504: How to think yourself younger | Mother of mindfulness Ellen Langer, Ph.D.

“People think about living each day as if it's their last. One could also live each day as if it's their first," says Ellen Langer, Ph.D.

Ellen, an award-winning Harvard psychologist known as the "mother of mindfulness," joins us to discuss how to tap into your mindset for optimal health, plus:

- Ellen’s background & professional work (~00:11)

- Ellen’s famous counterclockwise study (~03:07)

- How mindset affects the aging process (~09:13)

- Ellen’s chambermaid study on mindset & weight loss (~10:40)

- Ellen’s studies on mindset & fatigue (~12:59)

- Ellen’s mind-body study on blood sugar (~17:53)

- How to optimize your mind-body connection (~23:14)

- Why 1 + 1 doesn’t always equal 2 (~24:16)

- How to manage anxiety from uncertainty (~28:18)

- How to learn to be more mindful (~33:58)

- How to make mindful decisions (~35:34)

- How to create positive contagion (~43:39)

- How to use mindfulness in a doctor-patient setting (~45:56)

- How to balance presence & planning for the future (~54:44)

- What Ellen has changed in her life since studying mindfulness (~59:16)

- The science of spontaneous remissions (~01:04:38)

- Why mindfulness is not a practice (~01:07:05)

- How to keep childlike wonder alive (~01:14:43)

Referenced in the episode:

- Ellen's book, The Mindful Body.

- Ellen's famous counterclockwise study.

- Ellen's chambermaid study.

- Ellen's blood sugar study.

- Piano stairs experiment video.

- Studies on attention to variability here and here.

We hope you enjoy this episode, and feel free to watch the full video on YouTube! Whether it's an article or podcast, we want to know what we can do to help here at mindbodygreen. Let us know at: [email protected].

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