Could saying “thank you” help you to live longer?
For many decades, behavioral cardiology studied only the impact of so-called “negative traits”—such as stress, depression, and anxiety—on people with cardiovascular disease. The field got its start in the late 1950s with the work of cardiologists Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman, who found that “Type A” behavior—characterized by hostility, time urgency, and competitiveness—doubled the risk of coronary heart disease. Over the next five decades, thousands of studies showed that such negative traits are adversely associated with disease and mortality in cardiac patients.
But what about the impact of positive traits? Could they conversely improve cardiovascular health?
That’s what we’ve been working to understand in our own research, focusing specifically on gratitude—which is, according to U.K. researcher Alex Wood, part of a wider life orientation towards noticing and appreciating the positive aspects of life. Studies to date indicate that feelings of gratitude (or of awe or compassion) facilitate perceptions and cognitions that take people who are ill beyond their illness, helping them to recognize positive aspects of themselves and the people around them in the face of disease. Some studies have noted that cultivating gratitude doesn’t necessarily reduce seeing the negative features of life—people seem to have no trouble seeing the bad stuff—but rather often encourages people to more readily acknowledge the good things in life.
[For more on this story by PAUL J. MILLS, LAURA REDWINE, go to https://greatergood.berkeley.e..._good_for_your_heart]
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