为什么做一个乐观主义者对你的心脏有好处

为什么做一个乐观主义者对你的心脏有好处

Looking on the bright side could save your life.

往好的方面想可以挽救你的生命。

People who look at life from a positive perspective have a much stronger shot at avoiding death from any type of cardiovascular risk than pessimistic people, according to a analysis of nearly 300,000 people published Friday in the medical journal JAMA.

周五发表在医学杂志《美国医学会杂志》(JAMA)上的一项对近30万人的分析显示，从积极的角度看待生活的人比悲观的人更有可能避免死于任何类型的心血管疾病。

"We observed that an optimist had about a 35% lower risk of major heart complications, such as a cardiac death, stroke or a heart attack, compared to the pessimists in each of these studies," said cardiologist Dr. Alan Rozanski, a professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who is lead author of the study.

该研究的主要作者、西奈山伊坎医学院的医学教授、心脏病学家艾伦·罗赞斯基博士说：“我们观察到，与这些研究中的悲观者相比，乐观者的主要心脏并发症(如心脏死亡、中风或心脏病发)风险降低了35%。

In fact, the more positive the person, the greater the protection from heart attacks, stroke and any cause of death, said Rozanski, who is also the chief academic officer for the department of cardiology at Mount Sinai St. Luke's.

事实上，一个人越积极，就越能更好地预防心脏病、中风和其他死亡原因，罗赞斯基说，他也是西奈山圣卢克医院心脏病学部的首席学术官。

"The more pessimistic (a person was), the worse the outcome," he added.

“一个人越悲观，结果就越糟，”他补充道。

It's not just your heart that's protected by a positive outlook. Prior research has found a direct link between optimism and other positive health attributes, such as healthier diet and exercise behaviors, a stronger immune system and better lung function, among others.

不仅仅是你的心受到积极心态的保护。先前的研究已经发现乐观和其他积极的健康属性之间有直接的联系，比如更健康的饮食和锻炼行为，更强的免疫系统和更好的肺功能等等。

Traits of optimists

乐观主义者的特征

Why would that be true? Optimists tend to have better health habits, Rozanski said. They're more likely to exercise, have better diets and are less likely to smoke.

为什么会这样呢?罗赞斯基说，乐观主义者往往有更好的健康习惯。他们更有可能锻炼，有更好的饮食习惯，不太可能吸烟。

"Optimists also tend to have better coping skills and are better problem-solvers," he continued. "They are better at what we call proactive coping, or anticipating problems and then proactively taking steps to fix them."

他还说:“乐观主义者往往有更好的应对技巧，也更善于解决问题。”“他们更擅长我们所说的积极应对，也就是预测问题，然后主动采取措施解决问题。”

But don't get confuse optimism with happiness, as there is a key difference.

但是不要把乐观和幸福混淆了，因为这两者有一个关键的区别。

"Happiness is an emotion. It's transient," Rozanski said. "People may have more moments of happiness than others ... but it's just a description of a feeling."

“幸福是一种情感。这是短暂的，”罗赞斯基说。“人们可能比其他人拥有更多的幸福时刻……但这只是一种感觉的描述。”

Optimism, however, is a mindset, Rozanski says.

然而，罗赞斯基说，乐观是一种心态。

"It's how you look at the world," he says. "Optimists are people who expect good things to happen to them, and pessimists are those who expect bad things to happen to them."

“这是你看待世界的方式，”他说。“乐观主义者是那些认为好事会发生在自己身上的人，而悲观主义者是那些认为坏事会发生在自己身上的人。”

In other words, happiness may come and go but optimism is a character trait.

换句话说，快乐可能来了又去，但乐观是一种性格特征。

Learning optimism

学习乐观

What if you take the test and discover you're a pessimist? Don't fret. Studies show you can actually train yourself to be a positive person.

如果你参加了测试，发现自己是个悲观主义者呢?别担心。研究表明你可以训练自己成为一个积极的人。

"People can change their thought patterns," Rozanski said.

“人们可以改变他们的思维模式，”罗赞斯基说。

Using direct measures of brain function and structure, one study found it only took 30 minutes a day of meditation practice over the course of two weeks to produce a measurable change in the brain.

通过对大脑功能和结构的直接测量，一项研究发现，在两周的时间里，每天只需30分钟的冥想练习，大脑就会产生可测量的变化。

One of the most effective ways to increase optimism, according to an analysis of existing studies, is called the "Best Possible Self" method, where you imagine or journal about yourself in a future in which you have achieved all your life goals and all of your problems have been resolved.

根据对现有研究的分析，增加乐观情绪的最有效方法之一被称为“最佳可能的自我”方法，在这种方法中，你可以想象或记录自己在未来的生活，在未来你已经实现了所有的人生目标，所有的问题都已经解决。

Another technique is to practice gratefulness. Just taking a few minutes each day to write down what makes you thankful can improve your outlook on life.

另一个技巧是练习感恩。每天花几分钟写下让你感恩的事情可以改善你的人生观。

And while you're at it, list the positive experiences you had that day, which can also raise your optimism.

当你这样做的时候，列出你当天的积极经历，这也能提升你的乐观情绪。