YOLO

Does YOLO have consequences?! Good or Bad?

The saying "YOLO" means You Only Live Once. This phrase has become a cultural sensation. 

But this is not a new idea, there are decades of research on how being aware of death impacts human behavior.

The Good of YOLO:

In psychology articles, this phrase is a type of "post-traumatic growth". Psychologists have explored how terminal illness diagnoses and near-fatal experiences influence people... After a period of initial shock, many people experience shifts in how they spend their time, their appreciation of life, and their general sense of happiness. Many of these indviduals feel like they never fully lived until they were diagnosed with a terminal illness. They also report devoting more time to what they most truly enjoy, and not worrying nearly as much about much of what had previously stressed them.

Research also shows that older people, closer to death than younger, focus more on pleasant aspects of the images or situations than unpleasant ones. When college students are reminded of death in experiments, they then spend more time looking at positive words than negative words. When people are aware that life is more scarce, they focus more on positive things, and less on negative things. These people also spend less time on things that make them feel negative and more time on things that make them feel happy and positive.

Take me for example, it took a traumatic death of a very close friend for me to look at the positive side of life and teach myself how to be happy... it's just how our little minds work. I made a Happiness blog and facebook page for heavens sake... :)

It is normal psychology to want something that is more scarce and that you know is ending soon, which is the psychology behind YOLO. Remind yourself that life can end at any moment so that you live it to the fullest. 

The Bad of YOLO:

There are several cases of "YOLO" being associated with unhealthy behavior. A person tweeted "YOLO" before crashing their car while driving drunk, and a woman tweeted "YOLO" after storming onto a college football field drunk and arrested...

I am guilty of this!! If I'm debating on eating something unhealthy, drinking alcohol, not studying for a test, or skipping a work out, in my head I'm like, "YOLO Joyce, you won't remember this on your death bed, go hang out with your friends". And while this can be a good thing, it can also promote unhealthy behavior.

 So, as with everything else in life, use YOLO in moderation. Make sure it isn't helping you make unhealthy decisions, but live life to the fullest everyday.

~ If you did die tomorrow, can you say you died happy? ~