Happy Thoughts = Good Health

Looking back on her long life, 73-year-old Judy Rubens thinks she has always been a pretty sunny person.

Losing at a game never fazed her, she consciously tried to be friendly to everyone, and she always had a bright smile on her face — both to keep her spirits up and to cheer up those around her.

But that smile was tested mightily in 2008 when she underwent back surgery that left her paralyzed from her waist to her ankles. Months of grueling physical therapy left her exhausted and in pain — but where others might find good reason to give in to self-pity — Rubens reveled in the discomfort.

"When the pain was greatest, I knew that I was healing," the Fort Myers, Fla., resident tells Newsmax. "I would get the shooting pains down my legs and I didn’t mind it. I knew that meant that the nerves were coming back. Without that pain, I wasn’t healing."

In study after study, this remarkable ability to take a negative and see it as a positive has been a hallmark of an optimistic personality. And now scientists are discovering that being optimistic can actually make you mentally and physically healthier.

Check out these eye-opening benefits:

• Dutch researchers studied almost 1,000 senior citizens and found that the most optimistic among them had a 55 percent lower chance of dying from all causes and a 23 percent lower risk of cardiovascular death.

• A study at the University of Kentucky among 124 incoming law students found that when the students were more optimistic, their immune system got stronger.

• Other research has shown high levels of optimism linked with better recovery from heart transplants and heart bypass surgery, protection from stroke risk, and even delayed onset of frailty among the elderly.

• A University of Pennsylvania study found that incoming freshmen who participated in a series of workshops aimed at helping them cultivate a positive outlook lowered their risk of suffering moderate or severe depression.

"There is good evidence to suggest optimism is protective and that pessimism seems to be detrimental when it comes to the development of disease and future outcomes," said Laura Kubzansky, an associate professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, in a 2010 Washington Post article. "But what’s a little less clear is what the mechanisms are, or how that protective effect occurs."

Bottom line: Pessimists and optimists see the world differently, according to Martin Seligman, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on optimistic thinking.

Seligman says pessimists tend to believe they’re to blame when bad things happen and that these bad things will persist and ruin other events in their lives — an "I pigged out at a party last night because I have no willpower, and I will never lose weight" syndrome.

Optimists, on the other hand, see setbacks as temporary: "I overate last night, but I was celebrating with good friends, and I can still lose weight this week if I just buckle down."

Regardless of which camp a person falls into, Seligman and others assert that people can actually learn optimism. When a person constantly strives to catch themselves being negative — then stops momentarily — and changes the negative thought into a positive one, eventually this learned behavior will take over and they will find themselves being optimistic more often and more naturally.

Tina Haisman is certified life coach in Chicago and works with clients on recognizing negative thoughts and attitudes and helps them begin to change this behavior.

"The key to happiness for all of us is in our own minds," Haisman tells Newsmax. "You have the power to make your life what you want it to be. It’s all in how you choose to look at things."

Optimism is, of course, not a cure-all. There are times when it’s inappropriate and even impossible to find the bright side of something. That’s OK.

Optimists have dark moments fraught with concern and worry too. But these thoughts don’t apply to everything that happens, and they don’t last. Cliché as it is, the "sun will come out tomorrow" and optimists recognize this.

One of the thoughts that motivated Rubens during her recovery was the desire to travel with her husband, Len. Eleven months after her devastating surgery and paralysis, Rubens was walking well enough to take a long-awaited trip.

"We took a cruise into the Caribbean and it was wonderful,” Rubens said, her voice filling with emotion. "I danced with my husband. I just looked up at him and the tears rolled. I said, 'Look, just look!' and he said, ‘We are so blessed.'"