When Cynthia Nixon played American poet Emily Dickinson in the 2016 movie "A Quiet Passion," she portrayed the boundless emotional intensity that Dickinson poured into her art.

Your passions can be just as artful, because they protect your ability to stay healthy and happy in your body and brain.

A recent review of multiple studies, conducted by Norwegian researchers and published in the journal Brain Health, found that when you have an increased passion for something, that increases the amount of physical activity you get, leading to more social interaction and relationships while improving cognitive resilience and your overall well-being.

Those benefits work together to reduce chronic stress, which is one of the most physically and emotionally damaging conditions.

The research also found that those passion factors work together to help preserve the neural systems in your brain's grey and white matter and protect organ systems from wear and tear.

Do you need help finding your passion? Let yourself dream.

What have you always wanted to try? Experiment with various ideas to see what is the most enthralling pursuit for you.

According to multiple studies, passion's health benefits — which include slower aging — can come from being enthusiastic about almost anything, from exercising to painting, helping others, or bird watching.