Most of us are so certain about, well, everything. We think we can predict what’s coming, what that off-hand comment really meant, what that look was about, what’s going to go wrong. And according to Dr. Ellen Langer, that certainty is making us miserable… and possibly making us sick.
Dr. Langer is a psychologist, Harvard professor, and the “Mother of Mindfulness.” In her book The Mindful Body, she makes the case that the way we think directly shapes the way we heal, age, stress, and recover. Her conclusion: the mind and the body were never two separate things to begin with. And we have far more agency over both than we’ve been led to believe.
In this episode you’ll learn:
➡️ What mindfulness (and mindlessness) really is
➡️ The one question that can dissolve stress almost instantly
➡️ Why the story you tell yourself is more powerful than what actually happened
➡️ The study that proved people lost weight without changing their diet or exercise
➡️ The difference between nervousness and excitement (and why it matters)
➡️ Why certainty is a sign of mindlessness (not intelligence)
➡️ How your body heals faster or slower based on what you believe
➡️ Why “fighting” an illness is the wrong mindset
➡️ The simple reframe that turns every negative trait into a strength
➡️ Why confident people don’t need to rely on certainty
In this conversation, Ellen makes the case that virtually all of us are mindless almost all of the time. And the moment you recognize that, everything opens up. Your health, your relationships, your ability to recover from hardship.
The obstacle, it turns out, has always been the assumption that there was nothing left to question.
This is… A Bit of Optimism.
To buy a copy of Dr. Ellen Langer’s books The Mindful Body: Thinking Our Way to Chronic Health and Finding Happy, head to www.ellenlanger.me.
