Think and Grow Healthy

A new study has determined that people who believe themselves to be treated unfairly are more likely to suffer a heart attack or chest pain.

Study participants who believed they had experienced the worst injustice were 55 percent more likely to experience a coronary event than people who thought life was fair.

The study was one of the largest and longest of its kind, and examined the medical data of over 6,000 British civil servants. All of them were asked how strongly they agreed with the statement, "I often have the feeling that I am being treated unfairly," after which they were tracked for almost 11 years, on average.

The subjects were questioned before they showed any signs of heart disease eliminating the possibility that they thought life was unfair because they were sick, rather than vice-versa.

Those who reported low levels of unfair treatment was at a 28 percent higher risk than those who reported none, and those who reported moderate unfairness saw a 36 percent greater risk than those who reported none.

Dr. Mercola's Comment:

Nearly all of the events that occur in your life are objectively neutral. However, as this study elegantly demonstrates, the negative subjective impressions that we attach to these events can have enormous power to make you sick. Unfortunately, this is the common pattern that afflicts nearly everyone reading this.

The good news is that this study is woefully incomplete for the exact same power that makes you sick can also make you healthy.

That is why I have been such a strong advocate of personally applying W. Clement Stone's inverse paranoia philosophy from the moment I heard it.

Who was W. Clement Stone?

He was one of the most successful students of Napoleon Hill, the author of Think and Grow Rich. He and I are both Chicago natives. He passed away a few years ago at the age of 100. He was a billionaire when billionaires weren't a dime a dozen.

What was his philosophy that contributed to his success, and, I believe, will help you achieve yours?

He was an inverse paranoid.

He strongly believed and lived his life as if the world was conspiring to make him better. There was never a situation that he viewed as negative. He always found the silver lining in the dark clouds that affected him every bit as much as each one of us.

The classic example is the young boy who received a large pile of horse manure for his birthday, and his relatives couldn't understand why he was feverishly and happily moving all the horse manure around. He was absolutely joyous. When his relatives asked him why he was so happy, he said, "With this much horse manure there has to be a pony in here somewhere."

I knew Stone's philosophy was a winner the first moment I heard it. I didn't quite realize why, but after I watched the movie The Secret I realized a major factor was that he was not only using the power of intention to manifest great things in his life, but he was also avoiding using it for creating disasters. You see, if you continue to dwell on the negatives, the tendency is to create more of that in your life.

So what approach are you going to take the next time negative events hit your life?

It has been my experience that if you focus on the good that happened you will invariably come out better. It has been true for me and I strongly suspect will be true for you if you adopt this simple yet profoundly powerful principle.

Related Articles:

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Decide to be Happy for Better Mental and Physical Health

Is It Best to Expect The Worst?