Mental Health

Think Positive: A Healthy Outlook is the Key to a Healthy Lifestyle

By S.C. Stringfellow | Update Date: Sep 15, 2012 05:12 PM EDT

Sea Turtles are born to a life filled with unknowns. What they do know, instinctively, is that the key to their survival is to get to the ocean; within its depths lies food, companionship, and safety. Once they hatch from the sands, baby turtles must make it to the ocean alone, with no protection and no way to fight off the predators that patiently await for the start of their journey. 

And make no mistake, it is nothing short of a journey.

Though a trip from the far banks of a  beach to an ocean's edge may seem like only several quick strides for our long legs, for a baby turtle, with limbs just slightly bigger than a penny, the trek is long, arduous and extremely dangerous.

But therein lies their survival and their strength. They know if they stay they will die, so they brave the walk, with mind on the prize, on a road filled with adversity for the ultimate goal: Life, love and happiness. 

A persons attitude can determine a lot about how they live their life. According to economy experts from the University of Melbourne, a 'can do' attitude is the key to adopting healthy habits.

Believing that the world is against you or that a higher power will fix all of your problems are the primary reasons why people cannot (in there minds) change their situation. Pride, apathy, and ignorance are dangerous and, worse yet, pervasive.

After analyzing data on the diet, exercise and personality type of more than 7000 people, researchers from the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research found that  those who believe their life can be changed by their own actions ate healthier food, exercised more, smoked less and avoided binge drinking.

Those who relied more heavily on serendipity or preternaturally determined circumstances such as luck, fate, or Karma were comparatively more likely to live unhealthier lifestyles.

Professor Cobb-Clark hoped the study would help inform public health policies on conditions such as obesity.

"The main policy response to the obesity epidemic has been the provision of better information, but information alone is insufficient to change people's eating habits," she said.

"Understanding the psychological underpinning of a person's eating patterns and exercise habits is central to understanding obesity."

The results also illustrated that men and women held different views on what it meant to live a healthy lifestyle.

According to the report: "Men wanted physical results from their healthy choices, while women were more receptive to the everyday enjoyment of leading a healthy lifestyle."

Researchers posit that therapies centered on loosing weight, smoking cessation and alcohol rehabilitation can use more targeted policy responses that work against negative attitudes that prevent the end goals of healthier living. 

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