People with positive attitudes seem to have a better outlook on life, but are they healthier? The answer seems to be yes. People who are optimistic are more likely to overcome pain and adversity when recovering from an illness. They are also more likely to stay healthy.

Your body responds to your thoughts, emotions and actions. There are three strategies you can use to recover from an illness and stay healthy.

First try to change your expectations from negative to positive. Here are some suggestions:

• Stop negative self talk. Make only positive statements.
• Send yourself affirmations. An affirmation is a phrase or sentence that sends a strong positive statement to you about you.
• Visualize health and healing.
• Don’t feel guilty. Sometimes an illness may develop and persist no matter what. Do the best you can.

Just about anything that makes you feel good about yourself helps you recover and stay healthy:

• Friendship. Close social ties help you recover faster from illnesses and reduce your risk of developing diseases from arthritis to depression.
• Volunteering. Helping others helps you help yourself. People who volunteer enjoy life more than those who don’t.
• Petting an animal. When you stroke a pet, your blood pressure goes down.
• Spirituality. If you believe in a higher power, ask for support while you are recovering. Prayer, faith and spiritual beliefs can play an important role in recovering from an illness and staying healthy.

Believe it or not there have been studies that show laughter does many things:

• It can strengthen the immune system, possibly increasing antibodies and disease-fighting cells.
• It increases endorphins, the body’s natural painkiller, thus increasing pain tolerance.
• It gives you a mini workout by increasing your heart and respiration rates, as well as blood pressure. Experts say a hearty one minute laugh is equal to approximately 10 minutes on a rowing machine.
• It works certain facial and abdominal muscles. This is especially useful for people who have neuralgia or rheumatism.
• It helps people with certain kinds of respiratory illnesses by increasing their ventilation and clearing mucus.
• It reduces the incidence of arterial blockage, angioplasties and heart attacks.

It is said that children laugh approximately 400 times a day, while adults laugh 15 times. The older we get the more responsibilities we have and thus the more stress. Things that were funny then don’t seem that way now. But it’s OK to laugh. A good belly laugh will work the abdominal muscles, massage your internal organs, improve the blood supply to the intestines and help the bowels move properly. So next time you are feeling stressed, try something positive, like an old-fashioned belly laugh.