Description
Learn how adjusting your thoughts can change your health—from the “mother of mindfulness” and first female tenured professor of psychology at Harvard.
“What matters more: mind or body? Filled with original research and thought-provoking insights, The Mindful Body shows that the two are not just connected but are actually one, opening us to vast potential for health and happiness.”—Dan Ariely, New York Times bestselling author of Predictably Irrational
When it comes to our health, we tend to live our lives as though our ailments—our stiff knees or frayed nerves or diminished eyesight—can change only in one direction: for the worse. Award-winning social psychologist Ellen J. Langer’s life’s work proves the fault in this negative outlook as well as the healing power of its alternative: mindfulness—the process of active noticing where we are not bound by past experience or conventional wisdom.
In The Mindful Body, Dr. Langer unpacks her assumption-busting findings and outlines her bold new theory of mind-body unity, along the way clearly demonstrating how our thoughts and perspectives have the potential to profoundly shape our well-being. Whether it is hotel chambermaids who lost weight when they simply came to see that their work constituted exercise, or patients whose wounds healed faster in rooms with accelerated clocks, she shows how influential our thoughts are to the state of our bodies. Her work has likewise proven that discouraging health news can have negative effects. Learning you are prediabetic, for example—even if your blood sugar reading is only a fraction away from “normal”—may actually play a part in the development of the disease.
A paradigm-shifting book by one of the great psychologists of the twenty-first century, The Mindful Body returns the control over our bodies back to us and reveals that a true understanding of health begins with our minds.
This book draws on fascinating research which challenges some general assumptions about illness and ageing and, in that sense, I found it very worthwhile; however, I have to say I had a difficult time following the author’s flow and organization of ideas from chapter to chapter, even sentence to sentence sometimes! It sort of read like she was putting down whatever came into her head next, which may have had a connection for her at the time, but it didn’t translate coherently to this reader.
I have given this 5 stars because every page I read made me feel more and more optimistic of humankind’s ability to take off the blinkers that have been imposed on us by our mindless conditioning! I feel enormous gratitude to Ellen Langer for the work she has put in to researching this subject of body/mind connections. I found it wonderfully exciting to read of the many different ways she has challenged the fixed and very limited ideas that are accepted at this moment as normal, in an area that is of huge importance to the health of every human on this planet. It is common sense gold and I would encourage all who want to take charge of their own health to read and fully absorb the notions put forward in this brilliant book. I now want to read it again to fully savour the huge excitement I feel when I picture in my mind the very real possibilities this liberating information can have on our global future. In my opinion it is going to be a real game changer and could have an enormous impact on the way we think about not only our health but our other systems such as our education, our government, our social relationships and so on. I can only say thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you and urge everyone to read it as soon as possible!
I enjoyed reading this book and gaining a more holistic impression on health and wellness. Great for anyone who enjoys learning and gaining new perspectives.
I am listening to this on audible and it’s an eye opener that challenges widely held misconceptions about the relationship between mind and body. Recommended.
The ideas are presented with great care and thought and clarity. May we all benefit from the powerful words provided here. Consider testing these out on yourself and you may just see life in a totally great way.