We all know that it feels great when we are happy, but how many of us realize that a true feeling of happiness is a necessary ingredient when it comes to a healthier life? Many studies indicate that happiness plays a major role in your health, whether it’s living a healthy lifestyle or reducing the amount of chronic pain – happiness is the solution to many health woes.
According to studies, happier people are almost twice as likely to eat more fresh vegetables than people who state that they are not happy. Obviously eating more produce will automatically improve your health over eating a diet high in processed food.
When you provide your cells with cleaner fuel (i.e. more nutrients from ceggies), you usually end up with more energy. It’s hard to imagine, but studies show that being negative or sad can literally drain your energy lebels, while being happy can give you more energy.
Eating better, moving more, and feeling happy will also increase your ability to fight off illness and disease because it improves your immunity. A study showed that people who experience more happiness tend to fight off illness faster than people who feel sad more. They literally gave people the cold virus and the happy people were three times less likely to catch the cold.
If you’re happy, you’ll have a lot less to keep you up at night, to worry about, and therefore you’ll end up with less stress. However, it goes farther than that because happy people tend to report less stress even when they are facing stressful events. Due to the strength that happiness gives you, you’ll experience less stress.
Happier people have been shown to have better heart health overall. This m akes sense when you consider that depression is linked to many cardiovascular disorders. Happieness brings lower heart attack risk, stroke, or other issues related to heart health and the cardiovascular system.
Because you’re eating right, exercising more, and you’re feeling great about life, you will likely live longer. According to one long-term study that tracked the lives of 32,000 people to find out who lived longer, the people who reported happiness, or the people who reported being less happy. It's not surprising that happy people tend to live 14 percent longer on average.
People who have chronic pain have a right to be angry or feel sad about it. However, the fact is people who report being happy tend to deal with their chronic pain (and other illness) better than those who were not happy to start with.
When you are happy, you’re more likely to eat right, drink enough water, and move. It’s mostly because you have more energy to do active things. If you are having difficulty maintaining your happiness, learn how easy it is to change your mindset. Happiness has nothing to do with your circumstances but everything to do with how you choose to react to them. Remember, perception always equals reality!