I was recently messaging with a friend about round two of lockdown and how we are managing the stress, uncertainty and complete disruption to our ‘new normal’ lives.
What I found interesting, is that despite all of the negatives, we were both able to find some positive aspects of the situation we find ourselves in. This made me think back to conversations with my maternal grandmother, or ‘Noni’ who emigrated from Italy as a 19 old, travelling alone by boat, then across Canada by train to Edmonton where she met and married my Nonno, a man from her village whom she had never met. She had so many stories, one hundred years of them in fact. She spoke of growing up in poverty in war-time Italy, of the harsh realities of living in a small coal mining town in British Columbia, of losing a child, of never seeing her parents again, of surviving cancer twice. But she always found something humorous or positive in each of her stories. And that’s what I’m finding myself doing now, looking for the positive – albeit my hardships are nothing like hers.
Science has shown that having a positive attitude can actually improve your health, and that’s something that we’re all paying a bit more attention to these days.
Being positive can:
- Lower your risk of cardiovascular disease
- Lower levels of cortisol, your stress hormone
- Decrease inflammation
- Strengthen your immune system
My little trick on keeping positive is to write down 3 things that I’m grateful for at night before I go to sleep. It’s so simple, but so effective.
Give it a try and see how you can boost your positivity!