Is Your Glass Half Full or Half Empty?

Dr. Rebecca Muminovic with her son

You all know the one. The person that no one wants to ask, “How was your weekend?” or “How did your party go?” because the answer is always some version of the same story. “Well it started off okay but then on my way to the store I got a flat tire and then when I bent over to change it I tore my favorite pair of jeans.

Then if that wasn’t bad enough when I finally got to the store they were out of what I had came for and when I got home the power had gone out and I broke a heel getting up the front steps in the dark only to find that the dog had peed all over the floor.” Yada, yada, yada. In fact even if she won the lottery she would likely say something like, “Sure it sounds all great, but after taxes I hardly get anything!”

Besides being incredibly annoying to all of her family and friends, this woman, studies have shown is likely to get sicker and have a higher risk of future health decline including heart disease which is the number one killer of men and women in the U.S. today. In fact, optimism reduces risk of recurrent heart attack after a first heart attack and accelerates recovery after bypass surgery (Das S, O”Keefe JH 2006).

Another interesting study in nearly 1000 people from the Netherlands showed that optimistic people (as measured by the Dutch Scale of Subjective Well-being for Older Persons testing) had less than 25% of the risk for heart attack as pessimistic people (Giltay EJ et al 2004). These examples are just the tip of the iceberg, but they illustrate my point vividly.

So what is it about pessimism that is so bad for you? Likely it is the stimulation of stress hormone production, higher blood pressures; imbalance of clotting factors, amongst numerous other factors that all play into the actual change in body physiology that negativity creates. These facts should say one thing loud and clear to you…What you think and what you feel creates your reality and that affects your health. So now ask yourself, what reality are you creating? Even if you saw only a small piece of yourself in the women above, now is the time to transform that part.

No one is perfect without a negative thought or feeling, but try to turn negative situations or thoughts into positive ones. For example, not long ago I was at the grocery store and was late getting home. Naturally as I approached the stoplight near my home, the train rail guards starting flashing and lowering as I heard a train approaching.

Crap! At first I was upset thinking that I would be late and my husband would be upset, but then I took the moment to close my eyes and take a few deep breathes and say, “everything happens for a reason.” Once the train had passed I made my way home to find my husband changing one of the scariest diapers my son has had to date. Quietly, I knew that train delay had saved me, little did I know at the time!

So ladies, take your life in stride and know that when you show your children to do the same you are giving them life skills that will make them happy, healthy, and well adjusted. As always, I will shout it from the mountain top…TAKE TIME FOR YOURSELF! If you don’t take care of yourself first you cannot take care of others. Taking care of your body, mind, and spirit will teach your children to do the same as they grow into accomplished fulfilled adults.