Renowned Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer discusses mindfulness and its impact on health, exploring mind-body connection, reversing aging effects, and improving physical well-being through mindset. The power of mindfulness and psychology in health, mindset on physical health outcomes, impact of sleep, and mindfulness on health are also explored, emphasizing the importance of mindfulness in healthcare.
Shaping a mindful mindset can reverse aging effects and enhance physical well-being.
Attention to variability allows harnessing mindfulness to navigate decision-making and facilitate healing.
Deep dives
The Power of Mindfulness Beyond Meditation
Engaging with mindfulness extends beyond traditional practices like meditation. Leading authority Ellen Langer's research spanning over 40 years suggests that shaping a mindful mindset can impact health and aging processes significantly. By demonstrating that mental attitude can reverse aging effects and enhance physical well-being, Langer emphasizes that mindfulness involves actively noticing new things, challenging assumptions, and fostering a respect for uncertainty.
Mind-Body Unity and Healing Potential
Langer's work underscores the profound mind-body connection and its influence on health outcomes. The 'counterclockwise study' showcased that by immersing elderly men in an environment that evoked their younger selves, physical improvements such as enhanced vision, hearing, memory, and even a youthful appearance were observed. This study exemplifies how reshaping one's mindset to embody a different reality can trigger remarkable healing responses, transcending conventional medical expectations.
Transforming Health through Mindful Attention and Variability
The key concept of attention to variability highlights the significant impact of perceived variations in health outcomes and stress levels. By questioning fixed beliefs, reconsidering assumed limitations, and embracing uncertainty, individuals can harness the power of mindfulness to navigate decision-making, alleviate stress, and facilitate healing. Langer's research illuminates the potential for everyday mindfulness practices to optimize well-being and challenge entrenched paradigms of health and aging.
Can you heal faster just by tricking your brain? Could you lose weight with only a change of mindset? Could you think yourself into being younger? If you think the answer to all these questions is no, you haven’t read the research from renowned Harvard University psychologist Ellen Langer.
Our podcast is taking a quick summer break, but we wanted to take this time to share some of our favorite episodes with you. The summer is a perfect time to take a step back, evaluate where we are in our lives, and perhaps even create new healthy habits. That's why we wanted to re-share our episode with Ellen Langer, one of the world's leading experts on mindfulness.
Langer is a bit of a legend. She’s the first woman to ever receive tenure in psychology at Harvard, and her work has earned her the moniker: “The Mother of Mindfulness”. Her 40-year research career into the mind-body connection—and how mindfulness can hack that system—has delivered some unbelievable results that she believes hold the key to revolutionizing our health. She complies all of her work in her latest book “The Mindful Body: Thinking Our Way to Chronic Health.”
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