You may have seen the recent report from a research study that suggested that the reason for the French Paradox (i.e., long and healthy lives associated with red wine consumption and the French lifestyle) may in part be due to the fact that those who drink moderately tend to be happier than those who don't drink wine.
In other words, there may not be anything magical about red wine drinking per se other than the fact that wine drinkers experience pleasure more than non wine drinkers. Interesting, n'est pas?
This notion really struck me. In America, we seem to worry about everything and I do mean everything. This includes lurking sex offenders, ocean sharks, toxins in everything, the economy, climate change, robbers, the water we drink, the air we inhale, and food we eat, and the people around us. This is likely due in part to the media tendency towards hysteria. Sadly, mass media seems to present news and information in a way that will grab your attention, is sensational, is scary, often distorted, and, perhaps more often than not, isn't really true. While there is plenty to worry about we should take solace in knowing that most kids don't get abducted by strangers, most ocean swimmers don't get bit by sharks, most people don't die young from fatal cancers or car crashes, and most airplanes do get to their destinations safely. We tend to buddle wrap ourselves (and our children) to minimize any risks of harm. We can drive ourselves crazy doing so.
Now I can worry with the best of them out there (and I come from a long family of worriers spanning many generations so it's in my DNA) but when we examine the data closely, most of the things that we worry about are very unlikely to happen. While it is certainly true that terrible things do in fact happen every day to people and that we read stories in the press about all sorts of tragedies, thankfully, the odds of these events happening to us are very slim. For example, I once heard the statistic that about 20,000 commercial flights take off and land each day in America. Very rarely does one not make it.
When you live in a country with 300 million people, bad stuff happens to some. When you live in a world with 6 billion people, bad stuff really happens to some. This is concerning for sure and hopefully we are concerned for the welfare and struggles of others who suffer. Perhaps we pray for their well being, send donations for various disaster relief, and so forth trying to help as best as we can. Hopefully, we aren't callous but do what we can to help others. However, we are probably also grateful that we missed the struggles that others have experienced.
So, I take some solace in the research that states that red wine drinkers in France may live longer because they are happier and find more pleasure in life than non wine drinkers. Perhaps there is a useful lesson in this research finding. I am reminded that no matter how long our lives might be, life is way too short for worry and that we must find a way to enjoy what we have each day being grateful for the life that we get. We need to work on not worrying about what might happen or what we don't have. Research suggests many positive mental and physical health benefits for those who worry less, are optimistic, grateful, and go with the flow. This is, of course, a worthy but challenging goal for sure that is easier said than done. Yet it is important for us to be guided by quality research findings rather than the hysteria that we see in the press. I often say that if I'm alive, it's a good day keeping my expectations low and simple.
Doing the right thing for ourselves probably means less worry and more living being grateful for each day that we have.
Bad things happen of course but they usually don't.
So, don't worry, be happy (or at least try to).
