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caption@P@ 1 68 YOU BETTER Can we improve our health just by believing we can? According to science, our minds have an extraordinary power over our wellbeing, reveals Bonnie Vaughan a Imagine I s it possible to imagine yourself younger, healthier and happier? Science says yes. Our thoughts and beliefs can have a profound impact on our physical health, our state of mind and even our longevity. Here’s how. A ton of research proves that regular exercise, a balanced, healthy diet and suffi cient sleep can stave off many of the ailments associated with the ageing process, such as osteoarthritis, heart disease and diabetes. But our mental attitude may be the most powerful preventative tool of all. Ellen Langer, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, has been studying the mind-body eff ect for more than 35 years and has found it is indeed possible to think ourselves young. She has shown it’s not our Slow down ageing by rejecting the stereotypes physical state that limits us – it’s our mindset and preconceptions about those limits. Professor Langer tested older people who lived as they did when they were younger, in the prime of their life, and discovered dramatic improvements in fl exibility, their gait, posture, hearing, vision, memory and IQ. The Australian Psychological Society’s Positive Ageing campaign is all about this – it shows how we can live longer and healthier lives by remaining positive and socially connected, and keeping our brains active by learning new and challenging skills. ▼ gm0214makp68 - 68 2013-12-06T16:23:10+11:00

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caption@P@ 1 69 PHOTOGRAPHY GETTY IMAGES goodpsychology. gm0214makp69 - 68 2013-12-06T16:23:10+11:00

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caption@P@ 1 Professor Langer has also shown that you can see better if you’re ‘tricked’ into believing you can. Research participants who were told that a specifi c type of physical exercise would improve their vision could actually see better after they performed it. In another study, military cadets who role-played via simulators as air force pilots – renowned for their 20/20 vision – showed a 40 per cent improvement in their eyesight. Professor Langer also revealed visual acuity can be infl uenced by mindset in an experiment with the optometrist’s eye chart. When the arrangement was fl ipped to make the chart’s letters progressively bigger instead of smaller, volunteers were able to read more letters on the smallest two lines. By making them look at the chart in a diff erent way, the volunteers’ expectations – that the lines at the bottom are harder to read – were shifted. Improve your vision by pretending you can see better The mind is wired to default to negative thoughts – call it a hangover from our primitive ‘fi ght or fl ight’ survival instincts. For anyone predisposed to anxiety and depression, it can seem impossible to pull out of a negative spiral. But research says we can alter that pattern. One way, suggests life coach Kate James, is to practise the exercise ‘Three Good Things’, as recommended in the book Authentic Happiness (William Heinemann Australia, $20.95) by Dr Martin Seligman. At the end of each day, write down three good things that went well and why, no matter how banal they seem. “This exercise creates new neural pathways,” explains James. “It’s designed to reconnect you with your strengths, develop positive thoughts and retrain your thinking. We have to discipline ourselves to remember the good things.” You can also use mindfulness practice, which trains your mind to stay conscious of the present moment and not respond to your thoughts and fee

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caption@P@ 1 71 Just as depression, anxiety and stress can bog down your immune system, your state of mind can drive it back up. In a US study, volunteers were hypnotised to imagine their white blood cells attacking germ cells, and then repeated the process via self-hypnosis twice a day. At the end of the study their white blood cell count had increased. A similar experiment with young patients in a children’s hospital showed they too could effectively ‘will’ their immune systems into action. This can be extremely difficult to do for the chronically ill, of course. When we’re sick, we feel lousy; when we’re seriously sick, we can become stressed and depressed. It’s a vicious circle that keeps an already weakened immunity down. However, Dr Amy Reichelt, research fellow in neuroscience at the University of New South Wales, says that you can mitigate the negative effects by practising stress management techniques. “Stress affects areas of the brain that control the release of hormones, including the stress hormone cortisol,” she explains. “High levels of circulating cortisol, such as in chronic stress, influence physiological changes in the body like increased blood pressure and lowered immune system function,” says Reichelt. Lower cortisol means less chance of opportunistic infections like colds and flu taking hold.  Whenever you see chocolate – in the cafe, the office vending machine, next to the supermarket checkout – you have a sudden urge to eat it. That’s not necessarily your stomach talking, it’s your head. Chocolate contains amino acids that are converted to feelgood brain chemicals, and just the sight of it triggers a pleasure-memory response that sends ‘I need that right now’ signals to your brain. Blame evolution. Way back when we were hunter-gatherers, we needed that mechanism for survival (ripe fruit = good). We may not need to pluck suste