Get positive, stay upbeat and you'll enjoy a longer, happier life, science says.
Many studies have found that improving diet, getting out in nature and getting some exercise improve your overall attitude. And there is one other thing you can do too: Cultivate compassion for yourself and others.
According to the Epoch Times, compassion is sensitivity to the suffering of others (and ourselves) coupled with action. Empathy is just recognizing the suffering of others. Compassion is acting to help.
Compassionate people are less lonely, happier, and have decreased cardiovascular risk.
A 10-year study published in Transitional Psychiatry found that compassion had a greater positive impact on well-being than the negative impacts of smoking.
In other words, good deeds and real actions make you feel better and help you make friends. You get more responses from people who will in turn do good deeds for you.