diet may not be as important to health and longevity, as is our mental state of mind.  A less stressed, depression free, happier life, the research says, will increase your chances for living longer.

Positive feelings, happier moods, and laughter appear to have more direct rewards to health than constantly being concerned with losing a few pounds, counting calories, eating or not eating carbs, and dropping cholesterol points.

Taking more pleasure in life sounds a lot better to me than trying out the latest health guru nag.  Being Merry, seems to add more healthy years to your life.

The high paced modern lifestyle we live leaves us little or no time for each other, our kids, or ourselves.  We need to work a lot to buy the things we need to make us happy!  The stress cycle begins here and we can’t seem to get off.  Sudden death from heart disease can be more common in people with certain stress reactions and personalities rather than those who have high cholesterol.  But getting happy may be as much work as a treadmill run for some, and for others, (and I hope that you are among them) may be easier than it seems.

What Defines Happiness?

What defines happiness is the question that psychology and psychiatry have been constantly struggling with.  But I don’t think happiness can be defined by a scientific method.  Yet some research on the matter of happiness supports the concept that happy people live longer.

Pessimism can increase the risk of early death.  That is a conclusion of a 70 year long study by the University of Michigan which followed schoolchildren in 1921, well into their 80’s.  Pessimists were defined as fatalistic folks who tended to blame themselves when things went wrong, and who believed that one bad event could control and ruin the rest of their lives. Science statistics again concluded that they ran a higher risk of illness and shorter lives.

Happier is Healthier!

Let’s discuss current research and scientific data that supports the happier is healthier phenomena.  What does science really know about happiness and joy?  Not much after surveying the last thirty years of psychology journals.  Scientists of the mind focus on pathology and disease, so nobody makes a study of happiness unless it is classified as a disease.  There is hope on the horizon since recent leadership at the American Psychological Association wants to refocus research on the study of normal people, not just the abnormal.

Stress kills!

We may not know much about happiness, but we sure know that Stress is a common denominator for not being so happy or healthy.  Stress and its chemical reaction and manifestations of the body and mind are widely researched and have virtually concluded that stress causes illness and early death.

Life seems more hectic by the hour, and we are all STRESSING OUT!  This age of technology, electronic and mechanical wonders allows us to do tasks in seconds that took our ancestors hours, weeks, and even years to accomplish.  Yet rather than having more leisure time to enjoy ourselves, we are required to do even more in response to the demands.

Not only does anger and resentment build under stress, noteable behavioral changes occur.  Increased drinking and smoking, lack of sleep, risky sexual behaviors, poor diet, and less exercise are all noted behavioral changes that occur when one is highly stressed.  This affects the immune system which is in direct control of your health and longevity.

Immune or not Immune?

Dr. Arthur Stone of the State University of New York at Stony Brook found that the positive effects on the immune system of a pleasant experience persisted longer than did the negative effects of a stressful event.  Criticism by the boss can drop the bottom out of your immune system.  But fishing or a pleasant family experience will give your immune system a boost that lasts far longer than the downturn after your boss’s ragging.  Stone found that criticism at work weakened the immune system for the day, but that having friends over for a fun activity enhanced the immune system for two days.

                 Having more of the good stuff far outweighs the bad.

What can we do?  The answer comes in avoiding those behaviors that science is beginning to find can make you unhealthy and miserable: Stress-Anger-Hostility-Exhaustion-Depression-and loss of control.

These are among the traits that have been linked to disease and early death.

 Keep up the pleasure in your life, especially when stress is on the increase. Eat, drink and be merry (happy).  Don’t obsess about things you can’t control and be smart about the things you can.   Cleanse your body to release the onslaught of chemicals we are exposed to from the outside (environment/foods) and inside (stress).

And remember that we are all unique in our genetics and have different psychological states of mind, so in this, as in all things, beware of the one approach-fits-all guru philosophy.

Dance, laugh, spread the love, live long and prosper!

For more information on this article and to find out more about cleansing for health, contact A Gentle Cleanse at 407-2510.  www.agentlecleanse.com