A bit of a follow on from last week’s blog on Mind Facts………
I heard about two stories this week that captured my interest,
The first was that wealthier people live longer and the gap is growing – surprised??
The second was an interview with a French woman who had lived to 122 and her ‘secrets’ to living a long life.
Reading her story, she said that she never did anything special to stay in good health, she smoked, drank port and ate chocolate almost every week until she was 119 years old!
So, what did she credit her long life to? Laughing lots and not getting stressed out, “if you can’t do anything about it, don’t worry about it” was her motto.
Wow, that really makes you think, doesn’t it? Is thought more important, or as important, as lifestyle?
We’ve all got a story to tell of someone we know, or we’ve heard about, who lived an apparently healthy life, exercised, went to the gym, didn’t smoke or drink excessively, ate well but dropped dead from a heart attack at a relatively young age. Why? Because they were stressed, they couldn’t/didn’t control their thoughts!
Now, I’m definitely not saying let’s all rush out and smoke, drink, and eat junk food…..because that is a slippery road towards an early demise……but I think what is startlingly obvious is that we must must look after our minds! We need to learn how to deal with stress, how to help ourselves when our minds spiral out of control with worry (usually over things that are NOT true!), as this has been shown over and over again by the scientific field of psychoneurocardiology.
Simply put, do not discount the impact that thought has on your health. Yes, focus on your nutrition, exercise and to some extent your genetics, but, if your are not thinking ‘happy thoughts’, if you are not taking care of you mind………well, the evidence is there for us all to read!
Which brings me back to the first point, wealthier people live longer…….yep, well, fairly obvious really, those of us that have more wealth, have more choice, have more comfort, have more in general, have less mental stress. Scarcity, real or otherwise, creates huge amounts of stress in people, scarcity of wealth, health, love, fulfilment all leads to stress. No, money doesn’t buy happiness, but lack of it, or perceived lack of it, does create enormous stress (thoughts) in people’s lives – the poor die younger.
The lovely French lady who lived till she was 122 was born and then married into wealth 🙂
You may well think that not everything in your life is perfect, but why not turn things around and write down a list that is good – things that have made you happy today, things that you are grateful for. For the next few weeks, write 3 things down every single day that do just that and see how much happier you feel 🙂
It’s your choice where you turn your focus, so if you want to live a longer, healthier life, focus on happy thoughts!