How to Handle Challenging Life Changes

Participation in several social groups was once thought to just complicated our lives and cause stress. But new research proves that being part of social networks actually enhances our mental and physical resilience, enabling us to=> better handle challenging life changes. 

And it even seems that memberships in social groups also increases our physical well-being. There is even evidence that membership in multiple social groups and networks are a predictor of well-being equal to that of diet and exercise.

A study of 655 stroke patients by Bernadette Boden-Albala, professor of sociomedical sciences and neurology at Columbia University, found that patients who were socially isolated are twice as likely to have another stroke within five years, compared to those with meaningful social relationships.  Being cut off from others seems to increase the risk of another stroke even more than being physically inactive, which increases the likelihood of a second stroke by about 30 percent.

Such effects are not restricted to those who have a significant health problem. In a 2008 study epidemiologists and health researchers Karen Ertel, Maria Glymour and Lisa Berkman of the Harvard School of Public Health tracked 16,638 elderly Americans over a period of six years. The findings, published in the American Journal of Public Health, revealed significantly less memory loss in those who were more socially integrated and active.

An earlier study by psychologist Sheldon Cohen of Carnegie Mellon University demonstrated that a diverse social network even makes people less susceptible to the common cold. Their work, published in Psychological Science, reported  that the least sociable people in their sample were twice as likely to get colds as those who were the most sociable, even though the more sociable people were likely exposed to more germs.

Such discoveries take us beyond the old debate about body-mind dualism, which explores the nature of the link between physical and mental health. There is now compelling evidence that the health risk of social isolation is equal to the risks of smoking, high blood pressure and obesity.

Hermits beward. To handle both mental and physical serious life changes such as illness, financial loss, or even loss of a mate, it seems one of the best answers is to build a broad social support network.

Want to Look and Feel Younger?

Imagine rewinding the clock 20 years. How do you feel?  Well if you’re at all like the subjects in a Harvard University research project, you look and feel two decades younger, as though you managed to stop aging and go backward.

Several years back Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer studies a group of elderly men, retrofitting an isolated old New England hotel so that every visible sign said it was 20 years earlier. The men — in their late 70s and early 80s — were told not to reminisce about the past, and actually act as if they had traveled back in time. Her desire was to see if changing the men’s mindset about their age might lead to measurable changes in health and fitness.

Langer’s findings were remarkable:  After just one week, the experimental group had increased joint flexibility and dexterity, and less arthritis in their hands. Their mental acuity had also improved, as did their gait and posture. When shown the men’s photographs, outsiders  judged them to look younger than their actual age. It seemed the they had managed to stop aging, and to some degree actually look and feel younger.

Langer has since been running similar “stop aging” experiments for years, and the accumulated weight of her evidence is convincing. Her theory, argued in her new book, Counterclockwise,  is that we are all victims of our own stereotypes about aging and health.

She says we all just mindlessly accept negative cultural cues about disease and old age, and these cues shape our self-concepts and our behavior. If we can shake loose from the negative clichés that dominate our thinking about health, Langer tells us, we can look and feel far younger than our actual years, and to some degree stop aging.

Editor’s Note: Your levels of the Human Growth Hormone (HGH) are  key to supporting healthy longevity.  HGH is a natural restorative hormone that is released when your brain is relaxed enough to create very slow, deep Delta brainwave frequencies. There is an online respource — the Quantum Mind Power Gym — that contains engineered brainwave entrainment audios that guide your brain into the Delta brainwaves required for HGH release. The system in directly available from your computer=> Check it out

Can Emotions Boost Your Immunity?

You’re familiar with your 5 basic physical senses: sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing. And you also know about your sixth sense – intuition. But… scientists now tell us we have a 7th sense -  our immune system. And it actually talks directly to the brain. Here’s how it works, and how to use your emtoions to boost your immunity.

A Very Brief History
Back in the 1970′s a Harvard study provided the first scientific evidence that our immune system is directly affected by moods and emotions. The evidence came in the form of the discovery that our immune cells contain neuropeptides – the brain chemicals connected to our emotions.

Immune system research has since taken off, and is today known as psychoneuroimmunology PNI.

A Surprising Two-Way Highway
Today PNI research has confirmed that every part of our immune system is connected to the brain in some way -either by a direct nerve connection, or through the brain’s chemical language of neuropeptides and hormones.

There is actually a two-way highway between the immune system and brain. The immune system acts as an emotional sensory system. It receives information about our emotions FROM the brain, and also sends its own signals back TO the brain. And these immune system signals then directly alter our behavior, thoughts and moods.

The brain and the immune system are actually part of a single, fully integrated defense mechanism. Dr Candice Pert, a neuroscientist who pioneered early body-mind research, says: I can no longer make a clear distinction between the brain and the body.

Moods and our Immune System
As a result of this two-way highway, what happens in your mind has an immediate effect on your immune system. We all know, for example, that certain stressful experiences increase our risk for disease, and even death.

Jane Goodall, the famed primate researcher, says this same phenomenon occurs in other animals. Goodall saw one chimpanzee become listless after the death of its mother, and then die in less than a month.

Several major studies have determined how our mental states influence our immune system. The results are conclusive: Negative mental states, chronic stress, and low self-esteem dramatically reduce our immunity.

Proven immune reducers include: Chronic stress, bereavement, pessimism, low self-esteem, depression, divorce, poor marital or intimate relations, loneliness, and financial loss.

Want to increase your immunity? And there is likewise proof that positive mental states and activities can increase your immunity. Proven immune boosters include: Aerobics, humor and laughter, a sense of hope, relaxation, physical exertion, social support, and satisfying relationships.

The Surprising Issue of Self Confidence
Do you often find your moods and emotions less positive than your would prefer? Most of us would rather feel up than down. But emotional ups and downs are a normal part of life.

But the chronic emotional lows that go hand-in-hand with low self-confidence are different. Low self confidence is NOT just a psychological issue. It sets you up for chronic stress. And chronic stress damages the ability of your immune system to resist disease, infections, and even heart disease.How can you win over chronic low-level stress, and the resulting weakened immune system? Obviously, one important move would be to take steps to=> Boost Your Self-Confidence.

A PROVEN IMMUNE BOOSTER
There is NEW SOLID scientific evidence that subliminal messages absolutely DO register in our brains, and go straight into our powerful subconscious mind. Give yourself a self-confidence mental edge.  Click here to=> Put subliminals to work in YOUR life.

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