We often talk about the health and wellbeing benefits of singing.

 But what difference can it really make to how we feel?  As we get ready for the start of our online workshops From Couch to Chorus: Sing into Spring 2023, here’s why we think it’s well worth giving your vocal cords a regular workout.

There’s an increasing amount of evidence that singing releases endorphins, serotonin and dopamine – the ‘happy’ chemicals that boost your mood and make you feel good about yourself. Scientists believe that’s one of the reasons why people report being on a high during choir sessions and continuing to feel positive, uplifted and motivated afterward.

Singing also counts as an aerobic activity, as it introduces more oxygen into the blood, leading to better circulation – and a better mood.

We often take our lungs for granted, but most of us rarely use them to their full capacity. The way singing requires you to breathe makes you do just that, increasing your lung capacity as well as engaging the muscles around the rib cage.

That’s why singing has been used to help rehabilitate people recovering from lung conditions and to benefit people suffering from long Covid.

As well as benefitting our lungs, breathing properly and with more awareness is good for releasing anxiety and helping us transition to a state of rest and relaxation.

If you’ve had a bad day, give singing a go. We promise its stress-busting properties will help you forget your worries and simply be at the moment. Or take a few minutes out of your day and reconnect with your body, breath and voice by following one of our wellbeing videos.

Singing can help improve mental alertness, memory and concentration as it involves focusing on multiple things at once, engaging many areas of the brain in the process. Music is also increasingly becoming a feature of dementia care, in part because it has proved a powerful tool in sparking memories, often long after other forms of communication have diminished. A group of people living with dementia attended Melodic Memories sessions with Opera North to see if it made a difference.

Singing is a fantastic communal activity. Singing with other people, whether in the flesh or on screen, can help build connections and feelings of togetherness. Recent research has also shown that the sense of self-other merging we experience by synchronizing our voices with others is a great way to fast-track social bonding.

There’s also the pleasure to be found in sharing an interest, ensuring you always have something to talk about before or after the session.

Singing is the perfect way to let go and express how you feel. In From Couch to Chorus, the repertoire is chosen to tap into a range of emotions with contrasting pieces. Of course, when you sing in a group, there’s the added fun of watching other people enjoying themselves too!

By supporting wellbeing and giving participants a healthy dose of joy, singing can be beneficial for people who experience pain. Dr Frances Cole who set up the Footsteps Festival for people living with persistent pain explains why they were keen for Opera North to offer Step into Singing sessions as part of the year-long celebration.

Many people get nervous at the thought of performing in public, but singing in a group can actually help boost your confidence and fire up your self-esteem – and the more you do it, the more confident you’ll feel.

Good posture is also a key factor in hitting the high notes, so you’ll find you’re naturally standing taller by the end. In fact, it works so well that singing has even been used by Opera North to build confidence, self-belief and personal impact in the workplace during training sessions with its Corporate Partners.

Don’t just take our word for it! The University of Leeds is so convinced of the impact music can have that they offer a MA in Music and Wellbeing, exploring in more depth the relationship between engaging with music and the positive effects on health and happiness. Dr Freya Bailes, who leads the MA, explains why she believes this is such an important area of research.

The good news is, it doesn’t matter whether you think you can sing in tune or not: the health benefits will still be the same. – and singing in the comfort of your own home means no-one can hear the sound you’re making anyway, so you can simply let go, have fun and experience for yourself the wellbeing singing brings.

The answer may surprise you.

You see others happy, you see that glow in their faces as they pass you by with their partner, and you say to yourself, “If only I can have such, I will be happy”, and you deem this the ultimate reaching point for experiencing happiness.

This leads to you feeling unfulfilled and waiting for “the one”. You believe you would be happy and fulfilled when you find “the one”. If this sounds familiar, it could be that you are waiting for happiness. We have all done this, and continue to do it in some form or fashion. Society tells us that if we aren’t in a relationship, we can’t be happy.

Your friends and family may be asking you when you will be married or have children. The pressure to live up to this can be very daunting as you seek to balance your own needs with that of fulfilling the societal expected timelines for being in a relationship. If it sounds familiar, you are not alone. For many years, I viewed my happiness as being tied to being in a relationship.

Imagine the devastation I experienced when I got divorced. I remember saying to myself, “I will never be happy again”. Yet, I have lived on to experience a better life than what I had when I was married. I didn’t imagine it was possible…that happiness could come to me again. So if you are going through a break-up, be encouraged, you will be happy again whether in a relationship or not.

True happiness for you comes when you realize you have enough to offer the world, and while it will be nice to have a partner, your sense of happiness isn’t tied to this. However, it is important to understand why we link romantic relationships with happiness. Psychologist often speaks about the inherent need in humans to being validated. This means having someone who values you and supports you in your well-being.

What happens then if you are in a relationship that doesn’t have this?

You may develop low self-esteem and confidence and may not see yourself as having worth. However, if you are in a relationship where you are validated, you blossom, you achieve goals and reach self-actualization. This is what I was taught in college. As a newly single person, a strange thing happened. I realized there were many single persons I came across who felt validated, were reaching for their goals and pursuing self-actualization.

On further research I realized, it doesn’t take a romantic relationship or at times any relationship to feel validated. The validation comes from, primarily — YOU. That’s right, you read correctly — YOU.

When you begin to appreciate, love and treat you, the way you deserve to be treated, you will be drawn to others, who will treat you the way you need to be treated. Even if that relationship doesn’t work out, and they walk away, while it will hurt, it would not lead to you losing a sense of you. Having a strong network of friends or mentor can also offer the validation we need and spur us on with the support and encouragement we need to help us along the pathway.

I was amazed at the number of single persons I met who were happy. I expected them to be unhappy. They didn’t accept societal script and determine their happiness on relationship, but their happiness was first impacted by their self appreciation and further realizing that they had a purpose in this world and pushing on to achieve this, even in the absence of romantic relationships.

I was amazed. We have been scripted to believe that happiness only truly exist in the context of a romantic relationship. I know of many persons who stop living, waiting for “the one” before pursuing a goal, a purpose. At times, when “the one” doesn’t appear, the dream dies with their non-appearance. There is a larger percentage of single persons now, in this century more than any other before — whether through never being married, divorced, widowed.

The belief of waiting for a relationship to make one happy could doom one to a long term period of unhappiness. Happiness is a choice. There will always be the day-to-day stressors, event stressors and a wider range of other things. Choosing to be happy will be needed to go through life.

While a partner can hopefully help and encourage through the journey of life. Making the partner responsible for you being happy is dooming the relationship to its demise before it even begins! As no one can make another person happy all the time. I choose to be happy here and now.

BENEFITS: Community, Cognitive, Mood Boost, and Physical.

In 2009, archaeologists excavating a cave in southern Germany uncovered a flute carved from a vulture’s wing bone. The delicate artifact is the oldest known musical instrument on earth — indicating that people have been making music for over 40,000 years.

Although we can’t be sure exactly when human beings began listening to music, scientists do know something about why we do. Listening to music benefits us individually and collectively. Here’s what research tells us about the power of music to improve our physical, mental, and emotional health.

ResearchersTrusted Source thinks one of the most important functions of music is to create a feeling of cohesion or social connectedness.

Evolutionary scientists say human beings may have developed a dependence on music as a communication tool because our ancestors descended from arboreal species — tree-dwellers who called to one another across the canopy.

 How, then, does music benefit us as individuals?  It can lead to better learning. Doctors at Johns Hopkins recommend that you listen to music to stimulate your brain. Scientists know that listening to music engages your brain — they can see the active areas light up in MRI scans.

Researchers now know that just the promise of listening to music can make you want to learn more. In one 2019 study, people were more motivated to learn when they expected to listen to a song as their reward.

Music also has a positive effect on your ability to memorize.

In one study trusted source, researchers gave people tasks that required them to read and then recall short lists of words. Those who were listening to classical music outperformed those who worked in silence or with white noise.

The same study tracked how fast people could perform simple processing tasks — matching numbers to geometrical shapes — and a similar benefit showed up. Mozart helped people complete the task faster and more accurately.

Mayo Clinic points out that while music doesn’t reverse the memory loss experienced by people with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, music has been found to slow cognitive decline Trusted Source, helping people with mild or moderate dementia remember episodes from their lives.

Music memory is one of the brain functions most resistant to dementia. That’s why some caregivers have had success using music to calm dementia patients and build trusting connections with them.

Music literally changes the brain. Neurological researchers have found that listening to music triggers the release of several neurochemicals that play a role in brain function and mental health:

Although more research needs to be done to understand precisely how music can be used therapeutically to treat mental

illness, some studies  Trusted Source suggests that music therapy can improve the quality of life and social

connectedness for people with schizophrenia.

Although more research needs to be done to understand precisely how music can be used therapeutically to treat mental illness, some studiesTrusted Source suggests that music therapy can improve the quality of life and social connectedness for people with schizophrenia.

A number of researchers trusted Source have interviewed groups about why they listen to music. Study participants vary widely in terms of age, gender, and background, but they report strikingly similar reasons.

One of the most common uses of music? It helps people regulate their emotions rested Source, researchers found. It has the power to change moods and help people process their feelings.

There’s lots of evidence that listening to music can help calm you in situations where you might feel anxious.

StudiesTrusted Source has shown that people in rehab after a stroke are more relaxed once they’ve listened to music for an hour.

Similar studiesTrusted Source indicates that music blended with nature sounds helps people feel less anxious. Even people facing critical illness rested Source feel less anxiety after music therapy.

There’s conflicting evidence about whether listening to music has an effect on your body’s physiological stress response, however. One study trusted Source indicated that the body releases less cortisol, a stress hormone when people listen to music. This same study referenced previous research stating that music had a little measurable effect on cortisol levels.

One recent study trusted Source that measured several indicators of stress (not just cortisol) concluded that while listening to music before a stressful event doesn’t reduce anxiety, listening to relaxing music after a stressful event can help your nervous system recover faster.

A 2017 research review trusted Source concluded that listening to music, particularly classical combined with jazz, had a positive effect on depression symptoms, especially when there were several listening sessions conducted by board-certified music therapists.

Not into jazz or the classics? You may want to try a group percussion session instead. The same research review found that drum circles also had above-average benefits for people dealing with depression.

Musical genre matters for depression

One important note: StudiesTrusted Source has found that nostalgic sad tunes can actually increase symptoms of depression, especially if you tend to ruminate or withdraw socially. Not surprising, perhaps, but important to know if you want to use music to counteract the blues.

Music’s effects on the body

Music can make you want to move — and the benefits of dancing are well documented. Scientists also know that listening to music can alter trusted sources your breath rate, your heart rate, and your blood pressure, depending on the music’s intensity and tempo.

Anyone who has ever rolled down car windows and turned up the radio knows that music can be energizing. There’s solid science behind that lived experience.

In 2015, researchers trusted Source at Shanghai University found that relaxing music helped reduce fatigue and maintain muscle endurance when people were engaged in a repetitive task.

Music therapy sessions also lessened fatigue in people receiving cancer treatments and raised the fatigue threshold for people engaged in demanding neuromuscular training, which leads us to the next big benefit.

Exercise enthusiasts have long known that music enhances their physical performance.

A 2020 research review confirms that working out with music improves your mood, helps your body exercise more efficiently and cuts down on your awareness of exertion. Working out with music also leads to longer workoutsTrusted Source.

In clinical settings, athletes who listened to high-intensity, fast music during warmups were motivatedTrusted Source to perform better competitively.

You don’t have to be a world-class competitor to benefit: ResearchTrusted Source shows that syncing your workout to music can allow you to reach peak performance using less oxygen than if you did the same workout without the beat. Music acts as a metronome in your body, researchers said.

Specially trained music therapists use music to help alleviate pain in inpatient and outpatient settings. A 2016 meta-analysis Trusted Source of over 90 studies reported that music helps people manage both acute and chronic pain better than medication alone.

How does music affect the way we think, feel, and behave?

One of the most important issues in the psychology of music is how music affects emotional experience (Juslin, 2019). Music has the ability to evoke powerful emotional responses such as chills and thrills in listeners.

Positive emotions dominate musical experiences. Pleasurable music may lead to the release of neurotransmitters associated with reward, such as dopamine. Listening to music is an easy way to alter mood or relieve stress. People use music in their everyday lives to regulate, enhance, and diminish undesirable emotional states (e.g., stress, fatigue). How does music listening produce emotions and pleasure in listeners?

The enjoyment of music appears to involve the same pleasure center in the brain as other forms of pleasure, such as food, sex, and drugs. Evidence shows that an aesthetic stimulus, such as music, can naturally target the dopamine systems of the brain that are typically involved in highly reinforcing and addictive behaviors.

In one study, participants listened to their favorite songs after taking naltrexone. Naltrexone is a widely prescribed drug for treating addiction disorders. The researchers found that when study subjects took naltrexone, they reported that their favorite songs were no longer pleasurable (Malik et al., 2017).

However, not everyone experiences intense emotional responses to music. Roughly 5% of the population do not experience chills. This incapacity to derive pleasure specifically from music has been called musical anhedonia.

 Music can be experienced as pleasurable both when it fulfills and violates expectations. The more unexpected the events in music, the more surprising is the musical experience (Gebauer & Kringelbach, 2012). We appreciate music that is less predictable and slightly more complex.

 There is also an intellectual component to the appreciation for music. The dopamine systems do not work in isolation, and their influence will be largely dependent on their interaction with other regions of the brain. That is, our ability to enjoy music can be seen as the outcome of our human emotional brain and its more recently evolved neocortex.

Evidence shows that people who consistently respond emotionally to aesthetic musical stimuli possess stronger white matter connectivity between their auditory cortex and the areas associated with emotional processing, which means the two areas communicate more efficiently (Sachs et al., 2016).

Memories are one of the important ways in which musical events evoke emotions. As the late physician, Oliver Sacks has noted, musical emotions and musical memory can survive long after other forms of memory have disappeared. Part of the reason for the durable power of music appears to be that listening to music engages many parts of the brain, triggering connections and creating associations.

 Music often creates strong action tendencies to move in coordination with the music (e.g., dancing, foot-tapping). Our internal rhythms (e.g., heart rate) speed up or slow down to become one with the music. We float and move with the music.

 Music doesn’t only evoke emotions at the individual level, but also at the interpersonal and intergroup level. Listeners mirror their reactions to what the music expresses, such as sadness from sad music, or cheer from happy music. Similarly, ambient music affects shoppers’ and diners’ moods.

 Background music has a surprisingly strong influence on consumer behavior. For example, one study (North, et al., 1999) exposed customers in a supermarket drinks section to either French music or German music. The results showed that French wine outsold German wine when French music was played, whereas German wine outsold French wine when German music was played.

People crave ‘escapism’ during uncertain times to avoid their woes and troubles. Music offers a resource for emotion regulation. People use music to achieve various goals, such as to energize, maintain focus on a task, and reduce boredom.

For instance, sad music enables the listener to disengage from the distressing situations (breakup, death, etc.), and focus instead on the beauty of the music. Further, lyrics that resonate with the listener’s personal experience can give voice to feelings or experiences that one might not be able to express oneself.

 Music is a powerful emotional stimulus that changes our relationship with time. Time does indeed seem to fly when listening to pleasant music. Music is therefore used in waiting rooms to reduce the subjective duration of time spent waiting and in supermarkets to encourage people to stay for longer and buy more (Droit-Volet, et al., 2013).

Hearing pleasant music seems to divert attention away from time processing. Moreover, this attention-related shortening effect appears to be greater in the case of calm music with a slow tempo.

Music can be a powerful tool for identity development (Lidskog, 2016). Young people derive a sense of identity from music. For example, the movie Blinded by the Light shows the power of Springsteen songs to speak to Javed’s experience on a personal level. The lyrics help him to find a voice he never knew he had, and the courage to follow his dreams, find love and assert himself.

If you love listening to music, you’re in good company.

Charles Darwin once remarked, “If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week.” Albert Einstein declared, “If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician.” Jimi Hendrix called music his “religion.”

I’ve always been in awe of people who can sing and play guitar. As a young girl, I secretly listened to singer-songwriter music in my bedroom into the wee hours. As a rebellious teenager, I cranked rock ‘n’ roll in the house whenever I had to do chores. I always felt great afterward – now I know why.

Recent research shows that listening to music improves our mental well-being and boosts our physical health in surprising and astonishing ways. If we take a music lesson or two, that musical training can help raise our IQs and even keep us sharp in old age. Here are 15 amazing scientifically-proven benefits of being hooked on music.

Research proves that when you listen to music you like, your brain releases dopamine, a “feel-good” neurotransmitter. Valorie Salimpoor, a neuroscientist at McGill University, injected eight music-lovers with a radioactive substance that binds to dopamine receptors after they listened to their favorite music. A PET scan showed that large amounts of dopamine were released, which biologically caused the participants to feel emotions like happiness, excitement, and joy.

So the next time you need an emotional boost, listen to your favorite tunes for 15 minutes. That’s all it takes to get a natural high!

Marcelo Bigliassi and his colleagues found that runners who listened to fast or slow motivational music completed the first 800 meters of their run faster than runners who listened to calm music or ran without music. If you want to take your running up a notch, listen to songs that inspire you.

Listening to music you enjoy decreases levels of the stress hormone cortisol in your body, which counteracts the effects of chronic stress. This is an important finding since stress causes 60% of all our illnesses and disease. One study showed that if people actively participated in making music by playing various percussion instruments and singing, their immune system was boosted even more than if they passively listened.

To stay calm and healthy during a stressful day, turn on the radio. Be sure to sing along and tap your feet to the beat to get the maximum healing benefit.

Over 30% of Americans suffer from insomnia. A study showed that students who listened to relaxing classical music for 45 minutes before turning in slept significantly better than students who listened to an audiobook or did nothing different from their normal routine.[7]

If you’re having trouble sleeping, try listening to a little Bach or Mozart before bedtime to catch some Zs.

More than 350 million people suffer from depression around the world. A whopping 90% of them also experience insomnia. The sleep research above found that symptoms of depression decreased significantly in the group that listened to classical music before bedtime, but not in the other two groups.

Another study by Hans Joachim Trappe in Germany also demonstrated that music can benefit patients with depressive symptoms, depending on the type of music. Meditative sounds and classical music lifted people up, but techno and heavy metal brought people down even more.[10]

The next time you feel low, put on some classical or meditative music to lift your spirits.

A non-profit organization called Music & Memory helps people with Alzheimer’s Disease and other age-related dementias remember who they are by having them listen to their dearest songs. The awakening is often dramatic. For example, after Henry listens to music from his era, this wheelchair-bound dementia sufferer who can barely speak sings Cab Calloway songs and happily reminisces about his life.

Dr. Laura Mosqueda, Director of Geriatrics at the University of California at the Irvine School of Medicine, explains that because music affects so many areas of the brain, it stimulates pathways that may still be healthy.

One in three seniors dies with Alzheimer’s Disease or another dementia, so odds are you know someone who has it. To connect with loved ones who suffer from age-related dementia, try playing some of their best-loved music.

Research at the University of Helsinki showed that stroke patients who listened to music they chose themselves for two hours a day had significantly improved recovery of cognitive function compared to those who listened to audiobooks or were given no listening material. Most of the music contained lyrics, which suggests that it’s the combination of music and voice that bolstered the patients’ auditory and verbal memory.

Stroke is the number 5 cause of death in the United States. If you know someone who has suffered a stroke, bring their favorite songs as soon as you can. Listening to them can significantly ramp up their recuperation.

After only one month of music lessons (in rhythm, pitch, melody, and voice), a study at York University showed that 90% of children between the ages of 4 and 6 had a significant increase in verbal intelligence. Researcher Sylvain Moreno suggests that the music training had a “transfer effect” which enhanced the children’s ability to understand words and explain their meaning.

Other research found that musically trained adult women and musically trained children outperformed those without music training on verbal memory tests. No matter whether you’re an adult or a child, if you want to boost your verbal skills, try taking music lessons!

Research shows that taking music lessons predicts higher academic performance and IQ in young children. In one study, 6-year-olds who took keyboard or singing lessons in small groups for 36 weeks had significantly larger increases in IQ and standardized educational test results than children who took either drama lessons or no lessons. The singing group did the best.

To help your children achieve academic excellence, encourage them to sing or learn to play an instrument.

A study with healthy older adults found that those with ten or more years of musical experience scored higher on cognitive tests than musicians with one to nine years of musical study. The non-musicians scored the lowest. “Since studying an instrument requires years of practice and learning, it may create alternate connections in the brain that could compensate for cognitive declines as we get older,” says lead researcher Brenda Hanna-Pladdy.

Business magnate Warren Buffet stays sharp at age 84 by playing the ukulele. It’s never too late to play an instrument to keep you on top of your game.

Plato had it right when he said, “Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul.” No matter whether you’re young or old, healthy or sick, happy or sad, music can improve the quality of your life in numerous ways. It reduces stress and anxiety, lifts your mood, boosts your health, helps you sleep better, takes away your pain, and even makes you smarter.

New research shows that music “can communicate basic human feelings regardless of the listener’s cultural and ethnic background.” We’ve only just begun to understand all the ways this universal language can profit the world. Rather than cut funds for music and art programs in schools, why not invest in exploring all the secret places that music reaches so that we may continue to reap its amazing benefits?

It’s not your fault, but you can overcome it.

Did you ever feel like something’s wrong with you because you’re not happy? As if you’re making mistakes because everyone around you seems to be so much happier than you?

Or did you ever think of all the things that could go wrong in your life even though everything’s actually fine? Well, you’re not alone.

I’ve never been a cheerful person, and growing up, I always wondered if something’s wrong with me. People constantly asked me if everything was okay because I looked so grumpy.

I didn’t even think of faking smiles to avoid those annoying questions, but deep inside, I felt irritated.

According to a study carried out by psychologists at Queen’s University, more than 6,000 thoughts cross our minds every day. But what’s even more fascinating is that most of those thoughts are negative or repetitive — or both.

In 2005, the National Science Foundation published an article describing how 80% of our thoughts are negative, and more than 90% are exactly the same thoughts as the day before.

Negative thoughts and emotions can have different backgrounds. Most of the time, we don’t even know why exactly we’re feeling bad.

But the most overlooked fact is that your brain isn’t wired to make you happy. The main purpose of your brain is to keep you safe and make sure you survive. Your body, and particularly your brain, don’t care whether you’re happy.

According to research published in Science Advances, our brains are 40,000 years old. Now, if you lived 40,000 years ago, survival was indeed your main ambition.

Our ancestors were much more concerned about staying safe because tiny mistakes or accidents could lead to their death.

Centuries ago, this negativity bias served an important purpose: survival.

That’s why it made sense for them to be worried about safety and survival.

The bad news is that our brains are still wired similarly, even though most of us aren’t concerned about survival anymore.

Instead of saving us from wild animals and death, our brains now try to protect us from all sorts of negative experiences — no matter if that’s a heartbreak or an embarrassing moment at a party.

Your brain also doesn’t like surprises — that’s why you often think about the next bad thing and prefer being well prepared for negative things that might happen, even if they’re unrealistic.

That’s why we sometimes make a mountain out of a molehill and turn small struggles into huge problems.

The good news, however, is that we can change the way we think, behave, and ultimately feel, even if the #1 priority of our brains is to keep us alive.

The fact that your brain is more receptive to negativity doesn’t mean that you’re meant to live a negative life. You can choose your thoughts, which lead to changes in your emotions, which again change the way you act and the results you create.

The truth is, you can’t always control the thoughts that bounce around in your mind. But you can indeed control what you focus on.

Each moment, you decide what you focus on.

When you wake up in the morning, you decide whether you scroll through endless social media news or if you follow a mindful morning routine.

When eating your meals, you decide whether you turn the TV on or enjoy each bite in silence.

When waiting for a bus or being stuck in traffic, you decide whether you let negative emotions and anger take control over your life or if you use the time to practice gratitude.

Choosing the bright side isn’t always easy, but it’s more fun. This isn’t about faking smiles or toxic positivity but about making the most of your life.

According to Eric Barker, an effective strategy to control your thoughts and better manage your emotions is to ask yourself if a thought is useful.

Asking yourself, “Is this useful?” helps you assess whether the thought deserves your attention or not.

Whenever you pause for a moment and question the usefulness of a thought, you’re consciously deciding whether you want to dedicate time and space to that thought.

If the thought or concern is useful, paying more attention to it might be a good idea. And if it’s not, you can replace it through other, more productive thoughts.

Above all, asking yourself if a thought is useful helps you get a neutral perspective on your emotions.

If you’re struggling to let go of the useless thoughts, try this: Write your negative thoughts on a piece of paper, crumple it up, and throw it away — physically and mentally.

Keep in mind that controlling your mind and creating a happier life is not about being cheerful all the time.

It’s about giving less space to unwanted and unproductive thoughts and emotions, so you have more time and energy for your desired feelings and experiences.

We all know that life is short and time is precious, but what’s even more valuable is our energy. And the truth is, negativity absorbs your mental and physical energy.

When you’re constantly worried, afraid, and in fight-or-flight mode, you don’t have much time and energy left for positive experiences.

Sometimes, negative thoughts are validated, and we experience them for a good reason.

Shit happens to all of us. We get rejected, experience unexpected losses, and come across small and big disasters from time to time.

In those moments of desperation, it’s okay, and even helpful, to embrace the negative feelings we experience.

There’s no point in sugarcoating the reality when life sucks. But the truth is that most of your days don’t suck. Most of the time, life is okay, and your brain is still trying to keep you unhappy.

It’s those days when you need to take responsibility and get in the driver’s seat of your life.

According to author Bronnie Ware, one of the five biggest regrets people have on their deathbeds is: I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

Most of the time, we don’t even realize that our small daily thoughts, decisions, and actions ultimately shape who we are and the reality we experience.

I’ve found the easiest way to positively impact your thinking and life is to focus on one goal: Becoming your best self.

As a teenager, I didn’t have any motivation to be more cheerful or happy. I was annoyed when people asked me why I looked so grumpy all the time.

Today, I know that a grumpy life is certainly not the best life, and I choose the bright side whenever possible.

This doesn’t mean I ignore the bad or never face problems. It just means that I know exactly who I want to be and give my best to show up as her every single day.

Sometimes, I succeed. Sometimes, I don’t. But above all, I keep getting closer to that best version of myself.

Whenever you make decisions, no matter how small or big they are, ask yourself what your best self would do.

Choose with your best you in mind and take little steps that will make your future self proud of you.

Don’t confuse this with a lack of authenticity. We’re not trying to fake who we are. We’re just showing up as the best version of ourselves because we all deserve to live a good life.

Happiness and age are related, but not in the way you might think.

For the most part, our culture is youth-driven, so we assume that the young and beautiful also happen to be the happiest. Young people who have time on their side may appear happy, but the notion that they are happier isn’t necessarily true. Happiness actually may increase with age.

It may be unfathomable for some young people to think of their grandparents as being happier than they are, but research shows that Americans actually get happier as they age despite their health conditions and other problems that arise. Before we celebrate, though, let’s take a look at the evidence on aging and happiness.

Let’s face it: Research related to happiness is filled with judgments and subjectivity because happiness is subjective. How can you be sure a research participant who says, “I’m pretty happy” truly is happy?

Maybe they’re content with less? Maybe their happiness is based on material possessions? Maybe each generation has different expectations of happiness? Researchers needed to find a way around these kinds of problems.

Luckily, sociologists have consistently conducted more than 50,000 interviews since 1972 for the General Social Survey, a sociological survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. The survey, which is open to the public, provides a wealth of insights into our society and measures happiness over time.

By comparing individuals of different age groups over time within the same year, researchers were able to get around some of these limitations, and what they found is that  happiness does increase with age .

“How happy are you?” That is the big question researchers ask year after year. Not only did researchers find that older people tend to be happier, but that happiness is not something older participants have had all their lives. In other words, as people get older, say starting at age 50, happiness comes to them.

As the media continue to warn us about the dangers of an aging America, keep this in mind: An aging America may be the happiest America we have ever seen. Perhaps this is because of the wisdom that comes with age or because older people adjust their expectations in life. Whatever the reason, there is solid evidence that older Americans are truly happier than younger ones.

Improve your own happiness by ignoring the societal norm that youth = happiness. Allow yourself to feel happy as you age. Don’t get caught up in worrying about the small stuff. Take good care of your health and, most importantly, let yourself go. Don’t think that you have to act your age. Here are some more tips to keep you active, happy and having fun as you age:

Want to maintain optimal health and optimism? Here you go.

They Sometimes Say “No” to Something They’d Like To Eat (or Drink)

As most people know and are sad to acknowledge (me included), a lot of things that taste awesome are terrible for your health and cause a lot of damage when we eat them. Sugar. Wheat. Alcohol. To name a few. It takes effort to exercise discipline, to not always eat everything you want to eat.

Grabbing and devouring everything delicious is the path of least resistance.

It’s also the path to way lesser overall health, weight gain, and more disease.

People who are the healthiest will regularly say “no” to certain things that, in their minds, they’d like to eat. Maybe they already ate a piece of chocolate, so they say no to the cookie. They didn’t eat super healthy yesterday, so today, they say no to all things bad for them. They splurged and had a rare slice of cake on Saturday? They stay away from desserts for the next few days.

This is what being healthy means. Making thoughtful choices. Being mindful of what’s going in your body (and when). And not always saying “yes.”

If we all focused only on right now, we’d probably never work out, because we’d rarely be in the mood. The couch, which is more appealing, would always win out.We’d always eat the cupcake and the donuts on offering and never say no.We would forgo standing since sitting is easier.We’d stay out drinking all night, since who cares, and it’s just one night (though funny how it happens again the next weekend…and then the next one too).You get the idea.Creating and then maintaining great health often means looking to the big picture of what you want, as opposed to just living impulsively in the moment.According to the 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition: “Adults need to do two types of physical activity each week to improve their health–aerobic activity and muscle strengthening.”

It is recommended that you perform a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise each week or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic exercise. This, paired with two days of strength training per week.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides the following two examples:

Pick one of the above options. Better yet, pick the harder and more challenging one. Do this every week. Even when you don’t feel in the mood for it. Because you’ve got the long-term, bigger picture in mind of wanting a fit, able-bodied, healthy life.

Turns out that more than two-thirds of us are not getting the recommended eight hours of necessary sleep each night. That probably doesn’t shock anyone. However, what may surprise you is the havoc and damage this wrecks upon all areas of your physical and mental health.There is not one major organ in the body or process in the brain, that isn’t optimally enhanced by sleep (or, detrimentally impaired when we don’t get enough).Here are some of what happens when you don’t get at least 7-hours of sleep (though ideally, 8-hours) every night:

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a sleep loss epidemic throughout industrialized nations. Don’t be a part of this. Make it a top priority to get 7 or 8 hours of sleep, every single night.

The healthiest people keep a close eye on this. They notice their stress levels and do things to keep them in check (deep breathing, exercise, meditation, talking to a loved one when needing emotional support, seeing a therapist sometimes, spend time with great friends, not working too much, etc).Stress causes all sorts of problems, from high blood pressure to weight gain, heart problems, depression, and more.The healthiest people know this and pay careful attention to making sure this isn’t a thing in their lives regularly.The human body is meant to move frequently and throughout most of the day.Walking, even jogging, jumping, striding, standing some, with very minimal sitting. Humans originally spent much of their time engaged in a variety of movements (hunting, gathering, tending to children, building things, etc).Sitting around all day in front of computers is a relatively new thing over the last few decades, and it’s terrible for our health, physical and mental.

Sitting for hours every day will do these things to your body:

Some researchers are even calling sitting down “the new smoking.” As in, it’s nearly as harmful, if not equally so to your body as smoking is

Experts say that people who sit for long periods have a 147 percent higher risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke.

Research suggests that people who spend more time sitting have a 112 percent higher risk of diabetes.

Sitting for long periods can lead to varicose veins or spider veins (a smaller version of varicose veins) because sitting causes blood to pool in your legs.

You get the idea. It’s not a pretty picture.

The healthiest people know this and, even when they don’t always feel like it, they make sure to stand much of the time, and to move around often throughout their day.

The grocery store aisles are littered with all manner of enticing, highly processed, chemical-laden snacks. From Doritos to Cheezits, candy bars, sugar-laden juices, cookies, cereals, pastries, boxed cake mixes, soda, sugary yogurts, salad dressing, tomato sauce, cakes, you name it.
Most of this is terrible for you.The foods to eat are things like: fish, chicken, turkey, small amounts of red meat, eggs, all manner of vegetables (raw and fresh are ideal), sweet potatoes, fruits (again, fresh is best), nuts (almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, etc), and healthy fats such as avocado, olive oil, and such.Rice or pasta made with rice flour is ok in small amounts, maybe once or twice a week, though shouldn’t be eaten daily. It’s largely empty calories, it does spike your blood sugar some, and it can lead to needless weight gain.The food you eat routinely should essentially be in its pure, natural form. These are the foods that are medicine to your body. 

Foods such as sugar, wheat, soda, lots of processed stuff, and alcohol, are essentially poisons to your body. And they will contribute heavily toward disease for many people.

And this isn’t always easy. In fact, in many moments, staying the course on eating super healthy will require willpower and strength.

However, make the mindful, stronger choice and consume things that contribute toward fighting disease. The healthiest people know this, that foods and drink will encourage utmost health and thus, their longest and most vibrant life.