Positive emotions are proven to open our awareness. And when our awareness is expanded, we not only literally see more, we also see more possibilities and we’re more creative.

Sounds good to me!

Watch this video of Barbara Fredrickson from Greater Good Science Center to learn more.

Joy Matters

One of my favorite magazines is Ode, the magazine for intelligent optimists. In their September issue was an article by Mary Desmond Pinkowish about why joy matters. Here’s a brief excerpt, but I think you’ll want to read the whole article on Ode’s website.

Optimism 2.0

How an optimistic outlook can help improve your state of health, not just your state of mind.
Optimism can protect against depression and anxiety disorders and promote emotional resilience. Optimists are physically healthier than pessimists, and they recover faster from conditions like heart disease. Optimism can help us cope more effectively with stress, and affects the immune system in ways that are largely beneficial. Plus, most people prefer the company of optimists. Compared to pessimists, they have more friends and are more likely to have wide social networks, which confer additional health benefits.

Thanks, Ode!

Happy people live longer, have better immune systems and resist disease more effectively. Being joyful, then, is a direct path to being healthy.

And when we’re happy and healthy we make choices that continue to support that health and happiness–it’s a wonderful cycle that ripples out and inspires others to make happy, healthy choices.

To that end, we’d like to offer resources to reinforce and encourage you in your journey to leading a happy, healthy, love-filled life.

Our first partner in this effort is Eric Robert. One of his many gifts is Distance Healing.

Quantum Physics and Distance Healing

Quantum physics has shown that at it’s very core, everything in the universe is made up of energy.  What appears to be solid–the chair, the table, your body–is actually tiny particles of energy moving at imperceptible speeds around empty space. At the quantum level, matter and energy are interchangeable.

Healing bodies through the movement of energy has been practiced for thousands of years by many Eastern cultures. Energy healing, or clearing, is becoming more and more appreciated in our Western culture and has been known to improve mental and physical health for many.

As part of our mission to spread joy, optimism and inspiration to millions, The Joy Team and Eric Robert  invite you to join in a very special remote clearing of energy: Distance Healing.

Visit the Distance Healing page to learn more and register for the December 5, 2010 healing; which you can participate in from wherever you are in the big, wide world.

Joy Matters

Joy matters.  We know that. Jeanie Miley knows it too.

Admittedly, some people are temperamentally more inclined toward happiness than others, but I’m seeing more and more that being happy has a lot to do with the choices I make, day by day. I’m seeing how much my moods affect those with whom I am in contact, conversation or communication and theirs, mine. I am taking it on as a moral responsibility and a sacred duty to cultivate my own inner happiness and to convey that happiness to others.

Jeanie writes for the San Angelo Standard-Times.  In her article Think of happiness not just as a pursuit, but as a duty, she talks about how she notices the different ways happy people talk to and treat others–and the difference that makes to everyone around them. It’s worth a read.  And yet another reminder of how joy matters.

Painted bus shelter in Vancouver, WA

Being happy has been credited with many things: improved physical health, longer life, and better mental health to name a few. Recent research shows that feeling joyful can also improve race relations by erasing some effects of racial bias.

A study published by Kareem J. Johnson and Barbara L. Fredrickson shows that feeling happy can eliminate what’s called “own-race bias.” Own-race bias is the phenomenon of being less able to distinguish the differences in people of other races than you are of people in your own race. (You may have heard the phrase, “They all look the same to me.”)

The study notes that previous research proved those with a positive affect are known to be more inclusive and see more similarities between social groups, as opposed to seeing more differences. To translate these findings to race, four short videos were used to induce feelings of joy, fear or neutrality and participants viewed 56 faces of mixed races in random order, half of which they had previously been shown, and asked if they recognized them.

The results showed an own-race bias remained in groups with induced fear or neutrality. But the groups with induced joy showed that positive emotions can eliminate own-race bias. Which is to say that happy people recognized faces of other races at the same rate they recognized faces of their own race.

That’s pretty awesome.

So, what does all this mean, really? Here’s a hypothesis: happy people = inclusive people + happy people = racially unbiased people, so more happy people = more accepting society: thus proving happiness really can change the world.

Yep. Sounds about right to me.

Happiness does not heal, but happiness protects against falling ill. As a result, happy people live longer. The size of the effect on longevity is comparable to that of smoking or not.

Read the article on Science Daily about the study published in the Journal of Happiness Studies.

Feelings of happiness and optimism play a positive role against breast cancer. Research suggests that while staying positive has a protective role, adverse life events such as the loss of a parent or close relative, divorce or the loss of a spouse can increase a woman’s risk of developing the disease.

Read the article on Science Daily about the study by Ronit Peled from the Faculty of Health Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.

Feeling better about the future might help you feel better for real. In a new study, psychological scientists Suzanne Segerstrom of the University of Kentucky and Sandra Sephton of the University of Louisville studied how law students’ expectations about the future affected their immune response. Their conclusions: Optimism may be good for your health.

Read the article in Science Daily.