The power of positive thinking
Written by Michelle Albert
Like quite a few other Americans, I spent some time over the holidays traveling. At one national hotel chain, I spotted a banana sitting on the top of the clean linens in the cleaning cart. The banana reminded me of a recent study by Harvard psychologists of cleaning personnel in the Boston area. These scientists found that simply by giving the cleaning personnel positive messages about the health benefits of their jobs, the cleaning women (yes, they were all women) lost a few pounds and lowered their blood pressure when compared to a control group that didn’t receive such a positive message. What’s the point? While all these women are engaged in a job with lots of physical activity, the effect seems clear: The way we think of our activities seems to play a role in the benefits we get from them. So the next time you are climbing your stairs with bags of groceries in hand, remind yourself that this is a healthy activity.
How can you encourage positive thinking in your daily environment? Try posting a reminder at the base of the stairs: "Stairs = Exercise = Healthy!"
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"Love, beauty and compassion appear when the self ceases to exist" Jiddu Krishnamurti.