PRINCE Bhojwani never thought of himself as a negative person, until three trips to the hospital in one month forced him to reconsider.
“I started looking at the world very differently, literally the next day,” said Bhojwani, who lives in New York City. He started meditating and taking a moment every morning to feel grateful to be alive. He also found purpose by co-founding a nonprofit, Asana Voices, a South Asian advocacy organization.
Optimism in itself is hardly a cure-all, but numerous studies over the decades have demonstrated a link between a positive outlook and good health outcomes. She was the lead author on a 2022 study that found optimism associated with longer life spans and a greater chance of living past 90. In another study, published in May in JAMA Psychiatry, she and other researchers said optimists generally maintained better physical functioning as they aged. They looked at 5,930 postmenopausal women over a 6-year period.
“Even if you were not born with this natural disposition to anticipate favorable outcomes and see the glass as half full, there are skills that you can learn,” Varma said.Try to reframe the thought in an objective manner. “Is there a silver lining? Is this a problem to be solved or a truth to be accepted?” said Varma, noting that her book builds upon the work of Martin Seligman, one of the fathers of positive psychology.