This article published in ABC Health and Wellbeing is very much in keeping with thoughts from Cognitive Hypnotherapy – imagine the future you want, and then allow the unconscious mind to guide you towards it (whilst doing a little work along the way to help the process, of course! See my website for details www.anitamitchell.co.uk):
The Pulse
by Peter Lavelle
People who plan ahead and think of the future are often healthier than those living for the here-and-now, argues a prominent US psychologist. Published 12/03/2009
Do you live for the present, without worrying about tomorrow? Do you view the future through the prism of what’s happened to you in the past? Or do you keep one eye on the future in everything you do? Whichever you do, will impact directly on your health, argues US psychologist Philip Zimbardo. Zimbardo, Emeritus Professor at Stanford University, is the author of a new book The Time Paradox: The New Psychology of Time That Will Change Your Life. In it he argues people tend to make decisions based on whether they are orientated to the past, present or future. Some people are dominated by their past experiences and this influences how they make decisions now. These past experiences may be positive – family or cultural traditions or rewards for good things they’ve done in the past – or they may be negative events – past traumas influencing what they do in the present. People with post-traumatic stress syndrome have been negatively influenced by their past. Other people are orientated towards the present. They seek immediate rewards, without much thought for the future, and are influenced by their body sensations and physiology (hunger, thirst, desire for sex etc) or what their peer group is doing. Rather than plan ahead, these people often rely on luck or fate and they tend to have lower levels of impulse control and emotional stability. Zimbardo says people who have addictions are very often present-thinkers, as are gamblers or those who run up credit card debts. Then there are people who are focused on the future, these people think of the consequences of their actions. They are good at controlling their egos and impulses; are conscientious, consistent, non-aggressive, and have low levels of depression. In reality we all have a bit of past, present and future orientation, but we tend to be skewed to one and underuse the others, says Zimbardo. He argues your time perspective may depend on many things including the climate you live in, your religion, your education (more educated people tend to be more future thinking), your gender (women are more future thinking than men), what income you earn (poorer people tend to be more present-orientated) and your age. In fact, we are all born present-thinkers, but become more focused on the future as we age, often in response to pressure from society. Many of the stories, nursery rhymes and games we play as kids encourage us to be forward-thinking; as does school and higher education. But being totally future-oriented is also unhealthy, says Zimbardo. Excessive emphasis on the future causes anxiety in the here and now, (as to how things might turn out) which can lead to social isolation and performance anxiety (especially anxiety about sexual performance). This is where present-oriented thinkers have some advantages; they make friends easily (being the ‘life of the party’), they are creative thinkers and have plenty of energy to enable them to achieve their goals. Being past-oriented (especially if your past experiences are positive) also has some advantages. Your family or culture may give you a sense of identity and continuity and provide you with positive role models. So what we need is a balance of all three ways of thinking. Healthy future So what does all this have do with your health? Zimbardo suggests there’s a very strong correlation between future orientation and health – the more future-oriented you are, the healthier you’ll be and the longer you’re likely to live. Research published in the British Journal of Health Psychology last month supports Zimbardo’s theory. Studies show people who are future thinkers tend to use drugs less, and adopt safe sex practices, the researchers say. Future thinkers also tend to be less likely to smoke and have healthier body mass indices, they conclude, after studying a group of about 400 people who answered questions about their health and lifestyles and who also underwent psychological testing including the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZPTI) – a questionnaire Zimbardo helped develop in 1999 to test how people’s time perspective affects their decision making. (If you’re curious about which orientation you might be, do Zimbardo’s inventory yourself – just follow the link at the bottom of this page). On the other hand, other studies have shown that future-thinking doesn’t have much effect on whether people will get vaccinated, or stick to taking blood pressure or cholesterol medications. So future-thinking seems to be a factor in changing some behaviour but not others, say the British researchers. Getting the message out One of the challenges facing policymakers and health workers in preventative health is how to get people to forego junk food, drugs and alcohol, a sedentary lifestyle, for rewards that may be long into the future. But some public health messages may not be reaching their intended audience, says Zimbardo. Anti-drug campaigns warning of the future health risks of drug taking, for example, may be doomed to failure because their target audience (people inclined to use drugs) often live in the present and won’t listen to messages about the future. Peter Sainsbury, an Adjunct Professor of Public Health at Sydney University, agrees one of the challenges of mounting an effective public health program is to get people to change their behaviour for long-term benefits. “So you may need to give them a reason to change their behaviour in the here-and-now,” says Sainsbury. “For example, smokers may be more likely to quit if they think there’s an immediate benefit – better smelling breath, more success with the opposite sex for example, rather than the promise of better health twenty years from now.”