Obesity and smoking may be the most conspicuous causes of illness in this country, but physical factors don’t account for everything. Your psychology — namely, your personality and outlook on life — can be just as important to your well-being as exercising and eating right. And especially these days, with the world’s economy tumbling toward a depression, it’s a good time to prevent yourself from slipping into one too. An entire science has grown up around the perils of negative thinking , and the latest findings confirm that a pessimistic outlook not only kindles anxiety, which can put people at risk for chronic mental illnesses like depression, but may also cause early death and set people up for a number of physical ailments, ranging from the common cold to heart disease and immune disorders.
