Extinguish the “Lo”: Optimism is Good for Your Health

Johns Hopkins University expert Lisa R. Yanek, M.P.H reports that people with a family history of heart disease who also had a positive outlook were one-third less likely to have a heart attack or other cardiovascular event within five to 25 years than those with a more negative outlook.

The finding held true even among people with family history who had the most risk factors for coronary artery disease, and positive people from the general population were 13 percent less likely than their negative counterparts to have a heart attack or other coronary event. Researchers suspect that people who are more positive may be better protected against the inflammatory damage of stress. Another possibility is that hope and positivity help people make better health and life decisions and focus more on long-term goals. Studies also find that negative emotions can weaken immune response.

While I have never performed a study, my experience has demonstrated to me time and again, without exception, that people with a positive and optimistic disposition are happier people and are more pleasant to be around. I have yet to find a pessimistic and negative person who is at the same time happy and satisfied with their life. Approaching life with a negative attitude never changes a person’s predicament for the better. In fact the opposite is true: negativity and pessimism drag a person down, and it will often drag down other people within that person’s sphere. (Family might silently suffer with their pessimistic loved one. But it is common for more positively-oriented friends and acquaintances to distance themselves over time from negative people. Positive people don’t want to be around negative people because positive people don’t want to get infected by negativity.

Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the first Rebbe of Chabad, finds a lesson regarding this topic In Parshat Tzav it states (6:5): וְהָאֵ֨שׁ עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּ֤חַ תּֽוּקַד־בּוֹ֙ לֹ֣א תִכְבֶּ֔ה which literally translates as “the fire on the alter shall be kept burning on it, it shall not be extinguished”. However the Baal HaTanya explained it to teach the lesson of positivity: The zeal of optimism shall remain burning inside him/ all of us. And we must try our best to extinguish the “Lo” ie the tendency to focus on the negative.

Pesach is the holiday with the most preparation and the most potential for stressors. While we cannot always avoid the stressors, our response to that stress is squarely within our ability to control. On this Shabbat Hagadol let us resolve to approach Pesach- and every day thereafter- without negativity and without pessimism; but rather with a sense of optimism, a sense of purpose, and a sense of joy.