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A Secret to Physical Health, Life Longevity, and Cancer (from observing hotel maids)

ToddKashdan — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:38:33 +0000

By happier.com expert Todd Kashdan, Ph.D.

I lied. Studying the ins and outs of hotel maids provide absolutely no insight into cancer.
Besides lying to you, I have no idea what the politically correct term is for women who clean hotel rooms. Maid? chambermaid? housekeeper? female room attendant? If I offend anyone, my apologies for failing to master the appropriate terminology. But everything else is true and rather inoffensive. In this brief post, you will learn a single secret to physical fitness and mental health that might translate into longer, better living.

Hotel maids are notorious for waking up at ridiculously early hours to start working. They also are confronted with unwanted flesh at surprising intervals and in surprising situations. There’s the man who refuses to make a peep while sitting on the toilet until spotted. There’s the man who opens the front door with swinging genitalia lacking a single synaptic connection to the idea of covering up. There’s the guest’s drunken friend who rests peacefully face to the ground, ass in the air, burrowed behind the curtains. I’m not being sexist. 97 out of 100 encounters, the naked being will be male. But I digress.

Hotel maids are stressed out and thus, have little time for a formal workout. If you don’t believe me, go ask a hotel maid how often they go the gym or jog in the park. They certainly do enough bending, lifting, climbing, and moving to burn off calories. Which begs the question- what if maids were made mindfully aware and open to the idea that a fitness routine is embedded into their job? Could changing their mindset lead to actual changes in their physical and mental health? A few researchers sought to find out.

As the most minimal of interventions, one group of hotel maids were informed about the importance of daily exercise and how their regimen of climbing stairs, vacuuming, cleaning linen, and scrubbing tables and tubs affects their body. They were given exact details, for example, a 140-pound women burns 50 calories after vacuuming for 15 minutes. They were told that their typical workday far exceeds the exercise recommendations of the Surgeon General. A second group of hotel maids were given the same information about the benefits of exercise but weren’t told anything about how their work effort is in fact, exercise. With this comparison group, the researchers could determine whether there was some unique benefit to being mindful about what constitutes exercise.

So what happened when these maids were tracked down a month later? After only 4 weeks of learning that work might serve as exercise, the maids lost an average of 2 pounds, lowered their blood pressure by an average of 10 points, and trimmed their body fit even though they didn’t change their diet or add any exercise to their routine. The only thing that changed was that how they attended to their physical exertion at work. That’s it! As for the comparison group, they basically remained in the same shape as when they started.

Yet another testament to how our mindset can alter our bodies. We can’t always feel good but we can almost always be profoundly aware and open to what we do. Being fully alive during these moments are the building blocks to a life well lived.

Here’s a question that we should all be asking- what do I fail to notice in my daily routine that’s important to my physical, mental, and social well-being?

And tell your hotel maid how muscular her arms are looking so she can live a long, healthy life….

Dr. Todd B. Kashdan is a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at George Mason University. He is the author of Curious? Discover the Missing Ingredient to a Fulfilling Life. For more about his books and research, go to www.toddkashdan.com

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Happy Mind, Happy Body – Exercise is Therapy: Self-Monitor

happier.com — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:14:35 +0000

By guest contributor Gloria Park Perin

When chronic exercisers are asked about the top reason they engage in physical activity, the #1 reason they cite are shifts in mood, namely increases in experienced positive emotion. Unfortunately, exercise isn’t instant gratification, and most people won’t experience the mood-boosting effects of exercise until they have developed a regular routine for several weeks.

Keep an exercise log. Record the date and time of activity, the intensity, and the length of each session of physical activity. Also note if you were alone, or with a friend, and how much you enjoyed the activity. Free tools are available online and even on your iPhone.

Monitor your mood. At the end of each day, log into Happier and use the Positivity Test or Authentic Happiness Index to track changes in your positivity ratio or happiness levels. Record your scores in the exercise log.

Use feedback to revise your strategy. After several weeks, go back and review the log. Are there specific types of activities that boost your mood over others? Does the time of day for exercise seem to have an impact? Take note of these patterns and adjust your routine.

Happy Mind, Happy Body – Exercise is Therapy: Set Positive Goals

happier.com — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:14:05 +0000

By guest contributor Gloria Park Perin

Taking on an approach versus avoidance mindset can do wonders for motivation. Sure, dropping the saddlebags and squeezing into a bikini are great goals for exercise, but instead of focusing on some aspect of yourself that you want to change or lose, why not ask yourself what you might gain in terms of vitality and the physical capacity to pursue a good life?

Create a vision of the future. Start by thinking about what is most important to you and work from there. Are your children the most important to you? Or developing your entrepreneurial endeavors? Write down what you envision as your best possible future.

Think about the tangible rewards. Articulate what you could potentially gain in these areas of your life by becoming more active: More energy to run around and play with your children? Increased ability to handle daily stressors in managing and growing your business?

Finally, set positively worded goals. “I will” vs. “I won’t” or “I hope to gain” vs. “I hope to lose”. Write these down and revisit them frequently.

Happy Body, Happy Mind - Steps Toward Happiness with Exercise as Therapy

happier.com — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:21:29 +0000

By guest contributor Gloria Park Perin

What if there was a pill that you could take every day to effectively prevent diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and certain forms of cancer? And what if the same pill would effectively reduce nearly every risk associated with all cause mortality? Would you take it? Would you urge your families and friends to take it?

These are questions Dr. Robert Sallis posed as I listened to him describe the new “Exercise is Medicine” initiative by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the American Medical Association (AMA). Amid fiery debate over escalating costs and declining accessibility to healthcare, this groundbreaking partnership intends to push exercise and physical activity into the forefront of the public healthcare management discourse and introduces them as an integral aspect of disease treatment and prevention.

What if this pill was also a powerful tool in warding off dementia, anxiety, and depression? What if it improved self-esteem, cognitive functioning, and boosted your mood?

Exercise is a low-cost, accessible, and self-directed activity, and the truth is, most of us know that exercise is both medicine and therapy. So why aren’t we doing more of it? We all hear the Surgeon General’s warnings about smoking, sedentary lifestyles, and the dangers of eating fast food, yet we still sit in front of our televisions watching incessant advertisements for the latest antidepressants, channel surfing with our greasy French-fried fingers, then wake up to a breakfast of Camel lights and coffee.

We need more than just information – we need motivation! Until an Exercise is Therapy initiative is developed, follow some of the simple tips in this blog series to get you on the path toward adopting a healthier and HAPPIER lifestyle, which begins like anything else: Just one step at a time.

*For more great tips, check out “Move Your Body: Tone Your Mood” by Dr. Kate F. Hays.

Sallis, R.E. (2009). Exercise is medicine and physicians need to prescribe it! British Journal of Sports Medicine, 43, 3-4.

Happy Mind, Happy Body - Exercise is Therapy: Be Realistic

happier.com — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:19:47 +0000

By guest contributor Gloria Park Perin

Optimism can help us look toward the future, but unreasonable optimism can be your worst enemy when you’re setting goals for exercise. If you start by reaching too high, falling short of your initial goal may ultimately serve to make you feel discouraged, rather than inspired to exercise. Even worse, overdoing it can bring harm or injury to your body.

Take stock of your life. If you’re already working full-time, raising two children, and taking night classes, then aspiring to exercise for three hours every day is probably unrealistic. Ask yourself: Based on what my life looks like right now, what is a goal that seems manageable and attainable?

Give yourself permission to be human. We all fall off the wagon, sometimes three or four times, when we’re trying to adopt a good habit (or break a bad habit). Be disciplined and make plans for following through on your schedule, but if an emergency comes up, don’t beat yourself up. Sit down, take a breath, and create an alternate plan, which can be as simple as promising to take the stairs to your 14^th floor office in the morning.

Be flexible. In exercise, think None-or-Something, rather than default to the All-or-Nothing thinking that can be one of the greatest barriers to physical activity. Even brief bouts of physical activity spread through the day can bring similar physical and psychological benefits. Remember this next time you want to can your workout for the day just because you can’t run the entire 6 miles.

Tuesday’s Tip – Lead with optimism

Doug Hensch — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:27:34 +0000

One of my closest friends played professional football for one of the best teams in the NFL during the early 1990’s. The team had talented players, a good front office, and excellent coaches. They believed they would win every game they played.

At the beginning of his sixth season, my friend was picked up by another team. He was impressed by the front office and the players on this new team. He missed his old teammates but he was excited for a new beginning in a new city. His new team was scheduled to play the San Francisco 49ers – a perennial powerhouse. At my friend’s first team meeting, the head coach walked into the team’s film room, turned to the team, paused for a second, then said, “I think we can stay with these guys…”

“Stay with these guys?” my buddy recounted to me. “I wanted to hear him say that we were going to win by 20 points!” he continued.

Sports are different, in many ways, from other aspects of our lives but I still believe the key ingredient in any successful leader is optimism. Why would you ever want to follow someone who didn’t truly believe in a better tomorrow?

The optimistic leader is better equipped to handle adversity. She sees obstacles and issues as challenges to be overcome, not a permanent setback. A truly talented leader uses optimism to motivate people and keep them engaged. She is realistic, flexible, and hopeful.

So, how can you be a more optimistic leader? Try these tips to lead with a flexible, realistic optimism:

Don’t take it personally: It’s ok NOT to blame yourself for everything that goes wrong. It’s ok to acknowledge the fact that some things are out of your control. If you do not believe in yourself, don’t expect others to follow.
Keep adversities in their place: When something bad happens, don’t let it affect other areas of your life. Dropping the ball on one project does not mean you are not a good leader.
This too shall pass: 99.9% of the bad things that happen are temporary. Set a good example for the people following you by showing them that you are ready for the next challenge by not dwelling on the past.

So, while most of life requires a realistic optimism, if you find yourself coaching an NFL team, make sure to the players, “We’re going to win by 20 points!”

Positive Psychology for Athletes: Tip 3 – Deeply Savor Successes, Big and Small

happier.com — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 12:38:33 +0000

This is the final in a series of posts on Putting Positive Psychology In Motion, written by invited contributor Gloria Park Perin. The first post is available online.

3. Deeply Savor Successes, Big and Small: In sport, the odds are always against you – for every one winner, there are countless many losers left behind wondering what went wrong. In many instances, long term goals, such as winning a gold medal in the Olympics, never come true for most athletes. Making happiness and satisfaction contingent on a singular goal can often lead to depression and feelings of worthlessness. Setting process goals in addition to outcome goals and celebrating little victories along the way can help maintain morale and motivation. Part of growing as an athlete requires frequent feedback from others on skills that have to be improved, and so simple exercises such as Three Good Things can help shift your attention to what is going well and offset the tendency to focus only on what went wrong.

Although hindsight is 20/20, I feel blessed that these unfulfilled wishes have pulled me toward the fields of positive and applied sport and exercise psychology, and a calling to connect the dots between these two fields.

This is the final in a series of posts on Putting Positive Psychology In Motion, written by invited contributor Gloria Park Perin. The introductory post, first tip and second tip are available online.

Positive Psychology for Athletes: Tip 2 – Build Strengths through Daily Activity

happier.com — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:10:16 +0000

This is the third in a series of posts on Putting Positive Psychology In Motion, written by invited contributor Gloria Park Perin. The original post is available online. Check back tomorrow for the next post.

2. Build Strengths through Daily Activity: Daily engagement in and pursuit of life activities congruent with an individual’s signature strengths correlates robustly with well-being. Take the VIA Survey and learn about your signature strengths. Think about how you can use your strengths in day to day training or in competition. For example, if playfulness is one of your top strengths, how could you use humor appropriately to diffuse a stressful or unexpected situation? You can also take the VIA with teammates and create a tree or grid that represents your collective strengths, and brainstorm together to create strategies for leveraging strengths to enhance team cohesion.

This is the third in a series of posts on Putting Positive Psychology In Motion, written by invited contributor Gloria Park Perin. Yesterday’s post, and the original post, are available online. Check back tomorrow for the next post.

Positive Psychology for Athletes: Tip 1 – Fortify Mental Toughness through Cognitive Behavioral Skills

happier.com — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 13:07:52 +0000

This is the second in a series of posts on Putting Positive Psychology In Motion, written by invited contributor Gloria Park Perin. The original post is available online. Check back tomorrow for the next post.

1. Fortify Mental Toughness through Cognitive Behavioral Skills:Mental toughness or resilience is a characteristic that is most often cited as a critical psychological nutrient for athletic success. For example, research has found that optimistic swimmers performed as well or better than their first efforts after perceived sport failure and enabled young students to perform better and experience a lower drop in success expectation and less stress/anxiety compared with pessimists. The Optimism Test can help you learn about how you interpret success and failure. Then, using exercises like Control Negative Thoughts, you can learn how to quiet your destructive self-talk and think more accurately and flexibly about the challenges at hand.

For more information, see:

Seligman, M. E. P., Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Thornton, N., & Thornton, K. M. (1990). Explanatory style as a mechanism of disappointing athletic performance.Psychological Science, 1, 143-146.)

Martin-Krumm, C. P., Sarrazin, P. G., Peterson, C., & Famose, J. (2003). Explanatory style and resilience after sports failure. Personality and Individual Differences, 35,1685-1695.

The Happier Athlete: Putting Positive Psychology in Motion

happier.com — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 02:16:41 +0000

By guest contributor Gloria Park Perin

When it comes to achievement in life, sport is easily one of the most visible, globally and socially valued performance domains in society. Martin Seligman’s notion of the Victorious Life, or a life of achievement, conjures up visions of human bodies in motion: Breathless relay swimmers stretching every limb towards a wall of awaiting teammates, gymnasts sticking a landing after a high-flying double front dismount, or Dick Hoyt and his quadriplegic son, Rick, making their way across a finish line after an Ironman competition. For me, few sights are more elevating and inspiring than watching others push their mortal limits to achieve what was previously unachievable.

Excelling in sport takes much more than just physical ability and raw talent. Long before positive psychology was given a proper name, practitioners of sport psychology have been studying the requisite mindset and psychological attributes of athletes with the goal of illuminating how the mind can impact physical performance. Competitive athletics are high-stakes ventures that require time, commitment, and perseverance, which can often come at the cost of well-being. What we often don’t see behind the championship images portrayed in the media are the stories of their struggles and years and years of sacrifice. There is something very telling about the stigma that still surrounds sport psychology, and the mentality that only the weak and frail need the sport psychologists to help them fix what is wrong.

Positive psychology has brought with it an awareness that psychology is about much more than resolving pathology and frailty. Happiness and well-being are not by-products of an absence of illness, but desirable in its own right. Happy people generally experience more success in many different domains in life including marriage, relationships, work, and physical and psychological health, and reap many benefits through life, such as more frequently occupying positions of leadership and stronger interpersonal relationships. (1) It would make sense for this logic to be extended to the world of sport to safeguard athlete well being and enhance performance.

Looking back on my childhood as a competitive figure skater, I can’t help but wish I knew then even just a little bit of what I know now about positive psychology. I wish someone could have taught me about the connection between my explanatory style and my cognitions and emotions. I wish I understood the gravity of negative experiences and their uncanny ability to linger around long after the fleeting high from a success. I wish I learned of my strengths, instead of ruminating only about the weaknesses I had to shore up in order to succeed. I wish I realized that finding happiness was not just about standing at the top of a podium. Although hindsight is 20/20, I feel blessed that these unfulfilled wishes have pulled me toward the fields of positive and applied sport and exercise psychology, and a calling to connect the dots between these two fields. Stay tuned this week for simple tips on using positive psychology in sport!

Come back tomorrow for the first of three tips on applying positive psychology to sports.

For more information:

Lyubomirsky, S., King, L.A., & Diener, E. (2005). The beneﬁts of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin, 131, 803–855.