We have all heard about the power of positive thinking, or how a strong faith in God or some “higher power” can often help all of us have better lives and better health. Many of us who have dealt with serious disease have gotten the advice from our medical professional to “stay positive,” with the belief that not feeling like a victim and having gratitude and living life to the fullest can often be a healing agent and help make medical treatments more effective.

[Image courtesy of Flickr user Marina del Castell via a Creative Commons license]Happiness could certainly come from having purpose in life and in work. Some recent studies suggest a positive connection between having purpose and not only physical health, but also emotional satisfaction with work and the place where you work.

Well, a recent study has taken that a step further, looking to people who claim to have purpose or meaning in their lives or in their work, and what those positive emotions mean to overall health. A recent study published in Stroke, a research journal of the American Heart Association, recently discovered a link between a person’s work having purpose and meaning, and the occurrence of blood-clot strokes in the brain. A related study about purpose and meaning published in the Harvard Business Review suggests that a positive outlook on work leads not just to better health (lower lost time from work), but also better overall satisfaction on the job and much lower turnover rates.

More Purpose=Fewer Clots

The recent study in Stroke seems to be another example of how a person’s mental state affects overall health and the behaviors and performance of the human body. The study looked at a sample of more than 450 autopsies, about 25 percent of the people having a diagnosed stroke event. The most telling statistics from the research showed that of the 114 people who had strokes, nearly half of them had major blood clots ( those which could be seen with the naked eye). Also, when those people who had strokes had their information cross-referenced with a survey  indicating level of pupose and meaning at work, it seemed that those who saw their work as having purpose and real meaning were 44-percent less likely to have a large-scale blood clot.

Another interesting tidbit – when Alzheimer’s disease is thrown into the mix (sometimes a factor in strokes), the numbers do not change – large blood clots are still less likely  in people with Alzheimer’s who had purpose or meaning in their daily work. So this kind of thinking even has a therapeutic or mitigating effect even on those  who would be at grear risk for these kinds of strokes.

Take This Job and Love It

Not only does the human body seem to respond well to positive feelings and thoughts about daily life-work, but the overall emotional state of workers seems to be impacted as well. The Harvard Business Review recently published some research that measured the level of satisfaction and meaning from employees who work at certain companies and correlated the level of turnover in the workforce.

The research found that in companies where a large percentage of workers reported a sense of purpose, meaning and/or direction in their jobs, there is significantly less turnover. What this can mean is less time and money spent on training and hiring new employees. The research found that employees who got meaning and purpose out of their work were three times more likely to stay with their current employers. These same employees reported 170 percent more job satisfaction and 140 percent more engagement at work than their peers who did not get significant purpose or meaning from work.

This was reported in the June issue of Professional Safety magazine, and more information at can be obtained at this link.