We’ve heard it said many times, but having a happy spirit really can make a difference in the quality and length of your life. Put another way, a bad disposition can be harmful for health. According to a study just published in Psychological Science, the broader your smile and the deeper the creases around your eyes when you grin, the longer you are likely to live.

A team led by Professor Ernest Abel of Wayne State University in Michigan studied 230 photographs of United States major league baseball players who started playing before 1950 and grouped them by their smiles, as follows:

No Smile
Players who looked deadpan at thee camera

Partial Smile
Only the muscles round the mouth were involved in their grin

Full Smile
Both mouth and eyes were smiling and cheeks were raised

The players’ photographs were taken from the 1952 Baseball Register, a listing of professional baseball players that is packed with statistics such as year of birth, body mass index, marital status and career length, which reflects physical fitness.

As of June 1 2009, of the players who had passed away, those in the “No Smile” category lived for an average of 72.9 years. Those in the “Partial Smile” category died at age 75, while the “Full Smile” players lived up to 79.9 years. The study concluded that:

“To the extent that smile intensity reflects an underlying emotional disposition, the results of this study are congruent with those of other studies demonstrating that emotions have an positive relationship with mental health, physical health and longevity”.

All you sour pusses who go through life with a dark cloud perpetually hanging over you, BE WARNED! Lighten up, give thanks for the blessings in your life, live to be a blessing to others. Laugh and love much. Stop being a grouch. Brush off the chip on your shoulder. Get away from people, places and other elements which have a negative effect on you. Feed your mind, body and spirit with good things which will nourish you, not poison you. Live well, and leave behind happy memories. Decide today to really LIVE!

Posted: March 29th, 2010 under Health Basics 101, Healthy Spirit.
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The first month of the new year is at an end. There are only 11 months more to go. They will fly by, as always. This is a good time to take stock of the first month we’ve just used up, and think carefully about how to make the most of the next few months. Are you satisfied with how January turned out? Did anything meaningful, positive or constructive come out of it? Did you build bridges, or burn them?

When I was younger, I never gave much thought to how I lived my days. I had my whole life ahead of me, so I just let the years pass. When you think about it, every day of life is actually incredibly precious, so we should invest them wisely. If we fritter them away, they are wasted – gone forever. If we spend them on things that really matter, like family, health, a strong, spiritual foundation, and building good experiences and memories, we will be on solid ground when the storms come. And they will come.

A relative in Britain sent me a poem written by a terminally-ill young girl. When she wrote it, she knew she would never make it to the prom, graduate from high school, get married or have a family of her own. She wanted to remind everyone to live life to the fullest, because she never will. Here’s what she wrote:

SLOW DANCE

Have you ever watched kids
On a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain
Slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
You better slow down
Don’t dance so fast
Time is short
The music won’t last
Do you run through each day
On the fly?
When you ask “How are you?”
Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done
Do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?
You’d better slow down
Don’t dance so fast
Time is short
The music won’t last
Ever told your child
“We’ll do it tomorrow”
And in your haste
Not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch
Let a good friendship die
‘Cause you never had time
To call and say “Hi”?
You’d better slow down
Don’t dance so fast
Time is short
The music won’t last
When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there
When you worry and hurry through your day
It’s like an unopened gift
Thrown away.
Life is not a race
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over.

Last night, I watched a video starring Richard Gere about a middle-aged man who decided to take dance lessons because he wanted to bring some joy into his humdrum life. Dancing made him happy. Sharing his new-found passion with his wife also made their marriage richer. Joy has been proven to add quality and quantity to life. My family and some relatives were at the kite festival yesterday, enjoying the spectacle of the sky filled with beautiful kites, and flying our own kites. At one point, my cousin turned to me beaming as we flew our kites side by side, commenting that kite-flying was such a relaxing, happy experience. It’s the last day of the kite festival today. Guess where I’m off to next?

Posted: January 31st, 2010 under Health Basics 101, Healthy Spirit.
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My husband finally flew his new kite recently. His cousin and young son had popped by for tea. It was a lovely, windy day, so we decided to go to the field nearby to try out the new kite. We knew that our guests were weighed down by many cares, as the past year had been extremely difficult for them as a family. It had been two years since our nephew had last gone kite-flying, and he missed it so.

Getting the kite up into the sky wasn’t easy, but how we laughed at each other’s antics as we tried. When the kite finally soared up into the sky, it was a wonderful feeling. There’s just something so liberating about kite-flying. Sheer delight wells up within you as the kite climbs higher. For a while, you’re a child again, carefree and happy.

We enjoyed the cool breeze and fresh air while we were out kite-flying. It was so relaxing and therapeutic to feel the wind blowing through our hair and caressing our skin. We were even blessed to see a rainbow in the sky. To think we would have missed all that had we stayed indoors. We had a good time together. It was particularly rewarding to see our little nephew laugh, and his mom smile.

Kite-flying is good medicine for the spirit as well as the body. A regular dose of kite-flying should be what the doctor ordered. There’s a kite festival on next Sunday near my home. Like to come along with me?

Posted: January 27th, 2010 under Exercise & Fitness, Healthy Spirit.
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