The undo effect is a recent article in COSMOS magazine Discussing the amazing relationship between longevity and expressive writing in youth on a study of 180 Nuns. A summary of the findings are here: Importantly: “Positive emotions can undo the cardiovascular effects of negative ones, they may also reverse the attention-narrowing effects of negative feelings: broadening our perspectives, rather than limiting them”

Happiness has a positive influence on longevity and health, but what’s behind this effect? Psychologists are uncovering evidence that positive emotions undo the physical damage done by stress, fear and anxiety.

Three generations ago, 180 young women wrote brief essays describing why they wanted to become nuns. Years later, a team of psychological researchers came across these spiritual autobiographies in the convent’s archives.

The researchers were seeking material that would confirm earlier studies hinting at a link between having a good vocabulary in youth and a low risk of Alzheimer’s disease in old age. What they found was something even more amazing.

Although the young women had barely been out of college when they wrote their “why I want to be a nun” essays, the emotions expressed in these youthful writings were predictive of how long they would live: those who wrote the most upbeat autobiographies lived more than 10 years longer than those whose language was more neutral.

The key findings were:

• those who wrote the most upbeat autobiographies lived more than 10 years longer than those whose language was more neutral
• positive emotions help you live longer by shutting down the health-damaging side effects of negative ones
• positive emotions work their magic by producing a rapid unwinding of pent-up tension, rapidly restoring the cardiovascular system to normal. People who quickly bounce back from stress often speed the process by deliberately harnessing such emotions as amusement, interest, excitement, and happiness, she says
• For years, anthropologists and evolutionary psychologists have argued that this ’something’ was related to family bonding - valuable because it would have facilitated the survival of the most tightly knit clans
• Fredrickson speculated that just as positive emotions can undo the cardiovascular effects of negative ones, they may also reverse the attention-narrowing effects of negative feelings: broadening our perspectives, rather than limiting them
• Not only are joy and playfulness good for the heart, but they’re also good for society

So cheer up and start expressing yourself. Get that pent-up agnst into the open, why not start writing a journal or a blog? When S*$# happens try and see the funny side of it, have a good rant and move on - try not to dwell on it. Reminds me of one of my favourite quotes:

“Life is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel” -Horace Walpole