Nov 3, 2017
Today we are very privileged on the Brain Booster to have a really special guest who gave me the most incredibly insightful interview.
If you had a list of the most influential people in psychology in the last 25 years todays guest would by any measure be in the top five of any such list.
Her work has had a huge influence on my thinking or at times my lack of thinking!!
Her life’s work and phenomenal experiments really get you thinking about how you live your life.
Ellen Langer is a professor of psychology at Harvard university having in 1981 become the first woman ever to be tenured in psychology at Harvard. Dr Langer studies and experiments have been challenging the way we view the world since the mid seventies. The famous ‘time capsule’ experiment is just one ground breaking example. She has had a lifelong fascination with Mindfulness and as she explains in this podcast most of us are ‘just not there’ most of the time. To be able to live a mindful life is to live a full life
During the show today Dr Langer will help us understand
The ‘Mind – Body’ problem how do we unite the two?
The ‘the counter clockwise’ experiment
How eighty year old men placed in a ‘time capsule’ reversed all the standard markers of age
Flexibility, grip strength, eyesight, memory, hearing, dexterity all improved markedly just simply by changing the environment they ‘lived’ in.
They actually looked younger to other people when asked by other people.
How aging doesn’t haven’t to follow a set course.
How mind set affects our health in such a dramatic way
‘The Chamber Maid’ study – how a perception of exercise actually had an effect on weight loss
Do horses eat meat? Maybe?
How our perceptions of reality ‘bind’ us to a certain limited way of living.
The ‘eye chart’ study – does our eyesight appear to get progressively worse because we EXPECT it to?
The Placebo effect and how it gets a bad reputation for the WRONG reasons.
How we can harness the power of placebo.
How we go about our day in a state of mindlessness and how very damaging this can be
How mindfulness can assist us in all areas of our life and well being
Specific ways to live a more ‘Mindful’ life
You can tell from this session that Dr Langer has a passion for life and most of all an incredibly curious mind.
She is a fantastic example of what can be possible as we DON’T allow our perceptions of ageing affect our future.
Join us on this session, it will truly make a difference to how you think.