Cara Feinberg wrote an article for The Harvard Magazine called "The Mindfulness Chronicles - On ‘the psychology of possibility,’" about a well-known a psychologist named Ellen Langer. Langer studied psychology at New York University and got her PhD in Social and Clinical psychology at Yale. She has built her life's work around an idea called "mindfulness" and also the title of one of her books.
Mindfulness - as she would describe, "is the process of actively noticing new things, relinquishing preconceived mindsets, and then acting on the new observations."
Early in her Harvard career, Langer set up an experiment with two grounds of men ages of 70-80s. She set one group to go away together and talk about “the good ole days" in the 50s. She sent the other group to an environment surrounded with 50s type culture. What did she find? The men who were emersed in the environment that allowed them to time travel back to the past had in real time, become younger.
These70 to 80-year-old men has dramatic changes in their flexibility, intelligence, posture, hearing and vision. "Wherever you put the mind, the body will follow," Langer said. "It is not our physical state that limits us, it is our mindset about our own limits, our perceptions, that draws the lines in the sand."
Just by altering their mindset, the effects it had on their mind and body were so dramatic, these types of studies had to be continued.
More recently, they studied hotel workers and told them that they’re work was not only work but also considered exercise. One month later, they lost weight and lowered their blood pressure. Why?
Being mindful doesn’t just apply to our physical or mental health. It can stretch into all areas of your life if you allow it to. Your financials, relationships, your routine.
The hotel workers and 70-year-old men didn’t alter their diet or dramatically increase their level of exercise. It was their mindset, the way they perceived their environment and circumstances that had the most positive effect on their minds and bodies.
As humans, we tend to get stuck in negative thoughts and routines, avoiding any type of change. Overtime, our stress levels can increase, our health decreases, and we become weary to life’s obstacles.
Altering your mindset, setting different expectations, and creating an ever-changing environment can reverse those effects.
The mindsets we adopt overtime have a larger effect on us than we realize. Making sure that we are choosing healthy mindsets and being mindful in our actions and decisions will ensure we view the world with a larger outlook on life.
https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2010/08/the-mindfulness-chronicles#:~:text=This%20is%20what%20she%20calls%20%E2%80%9Cthe%20psychology%20of
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